Lynchburg is now home to Virginia’s highest level of soccer competition south of Richmond with the addition of a new minor league team.
When Hill City FC players take to the turf in May, they’ll join a bustling local soccer scene of youth and college teams and another semi-pro club, creating a ladder in Lynchburg that can launch players to professional soccer careers, said Anthony Catalano, co-owner of the new club.
Catalano said the expansion of soccer in the region couldn’t be timed better: It aligns with excitement already in the air for the men’s 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will be hosted in the United States this summer for the first time since 1994. His job, he said, is to harness that excitement to fuel the creation of elevated soccer opportunities in Lynchburg, the hometown where he learned to play before becoming a professional athlete himself.
“At the end of the day, what we all want is to continue to grow the game,” he said. “That has to start at the grassroots level.”
Between now and this spring’s home opener, Hill City FC staff have much work to do, Catalano said, from building out marketing strategies in the business office to recruiting strong players on the field. In the meantime, he’s staying focused on what he sees as soccer’s biggest strength: the ability to bring communities together.
“There’s no other game like this in the world. This is a game that speaks every language and can bring people from every walk of life together on a common ground,” he said.
‘Stacking a stair’ to level-up southwest Virginia’s soccer sphere
Catalano said he hopes that Hill City FC creates a “rising tide lifts all boats” phenomenon for soccer in the Lynchburg region. More competitive soccer games should lead to more engaged fans and more community attention to the sport, he said, which can inspire more players to give soccer a try, create more demand for training and competition opportunities, and grow the sport at every level.
“We’re just stacking a stair on what’s already here, and we’re very cognizant of what’s here and we respect what’s here. What we’re looking at is how we can elevate that,” he said.
The expansion could have a big effect on youth soccer, said Dave Henderson, president of Central Virginia United, a local soccer club that offers recreational and competitive youth programs. Having hometown soccer stars to look up to can make all the difference in children’s commitment to the sport, he said, because it shows that a path forward is possible.
“We try to create partnerships to give our kids opportunities to not just play soccer, but also see what happens when soccer becomes a part of your life as you get older — to give them pathways to see what high-level competitive soccer looks like,” he said. “I think with something like Hill City FC, the kids will just be so enamored, and the love of the game will be alive and well.”
The Water Dog, a downtown restaurant that Henderson owns, is a sponsor to both Hill City FC and the city’s other semi-pro club, Lynchburg FC.
“My general mantra is that I want to support the game of soccer in our community in any way I can. Because I do believe in the impact it has on community pride,” he said. “You’ve got kids throughout our community who are wearing Hill City FC jerseys, Lynchburg FC jerseys. They are proud to wear them, and it’s a symbol of community pride that will hopefully last a lifetime.”
Lynchburg FC was founded in 2020 by Carlos Munoz, who played soccer at nearby Jefferson Forest High School and Southern Virginia University, and Greg White, who played at Liberty University. “We felt like a team like this was missing in our area,” Munoz said, because players like himself and White are often left without outlets to continue their passion for the game after their college careers end.
Today, the Lynchburg FC roster normally consists of current players and recent graduates from the University of Lynchburg, Randolph College and Hampden-Sydney College’s Division III soccer programs, Munoz said. His goal is to create an environment where college players can not only sharpen their skills, but also find support in a community of athletes.
The team hosted a U.S. Open Cup game in 2022 and won the regional conference last year. Munoz said it’s too soon to tell how Hill City FC will affect Lynchburg FC’s player recruitment and fan turnout. Open tryouts for both teams will be held in January and February, and the competition seasons don’t start until the spring.
“Only time tells in that type of situation, right?” he said. “But of course we always hope that soccer can grow, not just for our organization, but every soccer organization here in the area.”
Hill City FC’s team will likely consist of Division I soccer players — from schools such as Virginia Tech, the University of Richmond and Virginia Commonwealth University — and former professional players who are taking a year to recover from high-level competition or “seeing if they have one last drip of gas in the tank” before retiring, Catalano said.
Hill City FC and Lynchburg FC will compete in different leagues. Both are widely considered fourth-tier leagues in the official soccer pyramid of U.S. competition, just below the top three tiers that are considered “professional.”
Catalano said Hill City FC’s grouping, the United Soccer League’s League Two, has “a higher-level perception” in the soccer world because its teams often have more refined business plans, attract more fans and retain more advanced players and coaches than teams in Lynchburg FC’s league, the United Premier Soccer League. The higher bar means USL2 teams are harder to come by, Catalano said: USL2 has about 140 clubs, according to its website, and UPSL has more than 800 teams across various men’s, women’s and youth divisions, according to a July press release from its website.
