· By Bilal Saeed
Originally published in 2019. Roles, affiliations, and plans in this story reflect that time. The planned 2020 season did not take place because of COVID-19; the men began USL League Two play in 2022.
Association Football Club Ann Arbor are proud to announce that the club have joined USL League Two ahead of the 2020 season. The club will join the Great Lakes Division in the Central Conference. The club looks forward to competing in the third-tier of the USL league set-up, the country’s top pre-professional league.
“The move to USL2 is an exciting new chapter for our club,” said Head Coach Eric Rudland.
“The competition will present a welcome new challenge for our players and staff in terms of preparing to play new rivals and shifting how we go about building our roster. The standard of play in the Midwest is extremely high, so we are working hard to enter the league on competitive terms.”
On the move, co-owner Rishi Narayan said, “While we have enjoyed the time spent and relationships developed in every league we have participated in, we feel that this is the best move for our whole organization, particularly for our players and our supporters.”
“It’s an incredible accomplishment for our club, particularly for how we have ascended up the soccer pyramid in our short time of existence,” added Knox Cameron, fellow co-owner and former player for The Mighty Oak. “I think that speaks volumes about the ambition of our organization as well as our staff, particularly Eric, we have brought in to oversee the soccer operations.”
Cameron would also note, “A big part of this ascension of the pyramid is directly related to the successes we’ve had on the field.” The Mighty Oak possess a 38-9-13 record over the five years existence. The side have finished in the top two in each of the four years spent in the NPSL’s Great Lakes Division and helped found and compete in the Great Lakes Premier League in 2015, the club’s first year of existence.
AFC Ann Arbor be joining USL2’s 2019 National Champion, Flint City Bucks (formerly known as the Michigan Bucks), as the second team from the state in the Great Lakes Division. Prior to relocating to Flint in 2019, the Bucks and Ann Arbor met just once, in the first round of the 2017 U.S. Open Cup, dropping a tight 1-0 contest to the historic club.
Club founder, Jamey Amrine summed up the move best by saying, “From the very beginning, when we started up the club, our vision was to continue building our organization both on the field and off. We’ve always sought to continue growing as a club and to play against the best possible competition.”
Original publication · Restored from a club-issued story.
