Charlotte Independence celebrate 10 seasons in USL

CHARLOTTE INDEPENDENCE

The Charlotte Independence, who mark their 10th year as a professional franchise in 2024, have advanced to the postseason in seven campaigns, including five straight.

Closing out their 10th season, the Charlotte Independence are still searching for their first USL title, but it’s been a decade full of wins and big moments for both the team and the community it serves.

The Jacks, who are in the postseason for the fifth straight year, travel to Wisconsin for a quarterfinal knockout game against Forward Madison FC on Saturday looking to repeat last season’s run to the USL One final.

The Independence lost to North Carolina FC in Cary on a penalty kick tiebreaker (5-4) after a 1-1 draw in that match, a proud but disappointing finish to the 2023 campaign.
The Jacks finished the regular season sixth while Madison was third.

Last year, the fourth place Independence overcame top-seed Union Omaha – this season’s best again – in a semifinal on PKs. They will have to do as much against Madison to move on.
Juan Carlos Obregón, Jr., who scored the game winner in Charlotte’s 1-0 win against Richmond last week, finished second to Greenville’s Lyam MacKinnon in the golden boot race by one score with 15 goals this season.

A 10-year celebration

Independence managing partner Jim McPhilliamy, who previously worked for the Charlotte Bobcats and was a consultant to the NBA and NASCAR, as well as other MLB and NBA teams, had already launched a Major League Lacrosse Charlotte Hounds, who played at American Legion Memorial Stadium in 2012.

Two years later, McPhillamy started the team that would be nicknamed the Jacks in honor of Captain James Jack, who rode to deliver Mecklenburg County’s Declaration of Independence from England to the Continental Congress in May 1775.

“I had lacrosse first, so I was already in the outdoor rectangular field sports business,” McPhilliamy said. He formed the Queen City Soccer Club LLC in 2013, which acquired the USL professional charter from the Charlotte Eagles, who had been the city’s pro side from 1993 through 2014. The Independence kicked off in 2015. The Eagles continue to compete in USL2, an amateur and semi-pro division previously known as the Premier Development League.

“Soccer seemed like such an up-and-coming thing at the time, much like women's sports is now,” McPhillamy said. “Back when we were doing that in 2014, everybody was getting a USL team and then turning it into an MLS team. I thought I could do that.”

He met with Phil Rawlins, who had gone that route with founding Orlando City, which began with USL in 2010 and moved to MLS in 2015, and received enthusiastic support.

The plan for an MLS evolution became complicated in 2017 when Bruton and Marcus Smith started a campaign to bring the top tier to Charlotte, and ended for sure when the league awarded the franchise that is now Charlotte FC to David Tepper in 2021.

Still committed to the team and Charlotte, McPhilliamy and Dan DiMicco, the former Nucor CEO, who became majority partner in 2018, stayed the course with the Independence, and added another team this year with the debut of the professional women’s side Carolina Ascent in the USL Super League that shares top-tier first division status with the 11-year-old NWSL.

Along with CLTFC and their MLS Next Pro second team, the Queen City now has four professional soccer teams. Originally, a third-tier league, the USL moved to second division status in 2017 and rebranded as USL Championship division in 2019 after adding a new third division in USL One.

Relationship with the Crown

The Independence played in the Championship until 2021 until self-relegating to USL One in 2022. During the last season in the Championship, the Jacks were home to CLTFC players including former EPL champion Christian Fuchs (Leicester City), Brandt Bronico, and Adam Armour.

Gabriel Obertan, a former Manchester United and Newcastle player, also joined the club that season and continues to star for the Jacks.

“It was super fun having all that talent on the squad,” McPhilliamy recalls. “We really had championship level team that year. That was quite a team. We had some bad luck in the playoffs,” he adds, referring to a questionable handball call.

In 2022, the Jacks had Koa Santos, Quinn McNeill, Chris Hegardt, and Adrian Zendejas on loan from CLTFC.

Other influential players include Joel Johnson, a Liberian who is the club’s all-time appearances leader with 219, Jorge Herrera, a Colombian who came from the Eagles and is now an academy coach for CLTFC, Enzo and Alex Martinez, who played high school soccer in Rock Hill before starring at North Carolina, Dane Kelly, the all-time leading scorer in USL. Enzo Martinez is the club’s all-time leader in goals (47) and assists (29).

Add current captain Clay Dimick, who returned from a career-threatening neck injury last season to log 2,790 minutes this season over 30 regular season and Jägermeister Cup games.

To celebrate the 10th season, the club issued limited edition jerseys and scarves featuring former players Bilal Duckett, Henry Kalungi, Cody Mizell, Herrera, the Martinez brothers, Kelly, along with current stars Johnson and Dimick.

