Just two weeks remain until the start of the 2026 USL Championship season. 

The Colorado Springs Switchbacks travel to El Paso Locomotive on March 7 for the first regular-season game of the year, but until then, the Switchbacks are training in the preseason. 

The club was out of action last week with the jersey reveal party, but this week, Colorado Springs returns to the preseason slate. 

Colorado Springs hosts USL League One team Union Omaha in a match open to the public at 1 p.m. on Saturday and then hosts the University of Denver in a closed match at the same time on Sunday. The team will finish the preseason with a home match against Sacramento Republic FC on Feb. 28. 

Last time out, the Switchbacks were in Tucson, Ariz., for the Desert Showcase. The club battled to a scoreless draw against Louisville City FC and won 2-0 over New Mexico United. Switchbacks forward Yosuke Hanya scored a goal and recorded an assist against Colorado Springs’ rivals. 

It’s a good sign for the Japanese forward, who recorded just one goal in USL Championship play last season after scoring five during the club’s championship-winning campaign in 2024. 

Hanya began last season recovering from a hamstring injury suffered in the Switchbacks’ championship final against Rhode Island FC in November 2024. With just over a month of offseason following 2024, Hanya went into 2025 at less than 100%.

Switchbacks’ new coach Alan McCann said Hanya’s injury was mismanaged. 

“Remember in the final in 2024, he pulls up the hamstring. He comes into preseason then still dealing with that. He then wasn’t managed correctly and then it leaked into the season to where he can only get back to his real self toward the end of the season,” McCann said at the team’s jersey reveal party last week. “So he’s come back in like himself, but he’s also come in more driven.”

Hanya, 27, played the previous two seasons with Colorado Springs on loan from Colorado Rapids 2. He inked a multiyear contract with the Switchbacks in the offseason. The transaction has helped ground Hanya with the club and with the Colorado Springs community, McCann said. 

“We’ve been able to fix that it’s not a loan and now it’s a real contract. He feels like he has a home,” McCann said. “He’s able to fully go two feet in, bring his missus here and make here properly home and he can commit to that. Then he’s been given the freedom to go and put his stamp on things because he’s good enough, he’s intelligent enough. He had a hand in both goals, first goal from the left, second goal from the right. So he did it both sides, which makes him even more dangerous.”