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USL Louisville City FC

LouCity Ladies Lifting Club and Community

March 12, 2021 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Louisville City FC News Release


Before there were the Louisville City Ladies, there was a group of friends who bonded around soccer.

"It was pretty organic," said Kelly Dettlinger, the group's Charity Coordinator. "We would all tailgate together. Especially in the beginning of Louisville City, it was such a small core group, we all got to know each other at the little events that happened, our kids doing summer camps with the players and stuff like that. I feel like naturally at tailgates and games you sort of gravitate toward the people you have some things in common with, and that's how the core group formed."

Most stood with the Louisville Coopers, who brought the atmosphere to the southwest end of Slugger Field in the club's formative years. Their friendships - formed over tailgates, purple smoke and plenty of victories - soon became nights out on the town, and a getaway weekend in New Orleans.

In the middle of the good times, though, was an idea. What if they could do more, and find a way to not only get more people to experience what they did through the city's professional soccer club but try to make Louisville a better community as well?

"That's who we were from the start," said Michele Wilkinson, LouCity Ladies President. "That core of 10 people, sitting at tailgates thinking 'this is great, we're having fun, we're drinking, but how many more people could we bring into Louisville City games if we reached out into different spaces in the community?'

"We talked about this, if we as a group of supporters reach out to the other pieces of the community in a way that supports them, we can let them know who we are and who LouCity is - and now Racing [Louisville FC] - and get people who wouldn't even look at soccer showing up at our stadium to watch a game."

From there, the LouCity Ladies were born.

Formed in 2018, the group is one of a collection of women-led supporters' groups in the United States that back clubs in the USL Championship and League One, the National Women's Soccer League and Major League Soccer. At the center of the LouCity Ladies' identity is the idea of giving back to as many groups and organizations as it can, organizing and fundraising for community-driven projects that it can help support and amplify through its approximately 150-member organization.

"I feel like at the center of the LouCity Ladies has always been our charitable inclinations," said Dettlinger. "I first started getting involved formally when Michele would say, 'hey, do you have an opinion on how we could raise money for such-and-such,' or,' can you make up a form or a sign to advertise buying tickets here to support a particular organization we were raising money for.'

"I really feel like without the charity part of it, the LouCity Ladies may not exist, but because we all felt so strongly about giving back to the community, we built around that."

Who could have seen Louisville, Kentucky becoming a hotbed for professional soccer? Well, one was Wayne Estopinal, Louisville City FC's founder.

Another? That would be Jan Winter.

You could probably refer to her as the LouCity Ladies' elder statesperson. You'd be hard-pressed to find many people with a longer connection to the sport than Winter does in Louisville's community, and she always had a feeling this could happen.

"Louisville has a history of supporting international women's soccer," said Winter. "We filled stadiums with a lot of little girls. I'll never forget the difference in the pitch of the audience at those games, because it was a lot of high-pitched little girls' voices. We hosted the Nike Cup, which was a victory tour that happened after the U.S. won the World Cup in 1999, and we did so well - we sold out our game."

35,211 fans packed into Cardinal Stadium to see World Cup winners like Mia Hamm and Kristine Lilly, both of whom scored twice in a 4-2 win against Brazil.

The reception was so good, Louisville was selected the following year to host games at the 2000 Concacaf Women's Gold Cup, where more good crowds were on hand.

"We ended up hosting about eight games over 10 days, and practically sold those out as well," said Winter. "An absolutely stellar experience for everyone that was involved. ... When the Louisville City thing started happening, I think we already had some groundwork laid. This city was hungry for more, bigger soccer experiences."

A professional writer, Winter's experience as an administrator for those games - which included organizing 800 volunteers - led to other opportunities within the game. She helped edit textbooks for manuals produced by U.S. Soccer and UEFA and got more than just pay for her endeavors. Now her goals are to help others get the unique experiences she's had through fandom, passing it on to the current group of supporters.

"I just love to encourage them, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of watching their love of the sport grow and take that ownership that says, 'I don't just want to go to a game, I want to be a supporter in an official way, and I want to make tifo, and I want to march with the band into the stadium,'" said Winter. "That kind of team ownership is the best, and that where people really start to love the sport. I owe the sport in that way and my efforts now are to keep that growing."

And in LouCity Ladies, Winter sees the door opening wider for others to come in.

"The service model is the main thing," she says. "I think they're setting themselves apart by that responsiveness. It's not a front office dictate. We've been involved in everything from picking a logo to delivering welcome baskets to new players when they've come to town. There's always been that lovely open door that says, 'this is your team.'"

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United Soccer League Championship Stories from March 12, 2021


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