The club has always respected Charlotte’s soccer history, twice honoring the 1981 ASL Champions, the Carolina Lightnin’ on major anniversaries of winning Charlotte’s first professional title. They have even incorporated a lightning bolt into several jerseys, including this season’s home kit.

What makes the club an important piece of the sports fabric in Charlotte according to McPhilliamy is “it's affordable family entertainment, and it's a pathway for Independence players to go places.”

A coach for the ages

One of the first hires was Mike Jeffries, who has, except for a 15-game span in 2019, been the head coach. That’s 307 matches at the helm. He’s been the general manager since 2019.

Accomplished on the field as the 1983 Hermann Trophy winner as the best college player in the country while at Duke (1980-83), Jeffries played professionally in the North American Soccer League and Major Indoor Soccer League, and earned three caps with the U.S. men’s national team before injuries limited his career. As a coach, he had experience both on the lower tiers and in MLS where he was an assistant to former U.S. National Team coach Bob Bradley with the Chicago Fire which won an MLS Cup and two U.S. Open Cups during his time there. From 2001-03, he was the head coach of the then-Dallas Burn.

McPhilliamy lauds what Jeffries has meant to the team.

“Every year we have a championship caliber team. Doesn't mean you win the championship every year but you have a chance. I think every season, he's had some point in time where we've gone eight to ten games unbeaten for a long time. That's really hard to do.

“We put a product on the field that expects to win games and makes a run toward the playoffs every year. Players want to be a part of that.”

The Independence have had winning records in seven of 10 seasons, with losing records only twice in 2018 and 2019. In 2022, they went 12-12-6. Their best season record was their last in the Championship where they won 18 games, lost nine, with five draws, and making the conference semifinals. The most successful season overall was last year’s run to the title game.

KARI HEISTAD | PROSTAMERIKA

The Charlotte Independence celebrate what would prove to be the game-winning goal vs. New England Revolution in the 2015 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Charlotte advanced to the Round of 16 in the tournament, their best result.

“it's been fantastic to be able to be here for 10 years,” Jeffries said. “I've enjoyed working with the organization, enjoyed the players that have come through the competitive level of USL, USL Championship, USL League One. It's been fantastic. I feel like we've got a nice day-to-day set up here and a good backdrop and organization for guys to be successful and enjoy their playing career. and hopefully have success as a team.”

Cup-tenders

Their first season was capped by the excitement of a stunning run in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, where the Jacks made it all the way to the Round of 16 (fifth), one of just two non-MLS sides to do so, where they to MLS’s Chicago Fire. One round earlier, they upset the MLS New England Revolution 1-0 on a Herrera goal in the 55th minute that both McPhilliamy and Jeffries cite as one of their most memorable moments.

He took the ball on his chest from Alex Martinez about 23 yards out on the left top of the box, let it bounce once before volleying it over the keeper inside the far post.

“You always want to play with the best teams that you possibly can,” Herrera said at the time to TheCup.us. “And if you get the chance to beat them it’s always good. I think that the guys put together a really nice 90 minutes.” It was certainly an historic 90 minutes for the team.

Said Jeffries: “It’s very special. Really for the players, we have a good group of guys. A lot of them have been sort of on the cusp of MLS, and in and out. I think for those guys especially, those are meaningful games To say ‘hey I know I belong and I’m good.’ For us as a franchise obviously it’s a great win, and it’s a nice toehold for being the first year.”

They have competed in the Open Cup every season with the exception of 2020 and 2021 which were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Most recently, the Jacks won three Cup matches before falling on the road to Atlanta United in the Round of 32 (fourth) back in May.

Finding a home

The original home for the Independence was always supposed to be Memorial Stadium – that’s where the Hounds played - but the dimensions of the field, built for American football in 1936 as a project of the Works Progress Administration, were too narrow even though the Lightnin’ and Eagles did play there.

So they started at UNCC before moving to Winthrop, Ramblewood Soccer Park, and the Matthews Sportsplex before landing at the rebuilt Memorial in July of 2021.

An under-appreciated experience

Around the world, true fans can appreciate all levels of soccer. There is far less soccer-snobbery. While they aspire for their clubs to achieve trophies and promotion, they do not abandon or ignore them when they don’t in favor of a bigger, trendier club. They can be a supporter of Rochdale AFC or Oxford United while still enjoying a match at Old Trafford (Manchester United) or the Etihad (Manchester City).

The Jacks, in Memorial Stadium, are the Queens Park Rangers to Charlotte FC’s Arsenal in Bank of America Stadium. It’s a more intimate experience at a more affordable price point on the average. Even as a lower tier team, the Independence are a solid value, play an entertaining game and fans have greater access to players.

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