Sam Robb O’Hagan joins New England Soccer Journal as new writer

Editor’s note: New England Soccer Journal is pleased to welcome Sam Robb O’Hagan as its newest writer.

I try to avoid checking LinkedIn — because, let’s be honest, the less time spent there the better — but on a Tuesday afternoon last month, I was bored and aimless enough to check it anyway. A message was waiting for me. A week prior, New England Soccer Journal published a 2,000-word story I wrote about Oakwood Soccer Club’s move from MLS Next to ECNL. The story explored why Oakwood did it, what it meant for the landscape in Connecticut, and what it said about MLS Next. “Your recent article,” the message read, “is the most current article I would point to when describing the value of my subscription.”

The next day, Seamans Media offered me a full-time position as a writer at New England Soccer Journal.

That was just one message, of course. (To the person who wrote it: Many, many thanks.) Still, I believe the note points to the necessity of amateur soccer coverage in our region. Soccer has a developmental landscape that is both complicated and ever-changing; players and families need a voice to guide them through it. That’s what I want New England Soccer Journal to be.

I didn’t play high-level amateur sports growing up. I played travel soccer through middle school and, as my dad loves to remind me, I never tracked back and always threw a tantrum whenever asked to play on the back line. By high school, I wasn’t fit or skilled enough to keep playing, so I started watching the sport (I’m an Arsenal fan — I apologize) and playing FIFA religiously. Eventually, I began writing about soccer, too. 

But I never played high school soccer, never played club soccer and didn’t go to prep school. 

I don’t have a native understanding of any of them. I don’t speak or think about what I cover in jargon because I don’t know the jargon. And I look at the crowded, complex and at times confusing world of amateur soccer in New England (and the United States, at large) with as many questions as I imagine many of you do. I don’t intrinsically know why MLS Next is better or worse than ECNL, or why high school soccer makes more or less sense than prep. I certainly don’t have any biases based on past experience. 

But I raise an eyebrow at a lot of the stuff I see. There’s countless parts of the landscape I want to explore, and endless questions I want to answer. I can only hope they’re the same questions you want answered, too.

I’m pumped to join such a talented and dedicated team at Seamans Media, and thrilled to join forces at New England Soccer Journal with Matt Doherty, who’s been doing legit work ever since he got here (and the seven years before that at the Boston Globe). Matt and I are both BU graduates — he in 2019, me in 2026 — who learned the trade at WTBU Sports and the high school sports desk at the Globe. I know I speak for both of us when I tell you we’re fired up for this new era at New England Soccer Journal. It’ll be a ton of fun.

I haven’t covered soccer in the region for anywhere near as long as Matt. But my time writing about this crazy sport we all love has taught me something.

It is hard to be a young soccer player in New England right now. I want our work to make it easier.

Reach Sam Robb O’Hagan at [email protected]