Orange County Blues

The then Los Angeles Blues were founded by Iranian-American businessman Ali Mansouri in 1998 and announced as a USL Pro expansion franchise on December 7, 2010. The team was associated with the United Soccer Leagues W-League team LA Blues, and is part of the larger Orange County Blues organization, which has competed in Los Angeles-area amateur leagues since 1998. They introduced their first three players—goalkeeper Oscar Dautt and midfielders Cesar Rivera and Josh Tudela—at a formal launch event on December 14, 2010.

After an extensive pre-season, the Blues played their first games in the Caribbean over the weekend of April 15–17, 2011, a 3–0 victory over Sevilla Puerto Rico, and a 2–1 victory over Antigua Barracuda. The first goal in franchise history was scored by Cesar Rivera.

In January 2012, the Blues announced the hiring of Steve Donner (formerly CEO of Orlando City) as vice president of business operations to focus on improving marketing for the club and to bring professionalism to the front-office. The first game of the 2012 season reflected these efforts with a 2,432 attendance compared to 696 for the first home game in 2011 (the Blues averaged 382 during the 2011 season).

In 2016, the team was purchased by American businessman James Keston, rebranded to Orange County SC. Prior to the 2017 season, Orange County became the USL affiliate of Los Angeles FC in a multi-year deal, which was ended after 2018. The team won the Western Conference Regular Season Title in 2018 with 20 Wins, 8 losses and 6 ties. They defeated Saint Louis FC and Reno 1868 FC before losing 2–1 to Phoenix Rising FC in the Western Conference Final. Thomas Enevoldsen scored 20 goals and was named to the All-League First Team along with Aodhan Quinn.

In the 2021 season, Head Coach Braden Cloutier was dismissed mid-season and replaced by Assistant Coach Richard Chaplow. OCSC went on to finish second in the Pacific Division, and advance to the USL Championship Final, defeating Tampa Bay Rowdies away at St. Petersburg, Florida, 3–1 in regulation.

The 2022 season saw Richard Chaplow earn a last place Western Conference finish, despite Milan Iloski earning the USL Championship Golden Boot award. Orange County SC finished the 2022 season 7-14-13 with 34 points, last in the Western Conference.

The 2023 season also did not start strongly for Orange County, with just one win in eight games, with a 1-4-3 record before the team relieved Chaplow of duties and promoted newly hired assistant coach Morten Karlsen to interim head coach on May 1, 2023. Karlsen led the team to a season-end 2nd place Western Conference placement at 17-11-6, earning two consecutive USL Championship Coach of the Month awards for July and August. Coach Karlsen was appointed as Head Coach on a multi-year contract, announced November 2023.

Orange County lost star forward Milan Iloski during the 2024 January transfer window to Danish Superliga club FC Nordsjælland. The loss of the former Golden Boot winner resulted in Orange County having a mediocre start to their 2024 season, with a record of 6-3-6 by late June. This start contributed to Coach Karlsen making a transfer in the middle of the season to another club in the Danish Superliga, Lyngby BK. He was replaced by the assistant coach, Paul Hardyman, who after being labelled as an interim coach, was promoted to lead as the official coach, before he himself was sacked by the team and replaced by another assistant coach Danny Stone after a six-game winless streak. Under Danny Stone, Orange County was able to rescue their season and clinch a visit to the playoffs, where they were eliminated in the Western conference semi-finals against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC.