| Full name | Pittsburgh Riverhounds | ||
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| Nickname(s) | Riverhounds The Hounds |
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| Founded | 1999 | ||
| Stadium | Chartiers Valley High School Stadium Bridgeville, Pennsylvania (Capacity: 5,000) |
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| Owner | Gene Klein | ||
| Head Coach | Justin Evans | ||
| League | USL Pro | ||
| 2011 | Regular Season: 10th National Division: 4th, Playoffs: Quarter-finals |
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| Website | Club home page | ||
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| Current season | |||
Pittsburgh Riverhounds is an American professional soccer team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1999, the team plays in the National Division of the new USL Professional Division, the third tier of the American Soccer Pyramid.
The Riverhounds play their home games at Chartiers Valley High School's athletic stadium, located in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bridgeville, where they have played since 2007. Their current head coach is Justin Evans.[1] The team's uniforms are black, blue, and white.
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The Riverhounds were founded by Paul Heasley in 1999 as a member of the USL's A-League, now known as USL-1. It played its home games in Bethel Park, at Bethel Park High School's football stadium. That same year the Riverhounds were named the A-League Organization of the Year. John Kowalski was the first head coach of the club; Justin Evans was the first player drafted to play for the Riverhounds. In their 1999 inaugural season, they advanced to the conference semi-finals in the A-league playoffs. Two years later in 2001, they reached the US Open Cup quarterfinals after beating the Colorado Rapids of the Major League Soccer and then-A-league opponent El Paso Patriots in their first two games, but the Hounds were eliminated in the quarterfinals by their second MLS opponent of the tournament, the Chicago Fire, in a two-overtime, 3-2 defeat. The Riverhounds have not reached that level of success since that time due in large part to undergoing multiple ownership and location changes.
In 2004, the club moved down to the USL's Second Division. The team also moved to Moon Township to play at Moon Area High School's football stadium for just one season. In December 2004 Heasley sold the team to Sports Facility LLC, owners of the Washington Wild Things baseball team of the Frontier League.[2] The Riverhounds played both the 2005 and 2006 seasons at the Wild Things' minor league baseball stadium, CONSOL Energy Park, on the outskirts of Washington, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles (48 km) south of Pittsburgh. The franchise continued to hold soccer academies and training to youth across the tri-state area, but did not play during the 2007 season due to a structural reorganization. During that hiatus, the Riverhounds were sold yet again to a new ownership group.
On October 29, 2007, the organization announced another venue change. Beginning with the 2008 season, Chartiers Valley High School's stadium, located just off the Kirwin Heights exit of Interstate 79 in Pittsburgh's South Hills, would be the new home of the Hounds.[3]
The Riverhounds' games were broadcast from 2000 through 2002 on WPTT-AM (now WMNY-AM) and on Fox Sports Radio - WBBG-AM in 2003, and 2005 and 2006, and on WPIT-AM in 2008 by Chris Shovlin. Shovlin was partnered with former Riverhound midfielder Steve Bell on WPTT and with former assistant coach Paul Child on Fox Sports Radio. Shovlin and Bell won the 2003 Pittsburgh March of Dimes A.I.R. Award for Best Play-by-play. Shovlin also served as the team's Director of Publicity during the 2008 and 2009 seasons.
Only one jersey number, "99", has been officially retired by the Riverhounds. That honor was bestowed upon original owner Paul Heasley for founding the club in 1999.
The Riverhound colors - black, blue, and white - were adopted before the start of the 2008 season to honor their academy and training partnership with Everton FC of the Premier League.[4][5] The use of blue is an allusion to the blue collar populace of Pittsburgh.
The term Riverhound is derived from the expression, river dog, which refers to the barge workers that ply the three rivers at their confluence in Pittsburgh. In fact, the team's mascot, AMO, is named for the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio Rivers.
There has been no official announcement concerning a permanent home for the Hounds, but much has been speculated since GM and manager Gene Klein, on 13 July 2007, said that the Riverhounds "are to the point on the stadium complex where it is a matter of paperwork and it will get done. We hope to make an official announcement on it...but like everything else, we'll walk with it before we try and run. We are doing things the right way."[4] More recently, on 9 July 2008, Dan Onorato, Chief Executive of Allegheny County, announced a planned development of a 78-acre (320,000 m2) sports and recreation park that covers area near Pittsburgh in Coraopolis, Robinson, and Moon known as Montour Junction.[6] The land was donated to the county's Redevelopment Authority by the Sports Legacy Foundation, which is chaired by Riverhounds founder and former owner Paul Heasley.[7] The SLF has owned the land since 2002 and has already spent about $60k for the environmental cleanup of the land, which was once owned by the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad and had been declared a brownfield.[6] The proposed uses for the park include soccer pitches as well as other multipurpose team sports fields such as rugby and lacrosse. It is believed by many that a stadium will be built around one of the fields and that it would likely become a permanent home for the Hounds. On December 8, 2011, it was revealed that a stadium for the club could be built at Station Square on the site of the current amphitheater close to downtown Pittsburgh as part of a redevelopment of the area. However, there is no timeline set for the proposed redevelopment.[8]
In November 2007, the Steel Army was formed when their first meeting was held at Piper's Pub in Pittsburgh's South Side. The group started as 5-10 local people interested in supporting the reorganized Riverhounds Football Club and to support the efforts of growing the sport of soccer in Western Pennsylvania. The group has since in a short amount of time grown from those humble beginnings, with the Steel Army message board active daily with members discussing the Hounds, events, meetings, and the international game of football.
Members are not only from Pittsburgh but also from states as close as Ohio to states as far away as Oregon and Florida. Membership in the Steel Army is now even international with members joining the group from Sunderland and Surrey in the U.K., as well as Bray, in the Republic of Ireland, who will be following the Riverhounds from abroad.
The section of Chartiers Valley High School Stadium where the Steel Army stands and supports the Riverhounds from is called "The Yard". The Steel Army had a rivalry with the Green Army, the Supporters Club of the Cleveland City Stars, and the rivalry and intensity between the Riverhounds and the City Stars on the pitch carried into the stands. Prior to Cleveland folding, the Steel Army would travel en masse to Cleveland when the two teams met, and the Green Army would travel in waves to Pittsburgh.
As at November 15, 2011[9]
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
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| Year | Division | League | Regular Season | Playoffs | U.S. Open Cup | |||||
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| 1999 | 2 | USL A-League | 4th, Northeast | Conference Semifinals | Did not qualify | |||||
| 2000 | 2 | USL A-League | 7th, Atlantic | Did not qualify | 2nd Round | |||||
| 2001 | 2 | USL A-League | 3rd, Northern | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | |||||
| 2002 | 2 | USL A-League | 4th, Northeast | Did not qualify | Did not qualify | |||||
| 2003 | 2 | USL A-League | 3rd, Northeast | Did not qualify | 3rd Round | |||||
| 2004 | 3 | USL Pro Soccer League | 1st, Atlantic | Semifinals | Did not qualify | |||||
| 2005 | 3 | USL Second Division | 7th | Did not qualify | 1st Round | |||||
| 2006 | 3 | USL Second Division | 3rd | Semifinals | 1st Round | |||||
| 2007 | On Hiatus | |||||||||
| 2008 | 3 | USL Second Division | 8th | Did not qualify | 2nd Round | |||||
| 2009 | 3 | USL Second Division | 8th | Did not qualify | 1st Round | |||||
| 2010 | 3 | USL Second Division | 3rd | Semifinals | 2nd Round | |||||
| 2011 | 3 | USL Pro | 2nd Round | |||||||
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