
SNOHOMISH, WA—The Snohomish County FC Steelheads will be celebrating our 5th year in 2022 with a look back from day one up until now! Using the hashtag #FishTurnFive we will share memories, photos and videos of our history. Further, SnoCoFC.com will also be doing a series of features and sharing links to old coverage.

Not The Cedars
Back in January of 2017 a poll ran on Twitter to let the general soccer public vote for the nickname of Snohomish County Football Club. The two finalists were “Cedars” and “Steelheads.”
Steelhead are found in Snohomish rivers. They are also the official state fish of Washington. Further, there were connections with the Oso Landslide tragedy that gave the name even more impact.

Cedar trees are native in Snohomish County. There is deep history with logging, and even a tourist stop for the famous “Cedar Stump” located near Smokey Point.

“Steelheads” eventually won the vote 56-44%. With Fish topping Trees General Manager David Falk networked with founders Andrew Escalante and Aaron Burns to bring the identity of the team alive.
Go Orange or Go Home
Falk was passionate about including orange as the main color. His reasoning was that no other elite adult men’s team in the area was using it…and he wanted the fish to stand out right away. The rest was up to Mark Lavis, the crest designer. He picked “Granite Falls Black” and “Pacific Beach Tan” to complement “Steelhead Orange.”
On February 18, 2017 SnoCo FC posted the results of the vote along with the reveal of the colors and club crest. Read the announcement from 2017 here!


The hashtag #GoFish has been used since that very first day. When designing the crest, Lavis says “From the onset of my design process, I wanted to embrace minimalism. Awhile ago, I heard something from someone that always stuck with me as a designer. It’s that in order to have a great logo, a 5-year-old needs to be able to mimic your design from memory. That can be said about well-known known logos across the sports world.”
The Steelhead shape and use of hexagons as “scales” have since been integrated into everything the club does: uniforms, graphics, gear and more.
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