As I prepared to write this nomination piece, I reached out to FC Austin Elite General Manager, Danny Woodfill, to ask him what his plans had been for 2020 and how they changed when the pandemic hit.

“2020 was a planned expansion year for us. We were introducing a Reserve team and a U-21 team and building our top team into a pro-ready team. Even though we were hit by the pandemic, we still used 2020 as a growing year. We launched all three new teams. We brought in players from around the country to compete on our Elite first team, while recruiting the best college players from around Texas to play on our U-23/Reserve team and attracting awesome local high school players to fill out our U-20 team. We held a tight Covid protocol and even worked towards hosting a national women's tournament during the summer. Once the summer spike in Covid wiped out our hopes of having teams travel in to play in our summer tournament, we shifted gears to hosting games at our facility. These closed door games allowed teams that were able to safely practice, like ours, to still enjoy competition. We were able to host five games and run a semi-normal summer season (all things considered).”

That approach, finding the energy and focus to accomplish incredible things during the pandemic, is why FC Austin Elite deserves consideration for 2020 Protagonist Soccer Club of the Year.

FC Austin Elite has been a model citizen in the United Women’s Soccer League, not necessarily for their success on the field (finishing second in their conference in 2019 and third the year before), but for the way the club has exhibited itself as a team with big plans and the dedication to make them happen longterm. As Danny highlighted, creating a talent-producer is his goal and to do that the club is constantly seeking talent. specifically players looking for the chance to develop their skills at a top-flight amateur club. On that front, the club has created a name for itself in central Texas.

This year was weird for a hundred reasons, but when the pandemic really spiked and the UWS responsibly canceled the season, it would have been easy for the team to shut down shop for 2020. Instead Danny and FC Austin Elite went on the offensive, working tirelessly to grow their footprint when most woso clubs were on hiatus. Woodfill appeared on multiple podcasts, attempted to hold a UWS showcase (that eventually canceled due to pandemic), and relentlessly kept his team together and playing when possible.

“Women's soccer deserves it and honestly, we have big plans for 2021, so although it would have been easy to take a pass in 2020, we doubled down. While we run a pretty expensive program and we need the ticket revenue and merchandise sales to pay the bills, we know that now is the time to grow the women's game. We are continuing to build to have a brighter future for the game.”

In 2020, FC Austin Elite became the woso club you’ve heard of. That wasn’t an accident, but instead was the result of a tremendous amount of focused hard work. When the year handed out lemons, Danny and FCAE made lemonade, lemon meringue pie, and lemon-kissed salmon. When I asked Danny what he was most proud of this year, he responded “this summer we were able to host five games, safely, in the middle of a global pandemic. We had no cases of Covid transmitted through our entire summer program. We launched our first special cause jersey and made sure that our sponsors were happy with our support in 2020, but our proudest moment, helping develop the women's game for 2021. Here's to an amazing 2021, I think we're all done with 2020.” Not quite, Danny, we’ve got one last vote to count before 2021.

FC Austin Elite should be your vote for 2020 Protagonist Soccer Club of the Year.

- Dan Vaughn