Kickers will field team next summer

MELANIE MARTINEZLOPEZ Richmond TimesDispatch

Richmond Times-Dispatch Women’s soccer is coming back to the city of Richmond as the Kickers announced their expansion into the USL W league coming in summer 2024.

“It’s something that we’ve been talking about for a long time,” said Chief Operations Officer and President Camp Peery. “We always wanted to do this, but with the right timing.”

As far as timing goes, the Kickers made the announcement Saturday during the organization’s Women in Sports Night and just a few days before the Women’s World Cup kicks off.

“It’s intentional,” Peery said. “It was definitely a perfect time to share a little bit more with everybody.”

The USL W league is a pre-professional women’s soccer league that looks to develop “the next generation of women’s talent both on and off the field.”

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It is a summer league that draws players from high school to college levels so they can develop with a team and stay in shape ahead of the fall season.

“This is going to be an exciting and dynamic,” Peery said. “A new brand, a new badge, new name, still managed under our 22 Holdings group, but separate from the Kickers (men’s team).”

The Kickers are no strangers to the women’s game, as chairman Rob Ukrop has been involved in the men’s and women’s game for years. The Kickers did field a women’s team, the Richmond Kickers Destiny (WUSA), in 2004-2009.

“It’s a chance to come out and watch women play at City Stadium on the same pitch as the men and to have people come out and support that,” Ukrop said. “There’s a big draw for these young women to have an opportunity on a bigger stage.”

Many former Destiny players, such as Kimmy Cummings, Jen Woodie Winnagle, Carter Blair Yeisley and Mary MacKenzie Grier Swenck attended the game on Saturday night to help with the halftime announcement.

“It’s super exciting for the Richmond community to get to experience (women’s soccer),” Cummings said. “For girls that are in the area, they have something to really strive for. It adds one more thing that they can go after.”

Just as the men’s team helps develop high-level talent, the Destiny also helped develop some marquee names in the soccer world, including USWNT captain Becky Sauerbrunn, Wales international Kylie Davies McCarthy and Richmond United coach Jaclyn Raveia Schmitt.

“The pathway for the women’s game has sort of been you play youth soccer, then you go off and play in college,” Cummings said.

Giving young women and girls in the Richmond community a pathway to college or even professional soccer is one of the reasons why the Kickers wanted to create the team, and the city will continue to reap the benefits as more Richmond natives compete at high levels.

“I learned a lot on the physical side of the game and nutritional,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy played for the Chelsea academy in England before playing for the Destiny for two seasons.

The idea for the reintroduction of a women’s team in Richmond began post-COVID, but due to financial reasons, the Kickers were unable to launch a team in time for the inaugural season of the USL W league in 2022.

“The financial situation was challenging for all events and sports coming out of COVID,” Peery said.

The situation continued to improve as the Kickers kept working to gain more sponsorships and even bringing in revenue from consistently having high attendance at games, even selling out games at different points in the season.

To continue to show their support for women’s soccer, the Kickers will be hosting two World Cup watch parties at City Stadium, one on Friday, July 21, and the other on Wednesday, July 26.

“It’s a great chance for us to showcase some of this wonderful talent that we have coming through the Richmond Kickers and the Richmond Strikers and the Richmond United programs,” Ukrop said.

The Kickers hope to come out with a team announcement in spring 2024, including the technical staff and tryout information.

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