Last year, we gave away our sixth Club of the Year Award to Tulsa Athletic. Over the last six year’s we’ve celebrated six different clubs from across the lower league American soccer scene. Teams from the UPSL, WPSL, NISA, USL-W League, and USL League One have all hoisted our silver platter, engraved with Protagonist Soccer Club of the Year. We’re a small organization, but we live in this space. We’ve invested time, energy, and so many dollars into trying to cover these leagues with respect and professionalism. And we always involve our readers and listeners in naming the winner of each year’s award. It’s our highest honor and we take it seriously.

This year we have five more clubs for you to consider, though two are repeat nominations from earlier years. All have done important work in the lower leagues this year. Winning championships is, of course, an obvious sign of success, and there’s several trophies on this year’s list, but there’s also clubs who made the list because of their impact off the field. That sort of work deserves to be recognized as well. So without further conversation, here’s one of this year’s nominations. Be sure to return to vote beginning 12/23! - DV

I’m sure when you saw this nomination, your first thought was “but they didn’t even play this year, how can they be nominated?” Allow me to sell you on this one, good reader, because I think Tulsa Athletic would be a solid choice for Club of the Year.

If you’ve followed lower league soccer, you have to have heard of the drama surrounding Tulsa Athletic and its co-founder Sonny Dalesandro. After almost a decade in the NPSL, the club was suspended from the league without much explanation from the league office. Plenty of whispering from club owners and fans about what’s happening behind the scenes, but nothing much concrete was ever made public. For our part, we’ve written extensively about the club’s battles with the league, so feel free to click the link if you’re not sure what I’m talking about.

Of course, Tulsa was suspended after it finally won the league, which may have provided the necessary juice for Athletic to finally get up and go. Sonny has always been an outspoken and opinionated club leader and was a tough pill for the NPSL brass to swallow. That situation led to plenty of friction that would intermittently boil over at league meetings and conference calls, but behind the scenes, it took a lot for Sonny and the rest of Tulsa’s leadership to sever ties with the league that the club had played in since its inception. Not sure if it was Stockholm Syndrome or just a lack of better options, but the club kept coming back to the league who clearly would be happier without it. Until this year, of course.

After the announcement of the club’s suspension, something interesting began to happen behind the scenes.

Sonny and several other now-former NPSL club owners began to bake the idea of a new league, ran by club owners: The League For Clubs. The LFC launched on the last day of July and as of today has 29 clubs, with more on the way. While the clubs come from diverse backgrounds and locations, the main players are former NPSL clubs. The NPSL has been losing clubs to other leagues for years now, with the primary beneficiary being USL2, but, given the leadership of the LFC, it might be an even easier sell to the remaining members. While the future is unknown, The League For Clubs has already attracted former NPSL “tent post type” clubs like Kingston Stockade and FC Davis. The face of amateur soccer is changing and I’d argue that without Tulsa Athletic and Sonny Dalesandro, we might still be waiting for it to come. Their battles with the NPSL, their suspension from the league, and now their jump into The League For Clubs may have sparked a real change in the landscape.

Tulsa Athletic is facing an uphill climb to survive. Challenges from within its hometown, challenges from without from its former league, challenges that come from founding a new league. The list is endless, but the determination of this club is also endless.

Last year, when Tulsa Athletic progressed the furthest in the US Open Cup as an amateur club, won its first NPSL championship, and was the shining example on the hill of a well-run, community-focused soccer club, the voters selected them as the 2023 Club of the Year.

I’d argue that this year, without a single win in league play, this club still deserves to be selected for 2024 Club of the Year. Character is revealed in the most challenging of situations and Tulsa Athletic has shown its true colors this year.

- Dan Vaughn