Every year we run across new leagues who are chock full of teams we have yet to meet - one of those we were pleasantly introduced to during our annual Copa de Insignias event is the Chicago-based Lakeview FC. They sport one of the sharpest badges in lower league soccer… even if they did just change it! When we reached out, Patrick Johnson was kind enough to answer all our questions and club owner Adam McDonald was gracious with his time as well, adding in some details.

Tell us the origin story of Lakeview Football Club - when was the club founded? By whom and what was its mission?
In 2021, as the restrictions of the pandemic began to gradually relax, two individuals who met during quarantine in their apartment complex, identified as Adam McDonald (founder, and current co-owner of LVFC) and Zico Shaker (founder, and former co-owner of LVFC) made a mutual decision to create a Facebook group with the intention of coordinating and managing pickup soccer sessions within the Lakeview neighborhood situated in Chicago. A number of these sessions brought together new faces from all over, with varying skill levels to the world's greatest sport. As time went on and we started to get consistent and familiar faces to the same pickups, we decided we should form a more concrete team and compete in the local beer leagues. We ended up winning both of our summer beer leagues and decided to take the plunge into a "Semi-professional" league called the Greater Chicago Soccer League. Patrick Johnson ended up taking over Zico Shaker's role as a co-owner and focused on building the brand through partnerships and brand-development in design.

Just like everything, our mission has evolved. We originally wanted to provide a place to make friends after the pandemic, but as time went on we wanted to represent grassroots soccer in the city by honing a "Minor-league baseball feel" on social media and with the way we orchestrate our partnerships. Our aim is to be your favorite grassroots, Sunday-league team.

Tell us about your badge and colors - what are the elements and how does it connect your community?
Our badge has changed a couple times throughout the years until we landed on something that really kicked ass. To be honest, we didn't really have a main reason for the color choice. A lot of teams in the city have blue as their primary color (Edgewater Castle FC, Chicago City SC, Berber City FC, etc) so we went with red/black/cream to stir the pot a little. We chose Poseidon as our mascot to be the guardian of the boat harbors nestled our lakeside community (and it looks badass)

What league do you play in and why? Do you have a vision to play at a higher level?
We currently play in the Greater Chicago Soccer League (formerly known as the National Soccer League, the oldest currently operating league in the entire country.) If we had ambitions to progress to a higher league, the next step would be the Midwest Premier League. However, as a club, we've decided our scope is set on being a local Sunday League Club. I think the move to the MWPL would be a very large commitment to a lot of our players that we don't want to push out of our club. So we're just deciding to keep it local and keep it fun.

We actually helped found this specific division in 2022. We approached the National Soccer League to join but learned their member clubs were spread out all over the Chicago suburbs but in talking to many of the clubs realized there was a desire for a subset of city-based teams to have all the games in the city so we founded the division of city teams that all play all games at the same field on the Chicago lakefront each Sunday throughout the summer. This is a perfect level for us because it’s a competitive league that doesn’t require the large administrative burden of travel, field maintenance, weekly scheduling, etc. We have been approached by many leagues asking if we’d like to move to the next level but we love the level we are playing at because any move to the next level would require more infrastructure and would risk losing some of our core players/friends that are unable to commit to the travel and more flexible game schedule.

Many clubs choose to sell hats, scarves or replica kits - how does your club keep the lights on and cover its league costs? How can interested people support you?
We do a couple of ways to organize funds for our clubs in any way that we can. Our sponsor, Old Crow Smokehouse, gave us funds to pay for our clubs jerseys. Our secondary sponsor, Skyline Pitch, gave us discounted rates for practice space at a rooftop futsal picture every week during the summer. We also make money through jersey sales from Olive & York, we're very thankful for them and what they do for the soccer community.

We have organized several different merch sales and jersey drops over the last few years to help with league dues. We have an exciting partnership coming up with a nonprofit releasing a limited edition jersey with proceeds going to a local charity so stay tuned to our Instagram and Twitter for that!

How had the past season gone for you? What were the goals and aspirations heading into it? What is something to work on for the future?
The last season went a little less than what we had expected. We had an 18 game season upcoming that we knew was going to be a massive commitment for a lot of our players. That on top of injuries, summer vacations, work trips etc: we found ourselves not suiting our best 11 in a handful of games that cost us crucial points. We had our eyes set for first or second, and ended up falling short in 4th place only by a few points. But we look to make up for that this upcoming season hungry for that trophy. I think we could always recruit some new players for depth, and train harder in the off season to assure our guys are at their peak physical shape for a full 90 if need be.

If there were one or two teams, within a 100 miles of you, to play a friendly against – who would you play and why?
Definitely not DeKalb! We hate those guys! (Jokes) I think it would be fun to play against a club that is similar to us. Like a low-stakes scrimmage. Junction City FC seems like the new face on the block, so maybe them!

But both Chicago House and Forward Madison are great examples of community based teams in the Midwest that we look up to. We love supporting grassroots soccer and can’t wait to watch it continue to grow in the U.S.!

Want to know more or get involved?
Follow Lakeview FC on Instagram HERE
And give them a shout on X/Twitter HERE