Cities such as Roanoke and Radford have UPSL teams, but Lynchburg is the first Virginia city south of Richmond to add a USL2 team to its ranks.
The closest USL2 team to Hill City FC is in Charlottesville, Catalano said. Other USL2 teams and professional teams in higher soccer tiers are on the other side of the state in the Richmond, Northern Virginia and Virginia Beach areas.
In that soccer landscape, Lynchburg is now a regional hotspot for players who want to launch careers in the sport, Catalano said.
On a mission to fill the stands
Regardless of who ends up on the Hill City FC team after its open tryouts on Saturday, the games should offer a high level of competition for fans to enjoy, said Michael “Hitch” Hitchcock, who co-owns the team with Catalano. Representatives from Major League Soccer and international teams often scout for talent at the USL2 level, he said, which means players are hungry to make the most of every minute on the field.
“With that comes a lot of passion, commitment,” Hitchcock said. “Players are giving it their all because this is not their payday, but that next step is in sight, and they’re reaching for it.”
The team will play at Lynchburg’s City Stadium on Fort Avenue, which can seat 9,000 fans, according to the parks and recreation department. Catalano thinks Hill City FC can fill the stands because Hitchcock has “a playbook to build out these projects in markets across the country.”
Hitchcock is a Texas-based sports management expert who has helped to launch 35 soccer clubs nationwide, 21 of which he owns or has investments in. In every market, he returns to the same best practice, he said: “Any time you launch a team, you’ve got to take a community-first approach.”
That means being intentional about building connections with residents, businesses owners, city officials and other stakeholders so everyone feels invested in the team, Hitchcock said. In Lynchburg, for example, residents got to vote in online polls to choose what the club should be named and what the jerseys should look like. The next poll, Hitchcock said, will let residents vote on their favorite beer from Hill City FC’s partner Three Roads Brewery to become the club’s official drink.
“Whether it’s the farmers market or the sideline of soccer fields or a local festival, you try to be where the community is so that they see you,” Hitchcock said of meeting residents where they are in order to pull fans out of the woodwork.
“I think one of our greatest compliments we get is — at a home opener, when people look around and see thousands of fans — the biggest compliment is, ‘I didn’t realize there were so many soccer fans here,’” Hitchcock said. “Well, the reality is, there are. It’s our job to bring them together in a real, meaningful, authentic way.”
Hitchcock expects the number of soccer fans to grow as the FIFA World Cup plays out in locations across the U.S., Mexico and Canada in June and July. The competition is projected to bring an estimated $100 million to the U.S. Soccer Federation, according to ESPN, and generate a level of American interest in the sport not seen since the country last hosted the world cup more than 30 years ago.
It’s simple, Hitchcock said: “2026 is going to be the biggest year in the history of soccer in America.”
He’s planning to use that momentum to drive corporate ticket package sales and season ticket sales, Hitchcock said. Season tickets to all 2026 home games cost between $60 and $100 for adults and between $50 and $80 for kids, depending on the ticket package.
A history of grassroots soccer growth in Lynchburg
Catalano, who now lives in Atlanta, said Hill City FC is all about giving back to the community that taught him the game he loves.
Growing up in Lynchburg, Catalano started kicking the ball when he was 4 years old and played for the youth program now called Central Virginia United, Holy Cross Catholic School and E.C. Glass High School.
“I was very driven on what I wanted to become someday, and I had an aspiration to be a professional soccer player,” Catalano said of his early memories of the sport. “Any young kid at any age would want to be the next Michael Jordan or star athlete, but I really knew that I wanted to pursue it.”
At the time, Central Virginia United was not offering a level of competition that would get Catalano noticed by Division I college scouts, he said, so he moved to the Roanoke club now known as VBR Star in ninth grade. It paid off, Catalano said: He went on to play four years of Division I soccer at Elon University, which launched him into a professional soccer career with stints with the Charleston Battery, the Richmond Kickers and Oxford United in England.
Catalano’s father and business partner in Hill City FC, Charles Catalano, said the family sacrificed countless hours in the car and dollars in gas money to make the Roanoke commitment work.
