After a 21 year indoor, outdoor and futsal playing career Otto Orf has dedicated his life to developing soccer players through the game of futsal and to the game of futsal itself.In 1996 he was part of the US National Team that won the first ever CONCACAF Futsal Championship and went to the FIFA Futsal World Cup in Spain. His national team career lasted seven years until 2003 at age 41. In 2007 with business partner and former Cleveland teammate Chris Dore they started the Great Lakes Futsal Leagues, www.greatlakesfutsal.com and have grown the NE Ohio league and regional tournament to one of the largest futsal organizations in the country. After receiving a coaching certificate from US Youth Futsal he traveled to Spain for a certificate from Spanish World Champion Javier Lozano. In 2014 Orf went Costa Rica to be part of the coaching staff to write the first CONCACAF Futsal Coaching Curriculum and in 2017 he delivered the first ever CONCACAF coaches course on the island of Guadeloupe.In 2013 he converted his HandsOnSoccer programming to Heart And Sole Futsal and now runs an Academy program, www.heartandsolefutsal.com, that has produced and currently fields some of the best soccer and futsal players in the country. As part of this program he has incorporated his not-for-profit, the HandsOnSports Foundation, www.handsonsportsfoundation.org and has helped create 6 public access outdoor futsal courts in NE Ohio. Otto has used his extensive experience and international connections to bring National Team coaches, World Champions and FIFA referees from the US, Brazil, Cuba, Canada and Argentina to educate coaches, players and officials in an effort to bring the Akron/Cleveland region to the forefront of futsal development in the United States.
This September the official announcement was made that Orf will join the US coaching staff as an assistant coach and goalkeeper coach. The very first training camp of the new cycle was held in Akron at the Goodyear Hall September 17-22 and the team now look ahead to an ID Camp in Philadelphia October 25-27 and the next full domestic training camp in Chicago October 29-November 3 in preparation for the CONCACAF and World Cup qualifications in May 2020.
