Board of Directors

During his 16 year tenure as head coach of the Bloomsburg University men’s soccer program, Payne has led the Huskies to five PSAC playoff berths, a PSAC Championship appearance in 2011, and a Capital One/CoSIDA Academic All-American in Bryce Shaffer.

Prior to his role at Bloomsburg, Payne was a standout collegiate player at Kutztown University. After graduation, he served as head coach at both Conestoga and Wallenpaupack high schools before becoming an assistant coach with the University of Scranton men’s and women’s teams. In 1995, he was named head coach of the Scranton men’s team.

Payne currently serves as a Senior National Staff Coach for the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA), as well as the Region II Technical Director for the NSCAA. He holds a United States Soccer Federation “A” License and a NSCAA Premier Coaching Badge. Payne served as the vice-president of Education to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America before serving as president in 2011. In addition, as a member of the Division II Men’s Soccer Committee, Payne serves as Chair of the Northeast Region, and sits as one of eight on the national committee overseeing D-II Men’s Soccer and their national championship.

In 2009, Payne founded Red Card Cancer at Bloomsburg University to help fundraise for cancer research throughout the Pennsylvania college soccer community as tribute to his friend and former colleague, Joe Bochicchio. It was Joe that gave Paul the guidance and direction as a young coach which has helped him grow within the game of soccer. What started out as a small weekend event on the Bloomsburg campus has grown into the international organization that Red Card Cancer is today.

Dr. Nelson is the Marion I. Knott Professor of Oncology and Director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins. He currently holds Professorships in Oncology, Medicine, Pharmacology, Pathology, Radiation Oncology, Urology, and Environmental Health Sciences. A trained medical oncologist, he directs a research laboratory focused on discovering new strategies for prostate cancer treatment and prevention.

Outside of Johns Hopkins, Dr. Nelson has also become a recognized leader in translational cancer research, serving on the Scientific Advisory Boards for Stand Up 2 Cancer and the Prostate Cancer Foundation, as a Co-Chair of the National Cancer Institute Translational Research Working Group, and as a Senior Editor of Cancer Research, the most cited journal in the cancer field. Having played on the All-State Missouri High School Soccer Team before serving as Captain of the Yale Soccer Team in 1979, Dr. Nelson remains strongly connected to the soccer community.

In 2009, Dr. Nelson convened a group of soccer enthusiasts in the Baltimore area to begin raising awareness within the soccer community about the need for cancer research funding. The group began building relationships within the Baltimore and Washington beltways, and aligned themselves with Major League Soccer’s D.C. United in 2010, providing a unique platform to grow this cause-related marketing campaign.

In 2010, Payne and Nelson had the opportunity to meet and share their common vision for moving Red Card Cancer to the forefront of fundraising within the soccer community, ultimately aligning Red Card Cancer with the cutting edge cancer research taking place at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.

Larsen is a business attorney experienced in counseling small businesses and entrepreneurs. He began practicing law in 2004 at the AmLaw Top 100 Firm Patton Boggs, LLP, in Washington, DC, where his practice ranged from complex civil litigation to federal lobbying. In 2008, Larsen left Patton Boggs to execute the launch of a Women’s Professional Soccer business in Washington, D.C. Today, Larsen operates his own legal practice, D. Larsen Legal, PLLC, where he specializes in counseling start-up and emerging businesses on a broad array of legal matters.

Larsen’s passion for Red Card Cancer comes from a lifelong love of soccer. As a youth, he captained his high school club soccer team to the USYSA National Championship, becoming the first team from Arizona to win such a title. He was a four-year varsity soccer player at the College of the Holy Cross, where he was both captain and MVP of the 1999 team. Today, he volunteers as a coach in community soccer programs.

Larsen received his Bachelor of Arts from the College of the Holy Cross, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and served on the Executive Board of the Holy Cross chapter of Habitat for Humanity in addition to his role as captain of the men’s varsity soccer team. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia, School of Law where he served as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Social Policy and the Law and as an editor of the law school newspaper.

McDermott is the head coach of the Army Black Knights at West Point. She came to West Point after serving as an assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team in 2011.

As a student-athlete, McDermott led the University of North Carolina to three national titles in 1983, ’84 and ’86. She went on to play on the U.S. Women’s National team in 1986 and 1988 before taking her first assistant coaching job at North Carolina-Greensboro following her graduation from UNC in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. After one year at North Carolina-Greensboro, McDermott held head coaching positions at Maryland, Arkansas, and Northwestern before being named the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) Great Lakes Regional Coach of the Year twice (1996, 1998).

McDermott moved into the professional ranks in 2001 as the head coach of the Carolina Courage. McDermott also served as a scout for the U.S. Women’s National Team during the 2003 World Cup, where Team USA earned a bronze medal, and maintained her duties as a scout for the team during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics, where Team USA captured gold medals. From 2008 until 2010, she served as the general manager for the National Women’s Soccer League’s Chicago Red Stars.

McDermott is also very active in the NSCAA, having served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee before serving a term as President in 2010. She has been recognized on a number of levels, including being named to the ACC’s 50th Anniversary Women’s Soccer Team in 2002 and being inducted into the Virginia-DC Soccer Hall of Fame in 2009.

Currently serving as the Vice President of an independent insurance agency, Wagener has loved and supported the soccer world for much of his life. At both the Severn School,’75, and West Virginia Wesleyan, ‘79, he was an active member of the soccer programs – including serving as Captain during his senior years. Since his graduation, Wagener has continued to play in many national amateur leagues. He is still active on a 55+ team, and travels to the annual Disney Classic in Florida each January.

Off of the pitch, Wagener has maintained an active role within the soccer community, serving on the ‘94 DC region World Cup organizing committee, as well as being involved in the 1996 Olympics, DC Region. Following these events, Wagener was asked to oversee the distribution of over 1 million dollars generated by “Soccer 94” organizing endeavors for both the ‘94 World Cup and the ‘96 Olympic Soccer games in DC. To date, this fund has dispersed thousands of grants, but Wagener’s most fondly remembered grant recipient is America Scores! (formerly DC Scores). The grant helped found this organization, which seeks to inspire urban youth to make a difference in their own lives and in their communities through soccer, and Wagener remains involved with their work to this day.

Additionally, Wagener has helped organize soccer leagues for minority residents in Anne Arundel county (over 50 teams), and worked with Baltimore City government to start and sustain the city’s Mayor’s Cup, an event where 20 community teams play for two days for the chance of winning the cup, with over 40 games hosted on the first day alone!