In some ways, the winner of our Club of the Year is full circle from where we started five years ago. While both women’s (Pensacola FC, KC Courage) and men’s teams (Inocentes FC, Maryland Bobcats) had won the award in past years, this year was a triumph for a club with success by both its men’s and women’s teams. In that way, Tormenta is a complete club with two national titles this year.

The voting this year was tight. While we don’t always discuss the results from a numerical point of view, Tormenta won the title with 33% of the vote. That just barely topped second place FC Motown (30%) and third place Northern Virginia FC (28%). It was in the balance up until a day ago, when Tormenta pulled ahead to take the crown.

Tormenta is the first USL club to win the title, with previous winners from from the WPSL, UWS, UPSL, and NISA.

As the editor of the site and the writer of the nomination pieces, I just want to say thank you to every person who cast a vote this year. This is our fifth year of doing this and it has begun to feel more significant for us each year. We want the award to mean something, a recognition of lower league excellence. These clubs all deserve tremendous respect for their hard work, dedication to the game, excellence in their play, for continuing to exist in the harshest of environments, lower league soccer.

Congratulations to the 2022 Protagonist Soccer Club of the Year, elected by our readers, Tormenta FC.

- Dan Vaughn