Asheville’s Soccer City
It should be another fun summer out in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.
There are plenty of reasons to love Asheville, and soccer has been one of them ever since Asheville City SC was established in 2017. The amateur club fields a men’s team that started off in the NPSL before moving on to the USL League Two, and a women’s team that plays in the USL W League.
Each season since their foundation, the men’s team has made it to the playoffs. In their most recent season, they secured their first divisional title while also making a conference semifinal appearance. A few of their regular season opponents will look slightly different this summer after the USL League Two divisional restructuring. Asheville City SC welcome Athens United, Dothan United, and Birmingham Legion 2 into the South Central Division.
The Venue
Last summer, the Blues had their first season at Greenwood Field on UNC Asheville’s campus where they will continue to call home. Prior to the 2023 season, they used to play at Memorial Stadium, which is a cool old venue that was originally built almost 100 years ago as a memorial to World War I veterans. Now under renovations, the club won’t make a return to the historic ground. The addition of a six-lane track will significantly change the turf field dimensions, ultimately leaving it below the standards for both pre-professional as well as NCHSAA high school competitions.
Greenwood Field may not have Memorial Stadium’s history, but the venue itself is also a good one. It features a grass field and it has amenities such as food trucks, beer, merchandise, and other tents. There are a few different viewing options between the large metal bleachers on the west sideline, smaller wooden bleachers on either end, and standing room surrounding the field. You can even bring a chair to sit on the touch line opposite the benches below the large bleachers.
The Recent Recruitment History
I started watching Asheville City during the summer of 2022 when I moved back to the Carolinas, and over the past two years, they have been able to bring in a long list of notable college players.
A couple of the players from last season are now playing professionally in the USL Championship with the Colorado Springs Switchbacks. Alex Andersson and Quenzi Huerman both signed contracts with the Switchbacks over the winter following their departures from college. Andersson attended the University of Colorado - Colorado Springs within NCAA Division II where he scored 25 goals and provided 9 assists in 2,749 minutes across his four year career. Huerman wrapped up his college career with the North Carolina Tar Heels after spending the other three seasons between Seton Hall University and Palm Beach Atlantic University. Huerman has been widely respected and admired by his peers and was recognized by the United Soccer Coaches as a Third Team All-American after ending the season with 10 goals and 7 assists.
One of my favorites from the 2023 campaign was Simon Carlson. The creative and versatile midfielder graduated from Georgia State University this fall after being selected for the Sun Belt Conference First Team in consecutive seasons. Carlson chose to return to Sun Belt competition for one last year of eligibility, but this time, it’s with the West Virginia Mountaineers. He joins a team that made it to the 2023 NCAA College Cup along with returning talisman Marcus Caldeira who was recently drafted by Minnesota United. I’ve covered Carlson quite a bit on X/Twitter, but an additional note from Carlson’s resume is that he was once brought into the U.S. Under-17 Men’s National Team training camp back in June 2018 with a group that included Peter Stroud, JMi Tolkin, and Amir Daley.
Click Here for Simon Carlson 2023 NCAA Soccer Highlights with Georgia State
Matching Carlson’s achievement, 2023 ACSC teammate Scott Vatne also earned back-to-back conference first team awards for his 2022 and 2023 seasons at Elon University. The Norwegian will be heading into his senior season this fall. Also given a 2023 Sun Belt Conference First Team nod was James Madison University graduate Clay Obara. In the recent U.S. Open Cup match against One Knoxville SC on March 20th, Obara captained the Asheville City side that made its first appearance in the famous tournament. He brought Rodrigo Robles with him from James Madison for that game to add to the recruitment examples.
From the 2022 ACSC team, goalkeeper Ryan Bilichuk and center back Tyler Clegg both joined Portland Timbers 2 following the 2023 MLS SuperDraft. Bilichuk was a teammate with Vatne at Elon, and Clegg was a teammate with Obara at James Madison.
Ethan Dekel-Daks is also worth mentioning for his time with Asheville City since he’s another transfer addition to West Virginia ahead of this 2024 season. The former Nottingham Forest academy midfielder can be seen this summer with Long Island Rough Riders along with Nigel Prince (Northwestern) and Pierce Infuso (Hofstra).
The Current Roster
Their high level recruitment looks to continue, because for starters, the captains are back. Ryan Baer and Max Miller return to the side that only lost one game during the regular season on their way to securing their first divisional title. Baer is also in his final season with the University of West Virginia. The Huntersville, North Carolina native has been a starter ever since joining the Mountaineers back in 2020 and during his senior season, he served as a team captain as well. Max Miller also plays in the Sun Belt Conference and captained the University of Kentucky Wildcats as a sophomore. The FC Cincinnati academy defender led the team on the stat sheet as well. He registered a team high 7 assists and 1,780 minutes played.