“The big thing about soccer is exposure, and you have to be participating in tournaments at the highest levels to catch somebody’s eye,” he said. “So when you hear your son or your daughter say, ‘I want to do this,’ and you have the means, you make it happen, driving here and there and everywhere. But that suggests to me that there’s a lot of kids that don’t have that — Mom and Dad are working extra hours trying to put food on the table, and they can’t make that commitment.”
Randy Nelson, who founded Central Virginia United in 1977, said he hopes Lynchburg’s program can grow year to year so the next Catalano won’t have to train in Roanoke. He thinks Hill City FC can prompt the kind of growth he’s hoping for.
“If the youth of Lynchburg come to those games and witness high-level play, quality technical execution, good, hard competition and an exciting game, that child will try to emulate what they see on the field, they’ll ask to be involved in the soccer activities in the community, and that demand can drive better training,” Nelson said.
Anthony Catalano said he looks to Nelson’s story as proof that community-driven initiatives can expand access to soccer in Lynchburg.
Nelson, known in Lynchburg for his nearly 50-year legal career and dozen years on the Lynchburg City Council, coached E.C. Glass’s soccer team to win its first district championship in 1976. He had just returned to his hometown after playing four years of varsity soccer at Randolph–Macon College and coaching the University of Richmond’s varsity soccer program.
“When I was in Richmond, I realized that the level of technical skill in Richmond and Tidewater was far above that of Lynchburg, and having coached those players at Glass, I realized they needed a lot of work if they’re going to be competitive on the state level,” Nelson said, recalling his inspiration to establish the youth training program now known as Central Virginia United.
What started as an informal program where “people would just show up on Sunday afternoons for pickup games” grew over the decades to eventually organize travel and recreational teams, open a nearly 100-acre soccer complex, and serve thousands of children from Lynchburg and its surrounding counties, Nelson said.
Impact beyond the turf
Hill City FC’s ripple effects are expected to extend beyond the world of soccer, said Andrew Marks, Lynchburg’s assistant director of tourism.
Lynchburg has seen a growth in sports tourism in recent years, Marks said, referring to the championships, games and tournaments that prompt overnight visits from non-Lynchburg residents. In the 2024 fiscal year, such events brought an estimated economic impact of $9.43 million in spending on lodging, attractions, food and retail. In the 2025 fiscal year, that number rose to $15.8 million, Marks said. And he’s hoping Hill City FC will make it rise again.
“We all know how soccer fans are. They live, breathe, die their soccer team. So some of them are going to follow them to every away game, which means then they’re going to be experiencing our city for the first time and hopefully staying longer or coming back,” Marks said.
Henderson, whose management company oversees multiple downtown restaurants, said he sees the impact firsthand. “Downtowns thrive when people have reasons to gather,” whether it’s to host a watch party for a Hill City FC away game or grab after-match drinks on the trip back from City Stadium, he said.
For now, Catalano and Hitchcock are focused on preparing to make a splash in the Chesapeake Division of USL2, where Hill City FC will compete against Maryland and Virginia teams in a season running from May to July.
The duo already co-own Apotheos FC in Atlanta, a USL2 team like Hill City FC.
“We’re like-minded in that we love the game, we believe in the business of the game, we understand the future potential in the game, and probably most importantly, we both agree that the game can bring communities together,” said Hitchcock, reflecting on his work with Catalano in Atlanta. “In Lynchburg, he has family here and deep-rooted, meaningful connections, so it just made a lot of sense to launch another team.”
In addition to providing opportunities to the next generation of soccer players, Catalano said he hopes Hill City FC also creates a platform for rising sports executives, managers and marketing professionals to get real-world experience. He pulls interns for the club’s business office, social media, and other behind-the-scenes teams from local colleges to ensure that “every growth opportunity is for young people in Lynchburg to take advantage of.”
Catalano said his commitment to expanding access to soccer stems from a personal journey that revealed how important the life skills taught by the sport are. Shortly after retiring from the Richmond Kickers, Catalano was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Now in remission for about 15 years, Catalano said he looks back on his battle with cancer as only possible due to what he learned from his professional soccer career: the bravery and determination to defy the odds.
“What I learned from the game of soccer gave me all of the strength and all the courage I needed, because every step of my soccer career was exactly what I was facing in a cancer diagnosis: ‘You can’t do that. You can’t play Division I soccer. You’re probably not that good. You’re not going to play anything past this level.’ I decided from a young age I was going to prove everyone wrong,” he said. “Even now when I face doubters, I say, ‘That’s OK. I’ve been told no before, but here I am.’”