After their inaugural season in 2024 saw the Bay Area team make the playoffs, the 2025 season was a step in the wrong direction with only 4 wins and 8 draws compared to the 11 wins and 1 draw from 2024. 

On September 8th, the club announced that head coach Albertin Montoya would be stepping down at the conclusion of the 2025 season, and then in late October the club announced that Brady Stewart had stepped down from her role as Chief Executive Officer. Alan Waxman, Chair of Bay FC will likely be leading the search for the new club CEO, while Kay Cossington is going to be leading the sporting efforts of the club, including the selection of the club’s next Head Coach. 

Although there are some question marks for the direction both of the front office and for the coaching job, it does appear that the Bay FC ownership is willing to make bold (and sometimes hard) decisions to create a team able to compete. 

The Positives

Bay FC does have some strong young talent, if they can just keep players healthy. Penelope Hocking was the team’s top goalscorer in 2025 and the 7 matches she missed due to injury the team only drew 2 matches and lost 5. 

Also, barring any further hurdles, Onyeka Gamero should be coming off the season-ending injury list for 2026 following a torn meniscus and ACL in late November 2024. The 19 year-old was nominated for US Soccer Young Female Player of the Year in both 2022 and 2023. 

The team also extended Canadian defender Sydney Collins as well as midfielder Dorian Bailey to multi-year contracts—both were free agents. 

The Negatives

Without a coach it is kind of hard to know if the players signed fit the system that is hoping to be played, but also if the answer is that the coach wants a lot of different pieces compared to what is signed, the CBA’s requirement of guaranteed contracts will make that hard to do. 

Bay was 14th of 14 in goals scored (26) — although they are seventh in xG. The club was also T-3rd for highest number of goals conceded (41) — although their expected goals against was only 35.4. 

Neither of those stats is an omen of goodness: not scoring as much as expected or having opponents score more on you than expected. Together it’s a recipe to be tied at the bottom of the table on points, but officially 13th due to a better goal differential than Chicago. 

Roster Flexibility 

With 18 of the 26 maximum roster spaces already filled by players signed in 2025—not including the two players on maternity leave that may or may not be back in 2026—Bay does have some flexibility to bring in talent roster space wise. An even better outlook for scouting, the club is only utilizing one of their six international spots for 2026. 

Offseason Priorities

Having both Abby Dahlkemper and Emily Menges back from maternity leave will help the depth in the centerback role, but it’s highly unlikely that either is back for the front half of the season since they both went on Maternity Leave in August of this year. 

Another concern for this team is consistency across matches and for a full 90 minutes. There is a lot of youth in the roster and so adding in a well-experienced centerback in the defense and another attacking threat with both Hocking and Gamero having potential injury concerns should be the primary objective of the offseason. 

Of the five players that are 2026 free agents, Kiki Pickett is the only one with over 1,000 minutes played for Bay.Â