Staff

Economides brings a wealth of experience to the league as the new M2 Commissioner.  He has over 30 years of experience in professional soccer, starting with the Rochester Rhinos of the USL where he led them to league and U.S. Open Cup championships. The Rhinos are the only non-MLS team to win the U.S. Open Cup since Major League Soccer (MLS) was established.

After Rochester, Economides founded the Carolina Railhawks (now North Carolina FC) before moving to the USL front office to help establish and grow the league as a Senior Director and Commissioner of the MISL when it was managed by the USL.

In addition to his experience in the outdoor game and league office, Chris has also managed indoor teams with the Kansas City Attack and most recently Florida Tropics, both of which won championships under his leadership.

Andrew Ross brings a wealth of experience for the past 10 years at all levels of the professional soccer landscape.

Ross started his career working under now MASL Vice President Jon Ramin and Utica City FC General Manager Tommy Tanner at the Syracuse Silver Knights. Following the Silver Knights, he moved to Florida to work at the USL under Economides during the first season the USL was affiliated with MLS. After the USL, Ross moved to Orlando City SC for their first 2 seasons in MLS before establishing the Florida Tropics. Ross served as the General Manager for the past five years before moving into his current role with the league office.

Ross also holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Sport Management from Syracuse University, one of the top sports programs in the country, has played soccer his whole life and is a certified coach at the competitive youth level throughout the Tampa Bay Area.

Graeme Florance has been the director of officials for MASL 2 for the last three years.

Over the past 27 years he has been a professional indoor referee in the NPSL/PASL/MISL and the MASL. Graeme has been a registered referee with the US Soccer Federation for 30 years, and is currently a regional emeritus Grade Referee. Graeme is also a US Soccer Assignor and Instructor. He is a WMF (World Mini Football) International Grade Referee .  He has officiated at World Cup Final Tournaments in the USA and Australia, and qualifying events in South America.  Other soccer referee achievements include former NISOA National Referee.

Fernando Pena – with over three decades as a referee in indoor soccer, serves as the league's Director of Referees in Mexico. He serves in a similar role for the Mexican Professional Indoor Soccer League (LMFR) and with experience in PASL / MASL, responsible for the assignment, training, and development of referees.

He will start his 17th season this fall as a Senior Floor Referee in the MASL, and has also worked in the PASL, MISL, fútbol rápido (LMFR), and minifootball (WMF), putting together an outstanding  resume in local and international tournaments as well. 

He has served as a referee in two historic finals including the Indoor Soccer World Cup Final and Minifootball World Cup Final, Emirates 2023. He is a member of the International Referee Committee of the World Minifootball Federation (WMF) and also fills the role of Director of Referees of the Pan-American Minifootball Confederation (PAMF).

Brian Ackley serves as the Director of Public Relations and Broadcasting for MASL 2. 

Ackley – who spent 35 years in the newspaper industry, covering everything from the Winter Olympics, to Super Bowls to Mike Tyson, was previously the MASL Florida Tropics Director of Public Relations and Broadcasting, serving as the "Voice of the Tropics" on their home game broadcasts.

He brings a long history of covering and broadcasting indoor soccer beginning in the second year of the original Major Indoor Soccer league when he covered the Buffalo Stallions. He later covered the Columbus Capitals of the American Indoor Soccer Association, and spent four years as a color analyst and play-by-play voice of the Buffalo Blizzard of the National Professional Soccer League.

A long time broadcaster of high school football in Western New York, he also spent several seasons as the color analyst for NCAA Division I University at Buffalo football and as the play-by-play announcer for UB basketball. Most recently, he served as play-by-play voice for the Florida State High School Athletic Association’s girl’s basketball championships, boy's and girl's lacrosse championships and softball championships

He worked for almost five years as Athletic Director at Hilbert College, an NCAA Division III school in Hamburg, N.Y. He and his wife Dr. Lori Shank moved to Central Florida in 2007 where Ackley served as editor of the Lake Wales News, with stints as editor of the Fort Meade Leader and Frostproof News as well. Currently he also assists the City of Lake Wales with their public and community relations.

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Matt Schmitt is the Owner and President of the Muskegon Risers, and founded the franchise in 2014 with the sole purpose of creating positive social and economic impact on the Muskegon Lakeshore, through the community love of soccer. 

Schmitt played collegiate soccer at University of Michigan from 2006 to 2010, while earning a BS in biopsychology. After he graduated, he worked in a sales and marketing role with Evolve Group Marketing in Troy, Michigan and Neurocore in Grand Rapids, Michigan. These roles exposed him to the high-level clientele that the sports entertainment industry has to offer, including the NFL, NBA, and PGA. Schmitt also currently owns and operates his own business consulting company while holding real estate investments, and being a co-owner of a medical equipment and services company.

On the business side of owning a soccer franchise, Schmitt looks forward to collaborating with the local community to help showcase the beautiful sport that is soccer and how to get the local businesses to partner and support their endevours. Through the various support of community ties and donors, Schmitt believes that the team’s unique history, their strong business-sense and the collaborative mindset of the front office staff, can make for a great way to share around the Muskegon community and beyond.

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Andres Trujillo is a media and sports entrepreneur with over 14 years of experience in sports media and over 7 years in the professional sports industry. He has owned, operated, and invested in various sports teams including professional indoor football as well as soccer. His investment into the community and his family was the start of the New Mexico Runners which has been in operation since 2018. The New Mexico Runners are owned and operated by Andres along with his family.

He is a New Mexico native born and raised who strives to change the sportscape and make a positive impact in the state. As a graduate of Valley High School and the University of New Mexico in 2010, he has always believed in New Mexico’s sports community and wanted it to be stronger than before. He and the Runners franchise are all about representing the "Land of Enchantment." Mr. Trujillo is extremely involved with the New Mexico's sports scene including participating as Executive Director of the New Mexico Games as well as TV sports production with ProView Networks and the triple-A baseball club the Albuquerque Isotopes. Trujillo always wants the public to enjoy the Runners games and the sport that is arena soccer. 

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Blake Shumaker is a successful business entrepreneur from Wichita, Kansas. He has always had a close tie to the sport of soccer, and started FC Wichita youth club and pro academy prior to taking over the Wichita Wings. Blake has turned the Wings into one of the marquee indoor soccer franchises across the United States, and has grown FC Wichita into one of the largest youth clubs in midwest.

He is also a member of Arena Soccer Group who managed the league prior to the recent announcement of the new league office and has been a leader in pushing the sport and league forward in the past 3 years of its existence.