Always a Chicago Fire fan, Pause enjoys new opportunity

In this photo provided by the Chicago Fire, from left, Chicago Fire's Daniel Paladini, Logan Pause, Jeff Larentowicz and Sherjill MacDonald celebrate Paladini's goal against the New York Red Bulls during the first half of an MLS soccer match, Sunday, April 7, 2013, in Bridgeview, Ill. The Fire won 3-1.

Logan Pause makes it clear the Chicago Fire gained something when he left the club last month to become the coach at Orange County SC in the USL.

"They -- which is still funny to say -- are getting a huge, huge fan," Pause said by telephone from California.

Drafted by the Fire in 2003 out of North Carolina, Pause was a rock in the Fire midfield for many years. When the team captain retired, he became an executive in the Fire front office before becoming an assistant coach.

The Fire was all he knew professionally until he took the leap to Orange County.

"It was very hard and very easy," Pause said, as thoughtful as ever. "Very hard because it's the only club that I've known on the professional level as a player, as an executive, as a coach. The relationships that I've built through my 14 years are ones that I'll take forever. … In that sense it was hard to leave that."

"However, this opportunity, the opportunity to be a head coach with a club that has a very, very exciting project, for that it was easy from the excitement to want to be involved in that."

Pause dived into his new job, busily trying to assemble a team and prepare for the upcoming season, all while counting the days until his wife, Vaneesha, and three young children can join him in Southern California.

"(It's) going really well, really well," he said. "Busy, but well."

He brings with him everything he learned during his time in Chicago, and he speaks highly of Fire coach Veljko Paunovic and general manager Nelson Rodriguez. He left on "fantastic terms," he said, adding "they were in my corner along the way. Even leaving the club has in my eyes strengthened the relationship because you don't always find people like that."

Pause spent a year working with Paunovic, but he learned a lot that he brings to California, including how to work with people with different cultures and about the game itself.

"I felt like my time with him I learned so much. I have got nothing but the most amazing things to say about the person. He is one of the best," Pause said.

Pause was the last of the former players remaining with the Fire in either the front office, academy or the technical staff. He discounts those concerns, believing the club maintains its tradition and will return to its winning ways.

"There is a rich tradition at the Chicago Fire of winning," Pause said. "For a long time it's been a winning club. Just because I'm gone doesn't mean that there's no longer an appreciation for tradition or even an idea that those sort of things are left."

Despite the Fire's problems on the field the past several years, Pause's optimism remains in his new role as fan from afar.

"I am confident," he said, "and I hope everyone else is confident that the winning tradition will be reinstated within the club."