When was your club founded, by whom, and what is the mission?
2022, by Joe & Doug Erwin, Billy Webster and Shannon Wilbanks (Triumph ownership group). Our mission is also shared with the Triumph mission – “To bring people together and create joy through the world’s game”

Tell us about your badge and colors – what are the elements of design and how is it connected to your community?
We wanted to give our women’s team a separate identity from the men’s team, but we wanted them to share some similarities. We brought over the two shades of blue in the Triumph crest, but wanted to have a “hero” color for the Liberty as well and something that connected locally like the mountains and rivers in the Triumph crest. We thought the yellow jasmine, the state flower of SC, would be a strong color and symbol, and our fans have really taken to it. We also feature a local landmark, the Liberty Bridge, on our secondary crest

You currently play in the USL W league - why did you choose that league and how often does the club re-evaluate the best league to compete in?
Shortly after we launched the Triumph in 2019, we knew we wanted to launch a women’s team as well – we just wanted to wait for the right opportunity and league. We evaluated the women’s pre-pro leagues already playing as well as the (at the time) yet-to-be-announced USL W League, and we felt like the W League had a good chance to be the best and most competitive league. Combine that with the efficiencies it would create with the men’s team being in USL1, we wanted to go that route. COVID pushed back the W League’s (and thus our) announcement of the team, but we were excited to be a charter member of the league when it launched in 2022.

You have great looking kits and other merchandise - who is the braintrust behind your swag? Does the club have anything else planned for this season? Where can our readers find your store?
Merchandise is an important component of our business, and we have a team of people that help bring it to life. I oversee creative in my role, and lead the concepting of our kits and much of our retail offering. For the kits, we draw our inspiration from places/landmarks/cultural touchstones in Greenville, and soccer teams and other sports teams across the world. A fun example was our inaugural Liberty home kit, which had pinstripes like the original Charlotte Hornets jerseys – a huge part of the sports culture in the Carolinas in the late 80s and 90s.

I have a designer on staff that does awesome work bringing the ideas to life, and our merchandise manager and external merch consultant help us brainstorm brands and ideas we want to see in our offering. We have a physical retail store that’s open 7 days a week on Main St. in Greenville, and fans can always buy Liberty and Triumph gear on ShopGreenvilleTriumph.com.

How did you finish last season? How do you plan on improving for next year?
After an incredibly successful first season on the field, winning our division and reaching the playoff semifinals, we struggled to find consistency in our second season. It speaks to the quality of this league, because many of the teams in our division greatly improved from 2022-2023.

I think we’re hoping to get back to the on-field success of our first season, and it’s a collective effort across the club to do that. On-field and off-field success are often linked, so I’ll be focusing on what we can do to increase fan support, crowds, atmosphere, etc. to create a home field advantage for Julie and her players.

Who is the team's biggest rival and is there a club outside of the league, who you'd like to play in a friendly?
One of the great things about this league is the proximity to opponents, so I feel like they’re all rivals in that sense compared to the men’s team making longer road trips. I feel like our biggest rival is Asheville, though. In addition to the short drive, the two cities seem to have some competitiveness between them as the region grows, and we’ve already had a few players who have played for both sides across the two seasons. As the club grows, I expect that rivalry to get even more intense as more supporters travel to the matches.

Outside of our division, I think we’d love another shot at Tormenta FC, who knocked us out of the playoffs in 2022. They’re a fierce rival on the men’s side, so there’s a natural rivalry there. Beyond League One, I’d like us to play Chattanooga FC. They’re a great organization with fantastic fan support, and I think our fans would enjoy getting to face them.

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