USL League One: Portland Hearts of Pine's ambition, One Knoxville's evolution & everything else

Week 27 brought USL League One to the three-quarters mark of the 2026 season, and while you’d expect the competitive race to start becoming clearer so late in the game, the opposite is true. Six clubs are reasonably in contention to win the Players’ Shield; half-a-dozen or more could claim playoff spots beneath them. Even the teams that are looking toward 2027 made important moves this week.

What should you be paying attention to across League One? I’m breaking down all the big storylines from the week that was.

Portland and League One’s sporting director era

Portland made the big statement of Week 27, and it happened off the pitch. On Monday, Hearts announced Ray Saari – the technical director of the USL Championship’s El Paso Locomotive – as their sporting director with immediate effect. It’s a meaningful change on a few fronts, and it emphasizes just how high Portland’s ambitions climb.

Saari, 31, was something of a journeyman during his playing career, and he first joined the El Paso staff in 2023 post-retirement. He was named the Locomotive’s technical director ahead of the 2025 season. Previously, El Paso had unified their technical director and head coaching jobs; Saari’s charge was to spearhead “player recruitment and retention” and the “integration of [El Paso’s] youth academy into the first team.” After finishing last in 2024, the Locomotive earned a home playoff game with the roster Saari built in 2025 and are a contender for the Western Conference’s top seed in 2026.

Even before you consider that stellar track record, a League One hiring a Championship executive to a comparable job is a notable swing. Portland has built a one-of-one environment in Maine and quickly earned respect across the USL, and the Saari hire is the clearest indication yet that Hearts intend to throw that heft around. Paired with the club’s stadium announcement earlier this year, it’s evident that Portland wants to compete at a much higher level than League One.

It’s equally clear that other League One clubs are trying to keep up. Leading organizations across the division have all begun to move toward a sporting director model. Union Omaha did it last year by hiring ex-Atlanta United executive Jamie Henderson; Forward Madison (Matt Cairns) and the Greenville Triumph (Zach Prince) followed up over the offseason. Now, Portland is following in their footsteps and adding a dedicated front office member that can head up recruitment and scouting – all while cooling the temperature of manager Bobby Murphy’s increasingly hot seat.

Hearts were, as has become a theme, too lax in action across Week 27, and they dug themselves into an early hole at midweek in Charlotte. That Portland bounced back was a credit to superstar attacker Ollie Wright. The winger has been kept out of the starting lineup since mid-August because of injury troubles, but he scored in Week 26 as a substitute. His impact was similarly massive against the Independence; Wright’s strong right foot challenged the opposing shape, bought space for left back Eiji Hata, and produced two goals within his first seven minutes on the pitch.