Well before Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC lifted the trophy at the 2024 USL Championship Final last November, the Ragain family had known it was going to be the last postseason run the club made as the club’s principal owners.

Quietly, behind the scenes, the club’s founders had been working on an agreement that would transfer full ownership of the club they had built to Weidner Apartment Homes, a deal that was officially announced in December.

While very few of the sellout crowd at Weidner Field for the Switchbacks’ 3-0 triumph against Rhode Island FC were aware of that at the time, for then-club President Nick Ragain it added a sense of poignancy to the celebration that went long into the night.  

“I mean, unreal,” Ragain told USLChampionship.com this week. “All the things that had to fall into place in order for us to be where we were in that in that final day, was just incredible. And it was just a thankfulness and a feeling of, you know, just accomplishment and reward and a special gift to be finishing at that place in time.”

In hindsight, the journey that led to the Switchbacks’ claiming their first title could have had the invisible hand of fate guiding it.

First, there was Juan Tejada’s late winner in the club’s season finale on the road at Sacramento Republic FC, a goal that vaulted the Switchbacks into second place in the final Western Conference standings and gave the side a home game to open the postseason.

As the Switchbacks kept winning on home turf, the teams ahead of them in the overall standings fell by the wayside. First there was Players’ Shield winner Louisville City FC’s elimination in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Then both the Charleston Battery and New Mexico United’s fell in their respective Conference Finals, leaving the Switchbacks with the chance to welcome a national audience to its world-class home.

And while Rhode Island FC was looking for its own storybook ending, the Switchbacks proved imperious in the Final as Tejada, Jairo Henriquez and Ronaldo Damus delivered the trophy to their fans.

The victory was a reflection of the journey the club has made in the decade Ed, Nick and James Ragain built the club from the ground up – from a suburban venue that had portacabins for changing rooms and steel bleachers for fans to one of the finest downtown soccer-specific venues in the United States – to become one of the models in the USL Championship ecosystem.

It was also a reflection of the tremendous effort the Ragain family had undertaken to establish a club and culture that has changed the landscape of Colorado Springs for the better, even with the challenges that could have posed to their personal relationships.

“One of the things I’m most proud of is that as a family business, we still all like each other and get along and spend time together,” said Ragain. “In the midst of many challenges and heartache and arguments and debates and possible paths, there was plenty of room and opportunity for us to go our own ways and depart.

“But I think that’s one of the things I'm most proud of, is that we as a family, we're able to keep it together and keep moving it forward and stay on the same page. Perhaps you could say one of the things I learned is how not to allow ego to dictate or to drive all decisions, for more participation in conversation and solutions that might not be my solution, but trusting team members, trusting family and working together toward a common goal.”

For those that have seen the Ragain family’s work up close, the drive and persistence to make the Switchbacks a success has shone through.

While Weidner Apartment Homes is now the club’s owner, the relationship between the two organizations goes back a decade to when the club was trying to strike up partnerships that would bring investment into the club.

For Weidner Apartment Homes founder and Colorado Springs native Dean Weidner, the club offered an opportunity to give back to the city where he grew up, but the partnership quickly developed relationships across the two organizations through which Weidner’s staff saw the value and the sweat equity the Ragain family were prepared to put into making the club a long-term success. 

“We started with the back of the jersey, and, you know, Nick and Ed, they continued to ask for more investment,” recalled Greg Cerbana, Weidner’s Vice President of Public Relations and Government Affairs. “In the subsequent year, we were encouraged, and we ended up agreeing to put our name on the stadium out there in the suburbs. It’s because we believed in the club and believed in James and Ed and Nick and what they were doing out there, and wanted to see the game grow, and wanted to continue to support that in Colorado Springs.”

At times, that even meant bringing all hands on deck when inclement weather would drop snowfall ahead of gameday. Cerbana recalls an early season game at the club’s first venue when not only were the trio of Ed, Nick and James Ragain on the field with shovels, but so were many of their extended family to make sure the game that night could go ahead.

It also meant having the persistence to create openings where others might not have seen them.

As the City of Colorado Springs was in the midst of planning its City for Champions initiative, the Ragain family saw a downtown future and long-term viability for their club that their relationship with Weidner could help bring about.

“What was bandied about initially was to attract baseball to come down downtown, and for various reasons, that fizzled and it didn't work,” said Cerbana. “The Ragain family were the ones who found out about that opportunity and were scrappy enough to get their name and soccer into consideration.

“This opportunity to take advantage of some state money and to bring a stadium into the downtown area to help revitalize it was something that I think they had the vision to accomplish. … We had some financial heft, we had some alignment advantages, and we had in James and Nick and Ed, three guys that were going to work like the dickens, working owners, right? They were not passive by any means, and that was a great recipe for us to invest into.”

Since its arrival at Weidner Field, the club has gone from strength to strength with each member of the family playing a role. As Executive Vice President, James Ragain has taken a hands-on approach to the gameday experience, helping cultivate an atmosphere that has the venue buzzing when the team takes the field.

For Nick Ragain, the work in the front office and alongside the sporting side – finding the right fits for the right people – has helped propel the club to four consecutive postseason appearances and a culture that under Sporting Director Stephen Hogan, Head Coach James Chambers and Technical Director Alan McCann has delivered an on-the-field product that matches the club’s venue and support.

While there’s been push and pull on the deals that can be made, Nick Ragain’s willingness to pull the trigger on some of his staff’s key requests provided the resources to build a title-winning squad.

“Personally, it’s just being like conversationalist and all that, the two of us just getting together in the office or whatever else. It’s been very easy to speak to each other,” said Hogan. “The good, bad and the ugly always come out. But it’s been with the right purpose in terms of moving this club in the right direction.”

Now, the Switchbacks enter their second decade with new ownership at the wheel as it prepares for its home opener against Detroit City FC (6 p.m. ET | ESPN+) this Saturday. For Cerbana and the new Board of Directors, the aim is to remain true to what the Ragain family have built and the shared values that the Switchbacks and the Weidner organization hold true to.

“Culture is important,” said Cerbana. “We’re almost 48 years old this year, and we’ve developed what we think is a culture that’s focused on our people, and we want to implement a little bit of that into the Switchbacks. Not that it hasn’t been like that before, but that is something that we will continue to build on, the focus on a gameday experience that is second to none, even for the size of our venue, the size of our MSA.

“It’s important for us that when people spend their money and they come and they experience a match and they meet new friends, or they rekindle old [friendships], they get caught up in the enthusiasm of the day.”

For Nick Ragain and his family, the legacy they leave at the Switchbacks – and in the USL Championship as a whole – is remarkable. From humble origins, the club has brought a new energy and feeling to Colorado Springs, one which is now creating its own space in the state’s sporting landscape.

“We certainly hope to be remembered as doing our part in helping develop a sporting culture,” said Ragain. “Colorado Springs hasn’t had a great sporting culture. Historically, we were so close to the Mile High City, to Denver metro, that a lot of the tier one sports really are the attraction, are the thing to go to in our market and have more of a suburban mindset.

“We’ve always been wanting to really plant the flag and say ‘we’re Colorado Springs, we’re important enough, we’re valuable enough, we’re a big enough community, we have a unique enough culture to be our own professional sports entity.’ As much as we love Denver, Colorado Springs can stand on its own legs.”

As a family legacy, it’s a magnificent one.