The “Original Switchback” could have easily been someone else.

Luke Vercollone already had plans to move to Colorado after finishing the 2014 season with Richmond Kickers, his 11th as a professional soccer player. After spending much of his life on the East Coast, Vercollone and his wife planned on raising their young family near hers in Fort Collins.

Then, came the realization Colorado Springs would have a United Soccer League team, starting in the 2015 season.

“That was a big blessing,” said Vercollone who was named the honorary captain of The Gazette's Switchbacks Best XI after being an unanimous selection at attacking midfielder.

“Because I was going to retire.”

Instead, he reached out to Steve Trittschuh, coach of the club for its first five seasons, at his earliest convenience and wasted little time striking a deal to become the Switchbacks' first signing.

What followed was likely his best season of what turned out to be a 15-year career.

Vercollone became the first — and remains the only — Switchbacks player to earn first-team honors from the USL after scoring 15 goals and recording eight assists as the first-year club advanced to the conference semifinals.

“I do feel like that was my best season as a pro,” he said. “It worked out great.”

His final goal that season came in the team’s playoff exit at Oklahoma City, a memory that stuck with club president Nick Ragain despite the loss on penalty kicks.

“I always think about the playoff goal in OKC from an impossible angle,” Ragain said.

“That’s one of my favorite goals for sure.”

Vercollone scored nine goals in 2016, including another in the playoffs, added two more in 2017 and closed his professional career with four in 2018 to give him a club-best 30 across all competitions. He also is the club’s leader in assists in league play with 14 and became the first player to make 100 career appearances in a Switchbacks uniform.

His contributions were celebrated during the 2019 season when the club gave away his bobblehead figure before a match.

“Luke’s one of those foundations, those pillars, that we’ll always be able to reference,” Ragain said.

Vercollone felt that he continued to improve after his first season with the Switchbacks, but toward the end, injuries seemed to nag a little longer as he progressed into his mid-30s and confidence waned as the number of goals started to diminish.

After playing his final game on a Saturday in Seattle, Vercollone started his next career the following Monday at Save the Storks, a local pro-life organization.

“Serving women and saving babies,” he said. “It’s a very passionate cause of mine.”

The abrupt break from the game was intentional, he said, likening it to a break-up where feelings can linger the longer there’s contact. These days, his connection to the game comes mainly through his children. There are five of them after the arrival of the youngest in January.

“Completely out of it ... I coach my son’s team, and I watch my daughter,” Vercollone said.

“I’m pretty busy. I wouldn’t feel right to take a Sunday off to play soccer with the boys — unless I’m getting paid for it.”

The man who made the No. 4 his own in Colorado Springs said he still keeps up with current Switchbacks Rony Argueta and Jordan Burt, two other Best XI selections who could’ve replaced him as the club’s first signing, and he made it to Weidner Field a few times in his first year not on the roster to support friends and former teammates.

Five-plus years after the potential move to Fort Collins, Vercollone has established some roots in Colorado Springs.

“Know that I’m forever a Switchback,” Vercollone said.