Other top additions to the back line are North Carolina’s Charlie Harper and former Davidson defender Nico Cavallo. A key member of Carlos Somoano’s defense, Harper will surely be an impact player for Scott Wells. Similar to Max Miller, he also played a large amount of minutes last fall as a sophomore (1,996) and I’d expect him to be draft eligible this winter if the Tar Heel defense continues to perform well. They finished 5th in the nation for Team Goals Against Average and have already looked good during this Spring College Cup season. Harper has an interesting background as an Australian who grew up in Tokyo, and is fluent in Japanese. Nico Cavallo brings in a lot of experience as a four year starter for the Davidson Wildcats. He was even a member of the Wrexham team that competed in last year’s The Soccer Tournament (TST) along with Filip Mirkovic, who is now in the MLS NEXT Pro with Crown Legacy FC, so things are looking good for a team that only allowed 9 goals in 12 regular season matches last summer. Cavallo will attend UCLA for his final year of college eligibility where he’ll pursue a graduate degree in marketing.
Two of the most recent announcements are lesser known, but their profiles are just as intriguing. The Asheville City faithful will have the first glimpse of English attacker Lewis Johnson as he makes his way stateside. Formerly of the MK Dons academy, he’ll have the chance to get some early work in with Kentucky teammate Max Miller throughout the summer and develop chemistry. On the other side of the field, you’ll find an adventurous wingback by the name of Casper Svendby. After two seasons in the starting line up and over 3,000 minutes for the University of Dayton, the Norwegian has decided to test himself in the ACC and transfer to the Pitt Panthers. Depending on how the roster fills out, Svendby might be used higher up the field if Cavallo plays in the left back spot.
ACSC are also bringing in a couple players that made it to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA National Championship tournament. Ultimately losing to West Virginia, Loyola Marymount University (LMU) went on a somewhat unexpected run to beat UC Irvine, UCLA, and James Madison to make it to the last eight teams. From the LMU Lions, midfielders Lewis Clutton and Okeefe Cunningham are making the trip from Los Angeles to spend a summer in the mountains. In the past, Asheville has been able to attract a few players from the Southern California area, namely Lucas Gonzalez and Finn Ballard McBride during their time at UC Santa Barbara. Gonzalez is an LA Galaxy academy product and was one of the standout performers for the previous two summers. After the 2022 season, Ballard McBride went on to be a graduate student at Kentucky and is now playing professionally in England with Eastbourne Borough FC.
Another coincidental connection to past recruiting is bringing in a French attacking player from Campbell University. Fans should remember Kemy Amiche. For the 2024 season, it’ll be Adrien Gameiro. He was selected for the Big South Conference All Freshman team after joining the Fighting Camels in 2022 from AC Ajaccio. It was a down year for Campbell, so I’m not familiar with Gameiro, but I imagine he’ll look to use this opportunity to showcase his skills leading into his upcoming transfer to LMU. He did however play for top USL League Two side Des Moines Menace last season as well, so he should be a promising addition.
With nearly six weeks until the start of the season, I’d expect a few more announcements soon.
The Coach
Scott Wells heads into his third season as Asheville City SC’s head coach. The Coventry native has been playing and coaching in the U.S. since 2007, and wherever he goes, success typically follows. As an assistant coach, Wells has won an NAIA National Championship with the University of Rio Grande in 2015 and an NCAA Division II National Championship with the University of Charleston (WV) in 2017. He moved on to UNC Greensboro in 2019 where he served as an assistant coach while leading the recruiting efforts. Most notably during his time at Greensboro, the Spartans were a combined 44-18-10 from 2019-2022 and only lost three conference games over the course of that time. They also made it to the quarterfinals of the Division I National Championship tournament in 2022. Wells has since joined Gardner-Webb University as the head coach as he looks to continue his trend of turning programs into contenders. The task will be a tall one, but he has a strong reputation around the player circles and has already started bringing in notable additions. It’s clear that Wells will continue to be a great asset for Jimmy Wheeler as they look build up the club in Asheville.
The Schedules
Click Here for the 2024 Men’s Team Schedule
Click Here for the 2024 Women’s Team Schedule
The Soccer Bar
If you’re spending the weekend in Asheville and you can’t get enough soccer, you’ll also want to head over to the Olde London Road Pub in Asheville’s River Arts District.
Address — 270 Depot Street, Asheville, NC 28801
The Partnering Sponsor
…and if you’re a beer drinker, another worthwhile place to stop by is one of the partnering sponsors to Asheville City SC. Highland Brewing has a large campus that includes a taproom and patio as well as an outpost area that has an open space, stages, sand volleyball courts and even a disc golf course. On matchdays, they have a beer tent at Greenwood Field.
Address — 12 Old Charlotte Highway #200, Asheville, NC 28803
They also have a downtown taproom which is located in The S&W Market at 56 Patton Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801.