“I think that soccer in the US is pretty much totally shit, except for the women's side.”

Chistopher Corey started our interview off with the kind of comment that raises eyebrows, but he extended his thought with a bit more substance. “The disjointed nature of all of our leagues is just absolutely heartbreaking to someone who dedicates his whole life to it. This sport's been everything to me and it's really difficult working on both sides of the pond and seeing what we do here.” Corey owns a share in two clubs including English club Walton & Hersham FC, which play in the Southern Football League, Premier Division (7th level of the English system). But this interview is focused on his other club, the USL W League’s Palm City Americanas.

“I feel like the women's game is our one shining hope. Even now, you have the USL Super League and NWSL, and I feel like that competition is actually going to cause a collision that will hopefully cause them to build a model through competition. That makes sense and can reach into every community in the US and give kids hope and opportunity and access to the game.” Corey’s tone has the optimism and energy of a dreamer, but then it turns dark. “On the men's side, that hill is just so big to climb now to try and fix some of the problems with it.” And then he ramps back up, building in excitement as he goes. “Nowhere else in the world would you have idiots like me opening lower division clubs with no promotion, relegation, no chance of ever really making any money, right? No chance of glory in the top division? We literally have this club just for the community around us and to be a part of the sport. I don't think that that would happen in any other country. So that was long-winded, but I have hope for the for the women's game in the United States. And that's how I ended up deciding to get a USL W franchise.”

Christopher Corey’s background is sports advertising. After years of running ad agencies and leading the World Cup bid for the city of Miamia, he decided it was time for a change and sold it all to get stuck in club ownership. “I still don't know what the fuck I'm doing…I bought a farm in Palm City, Florida and converted it into a football facility. And we now have a youth club here with almost 1,000 kids.” The farm, literally named Football Farm, is unique in a sport dominated by high school rentals and rec fields. Americanas owns its facility and has complete control of it’s future. “We Bought a Zoo and Field of Dreams put together. That's kind of what I’ve got going on.” Corey manages the facility and and oversees his women’s club. Of course, That’s along with serving as his English club’s President. Through his influence there, WHFC has started a women’s side and he plans to use it as a place for his W League’s best players to graduate to.

The Palm City Americanas logo is what kicked off this whole article and Corey laughed when I brought it up. “When I moved up here, one of the things I loved about this place was just all the American flags. It is patriotic as shit here. It's not overly in your face or anything. But people are very patriotic here. So, I was like, “well, if we're gonna do this, let's fucking do it. Let's have the most America team I can think of.” He wanted an angry female eagle as the logo and when he asked his design guy, he got laughed at. “He was like, ‘what?’ And I'm like, ‘yeah, man, that's what I want.’ I didn't think for a second the USL W was gonna approve that shit. I mean, for us, we're a farm in Palm City, Florida, why would anybody approve us? It was pretty wild. And everyone I showed. that eagle to was like, ‘it's mad about something’ and I'm like, ‘yeah, yeah, I don't know, but I like it.’”

Corey’s approach to his club has earned it followers in his local community. “This year, I made it free admission. At our home games, we've had over 200 people, which is really good. At our opening match, we had over 1000.” Rather than limiting access to the W League side, the team is built from the all the youth clubs in the area, creating a club for the city from the city. It’s unified the area and made Americanas a destination for all the local players to aspire to. “I’m a unifier, I guess,” Corey joked as he talked about it.

This season, Palm City sits third in the very-competitive Southeast Division. As Christopher talks about his team’s season, his excitement starts to build. “The competition this year is so much higher than it was last year. We spent six months recruiting and all the other teams did, as well. The matches are on another level, can’t say enough about them. Anyone can beat anyone.”

As we closed out the conversation, I asked if the team would consider branching into the men’s game. “I’m really passionate about women’s football…I have no interest in starting a men’s side, there’s no future there. I think there's a future for the sport on the female side in the country bigger than the men's.” The future is bright in Palm City.

- Dan Vaughn