HUNTSVILLE \u2013 As the club prepares for Saturday\u2019s semifinal match in Philadelphia,\u00a0 Huntsville City Football Club has named Alec Dufty as director of soccer operations.<\/p>\n
Dufty brings extensive professional playing and coaching experience to the organization, HCFC said in a news release. Huntsville City is playing Philadelphia Union II in the MLS NEXT Pro Eastern Conference semifinals.<\/p>\n
In his new role, Dufty will oversee Huntsville City FC\u2019s soccer operations while advancing the club\u2019s player development pathway and maintaining strong alignment with Nashville SC to help cultivate talent for the next level of professional soccer, HCFC said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlec has such a tremendous wealth of experiences that make him a perfect fit for this role,\u201d said Mike Jacobs, president of soccer operations and general manager, Nashville Soccer Club. Huntsville City FC is the MLS NEXT Pro affiliate of Nashville SC. \u201cHaving worked in MLS with first teams (Sporting Kansas City), second teams (Sporting Kansas City, Toronto FC), and in college (Florida Gulf Coast University) give him the ideal collection of reference points to manage our soccer operations in Huntsville, and his work rate, commitment, and focus enables him to fit seamlessly into \u2018The NSC DNA\u2019 with our players and staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are so fortunate to have Alec joining our club.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dufty began his professional career with the New York Red Bulls in 2009 before joining AC St. Louis in the USSF D2 Pro League, where he made 30 appearances. He later returned to Major League Soccer with the Chicago Fire before retiring in 2012.<\/p>\n
Collegiately, he played for Appalachian State University and the University of Evansville, and was called into a U.S. Under-20 National Team camp in 2007.<\/p>\n
After his playing career, Dufty moved into coaching with roles at Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of Illinois at Chicago before joining Toronto FC II in 2015 as goalkeeper coach. He went on to join Sporting KC II in 2016 and was promoted to Sporting Kansas City\u2019s first team staff the following year, where he helped guide Tim Melia to the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award in 2017 and a Western Conference Final appearance in 2018.<\/p>\n
As the MLS NEXT Pro affiliate of Nashville SC, Huntsville City FC plays a vital role in the organization\u2019s player development structure, bridging the gap between academy and first team while delivering professional soccer to the Rocket City community.<\/p>\n
Dufty\u2019s addition strengthens that connection, ensuring both clubs continue to align in philosophy, culture, and on field excellence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HUNTSVILLE \u2013 As the club prepares for Saturday\u2019s semifinal match in Philadelphia,\u00a0 Huntsville City Football Club has named…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-236845","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}