On an unseasonably warm evening in late spring, 11 young women took the pitch at Triumph Stadium at Legacy Early College and ushered in a new era of soccer for the Upstate. The occasion was the inaugural home match for the Greenville Liberty, a fledgling preprofessional soccer team that plays in the nascent United Soccer League (USL) W League.
“The energy, the fans—everything we generated here lifts the team,” Julie Carlson, head coach and technical director for the Liberty, said after the game. “They’re here to watch women perform, and they embraced us tonight.”
While May 20 will be etched in history as the day that women’s soccer took a monumental step forward in Greenville, the journey began in earnest a year earlier. That’s when the Greenville Triumph Soccer Club, the Upstate’s professional men’s soccer team, announced plans to launch a women’s team that would begin play in 2022.
“This is huge for the area, and especially for girls and women,” Joe Erwin, chairman of Greenville Triumph, said at the time. “We’re thrilled to be a part of the USL’s mission [to promote equity and inclusion for females] and to bring the opportunity for women to compete at the next level.”
Paving the Bridge to Liberty
Leading that charge is Carlson, who was named head coach of the Liberty in late 2021, after serving the previous four years as director of operations for women’s soccer at Clemson. Carlson’s prior coaching experience included stints at Anderson University, Jacksonville State (Alabama), and Virginia Military Institute (VMI), where she started the women’s soccer program.
One of the first things Carlson set out to do after taking the helm of the Liberty was build a strong roster. She started by reaching out to local players who had exhausted their college eligibility, and then tapped into contacts at universities and top clubs across the region to identify additional talent. Her goal was to assemble a team anchored by current and former collegiate players who could help to lay the foundation for the program moving forward.
“The importance behind signing ‘must-have’ players is building a core of veteran players who will bring leadership and experience to the team as we bring in younger, less-experienced players,” Carlson says. “The early signees were important to show fans and investors that we’re serious about the quality we want to have on our team.”
In its current iteration, the Liberty has a decidedly Upstate flair. The twenty-nine-player roster includes former standouts at J.L. Mann, Riverside, Wade Hampton, T. L. Hanna, and Byrnes high schools, as well as rising or current athletes representing Clemson, Furman, North Greenville, and Anderson universities. Members of NCAA Division I programs at Auburn and Wake Forest are also rostered on the team.
“About 95 percent of our players are from Greenville or now live here,” Carlson says. “That’s significant because this is their home, and they want to be part of something special in their hometown and what it represents.”
What the Greenville Liberty represents for young and old, ardent fans and casual observers, now and moving forward, is encapsulated in the club’s mission statement: To be a civic-minded club that’s an asset and primary force in rallying people from all walks of life to unite around our Upstate community.
About the Club
Greenville Liberty
Preprofessional women’s soccer team and charter member of USL W League
Mission: To be a civic-minded club that’s an asset and primary force in rallying people from all walks of life to unite around our Upstate community.
Head Coach: Julie Carlson
Players: 29 current, former, and rising collegiate players, as well as select high school players
Season: May 1 – July 24
Games: 12 regular season games, 1 exhibition game
Photography by Will Crooks
