In dire periods of uncertainty, sometimes sports franchises should resist the urge to march blindly into the future and instead reach back into their past; not merely for nostalgia, but for identity.
That is precisely where Orlando City Soccer Club finds itself today: staring into the fog of a confusing present while the echoes of its past grow louder by the day. And those echoes carry a familiar name.
Adrian Heath.
The revered “Inchy.”
Right now, Orlando City needs him back.
To understand why, you first have to appreciate the bizarre moment the club has stumbled into. Earlier this week, Orlando City announced it had parted ways with head coach Oscar Pareja just three games into the new season. Three games. Granted, those three performances were pitiful. Flat, uninspired soccer. The sort of listless displays that make supporters groan before halftime.
But THREE games?
Pareja, after all, wasn’t some short-term experiment. He was the most successful coach the club has ever had in Major League Soccer. Under Pareja, Orlando City made the playoffs six consecutive seasons — the longest current postseason streak in the league. He brought stability, credibility and, most importantly, relevance. For a club that spent its early MLS years wandering through mediocrity, Pareja became the steady hand that finally made Orlando City a consistent contender.
Which makes the suddenness of his departure almost surreal.
And if the decision itself raised eyebrows, the timing raised even more questions.
Because the announcement came just a couple of hours after Kay Rawlins — the beloved co-founder of the club — announced her retirement.
Kay Rawlins is not just another executive leaving a front office. She is part of the soul of Orlando City. Alongside her ex-husband Phil and Heath, she helped build the club from a dream into a cultural institution. They moved the team from Austin to Orlando when skeptics scoffed at the idea that professional soccer could thrive in Central Florida. Even iconic Orlando TV sportscaster Pat Clarke famously told the British founders at the time: “Soccer will never work in Orlando.”
But it did work.
And Kay Rawlins was a huge reason why.
Her retirement should have been a week of reflection and gratitude; a celebration of one of the most important figures in Orlando sports history. Instead, the club immediately hijacked the narrative by firing the most successful coach in its MLS era.
Why?
Why distract from a moment that should have honored a founding pillar of the club?
It made no sense.
The optics are murky. The messaging has been awkward. The timing was clumsy. And the result is that Orlando City suddenly has a public relations problem on its hands.
Right now, the club feels adrift.
And when a franchise starts drifting, the first thing it loses is its mojo.
It’s not just about wins and losses. Orlando City used to feel different. When the club first arrived in Orlando, it was electric. Purple flags everywhere. Packed bars during away matches. The Lions weren’t simply a team; they were a movement.
And Adrian Heath, the club’s first coach, was right in the middle of it.
Long before Orlando City ever played an MLS match, Heath — nicknamed Inchy because he was the diminutive 5-foot-6 striker who became a legend playing for Everton FC in the English Premier League — was there building something from scratch. Alongside Phil and Kay, he pounded the pavement across Central Florida. They met fans. They rallied supporters. They helped organize the early supporter groups.
Inchy didn’t just coach the team; he lived the culture.
He drank pints of Guinness with fans in soccer pubs.
He showed up at community events.
He talked football with anyone who wanted to talk football.
Those early years in the lower divisions weren’t just about winning championships; though Orlando City did plenty of that. They were about building a soccer identity in a city that many believed would never embrace the sport.
Heath helped prove them wrong.
He became beloved.
And yet when Orlando City finally reached Major League Soccer in 2015, the ending of Heath’s tenure came far too soon.
Only a year and a half into Orlando City’s MLS existence, he was fired by the club’s new ownership under Flavio Augusto da Silva.
For many fans, it never felt right.
Heath had spent 6 ½ years building the foundation. He had nurtured the fan base, shepherded the club through the minor-league years, and guided Orlando City into MLS with one of the best expansion seasons in league history.
The third best, in fact.
As Heath once told me during a conversation years later:
“You can’t achieve what people expect you to achieve in a year and a half.”
He was told the club had a three-year plan for MLS growth.
He never got the chance to finish it.
When I spoke with Heath in 2019, while he was coaching Minnesota United and was ironically preparing to face Orlando City, you could still hear the emotion in his voice. Getting fired had clearly stung, but his love for Orlando had not faded.
“Orlando City will never, ever, ever be just another game to me,” Heath said. “Because I put too much into building that franchise.”
That line says everything.
For Heath, Orlando City was never just his job; it was his baby.
And for many supporters, he remains as one of the fathers of franchise.
He belongs on the Mount Rushmore of Orlando City.
Phil Rawlins.
Kay Rawlins.
Adrian Heath.
Those three figures laid the groundwork for everything the club has become.
Which brings us back to the present.
Right now Orlando City appears unsettled. The coaching situation is unstable with interim coach Martin Perelman. The messaging from the front office has been confusing. The early season performances suggest a team searching for direction.
If that’s the case, what do they have to lose?
Bring back Adrian Heath.
Not necessarily forever. Not necessarily as a long-term solution. But bring him back for the rest of the season and see what happens.
He’s not working right now, and I know for a fact he would cherish the opportunity.
At the very least, it would be a popular move among longtime fans. It would reconnect the club with its roots. It would generate goodwill at a moment when Orlando City desperately needs some.
More importantly, Heath understands the DNA of this franchise better than anyone.
He understands what Orlando City once meant to this city … and what it could mean again.
Maybe he could spark something. Maybe he could reignite the energy that once made Orlando City one of the most vibrant soccer communities in America.
Or maybe the franchise could right one of its great wrongs and give Heath the opportunity to finish what he started the first time around.
Either way, Orlando City has reached a crossroads.
The club can continue stumbling through an awkward, uncertain moment.
Or it can look back to the man who helped build everything in the first place.
Sometimes the success of a franchise isn’t found in the next new thing.
Sometimes you can only find your future when you journey through your past.
Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my new radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen