IRVINE, Calif. – Orange County SC announced on Thursday it had parted ways with Head Coach Braeden Cloutier, who had been the club’s sideline leader since the start of the 2018 season. Current Assistant Coach Richard Chaplow will serve as interim Head Coach as OCSC prepares to face San Diego Loyal SC on Saturday night at Torero Stadium.

“After much thought and a long evaluation of our current situation to accomplish our goals for the season, we made the difficult decision to relieve Braeden of his duties as head coach,” said Orange County President of Soccer Operations and General Manager Oliver Wyss. “Braeden has been part of the Orange County coaching staff for more than six years, including his role as head coach for the past four plus seasons, and we are forever grateful for his contributions and successes on and off the field.

“Braeden has been an exceptional professional and has represented this club with incredible class, and we wish him all the best moving forward.”

Cloutier led Orange County to a first-place finish in the Western Conference in the 2018 USL Championship regular season and a place in the Western Conference Final of the 2018 Championship Playoffs before suffering defeat to Phoenix Rising FC for the conference title. He also led the side to the postseason in 2019, but the side missed out on the postseason a year ago as it lost five of its final seven games, including a decisive defeat to the LA Galaxy II in the penultimate game of the campaign.

Orange County had opened the 2021 season in positive fashion, but Wednesday night’s 3-0 defeat to Tacoma Defiance at Championship Soccer Stadium put the side with only one win in its last eight games and down to fourth place in the Pacific Division standings, five points ahead of Sacramento Republic FC, which holds two games in hand on OCSC. Cloutier overall posted a record of 49-31-23 across 103 regular-season games.

One of the notable successes of Cloutier’s tenure was the blooding of the young talent beginning to emerge from the club’s Academy system. In 2019, Cloutier handed a professional debut to 17-year-old goalkeeper Aaron Cervantes, who went on to be selected later that year for the United States U-17 Men’s National Team squad for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Brazil. Last offseason, Cervantes was transferred to Scottish Premiership powerhouse Rangers FC.

Last year also saw Cloutier hand a league debut to 16-year-old midfielder Francis Jacobs, who in 2018 had become the youngest men’s professional signing in United States history aged 14 years, 4 months and 29 days old and is a highly-touted prospect in the American soccer ranks.