Pensacola FC returns to WPSL in 2025
The two-time Women’s Professional Soccer League national champions played in other leagues the past four seasons. On Sunday, the pro-am organization held tryouts for its senior and academy teams.
Pelicans hold women’s tryouts
Pensacola FC assistant coach Rob Simon addresses tryout hopefuls before workouts begin Sunday at the Ashton Brosnaham Sportsplex. Photo: Ken Garner
Developing professionals
What do Emily Sams and Uchenna Kanu have in common, other than starring in the National Women’s Soccer League?
Both played for Pensacola FC, which has been one of the South’s most successful women’s pro-am teams since 2011 (see brief profiles of Kanu and Sams below).
On Sunday, more than 50 players gathered on a windy but otherwise perfect springlike day to audition for a spot on the Pelicans’ women’s teams, many hoping one day to join Kanu, Sams and other PFC alumnae who’ve gone on to professional careers.
“This isn’t high school; this isn’t college,” PFC men’s senior team coach Dean Logan told the girls. “This is to prepare you to play at the highest levels.”
Logan was an assistant coach for the 2019 women’s team that won the Pelicans’ second national championship. Of the 28 women on that team, Logan said, 15 played professionally and 11 (including Kanu) still are being paid to play.
New senior women’s team coach
Former University of West Florida forward Chandler Castleman will coach the women’s senior team this year.
Chandler Castleman is Pensacola FC’s new senior women’s team coach. Photo: Ken Garner
“The Panhandle has been seen as the red-headed stepchild of Florida soccer,” Castleman said after Sunday’s tryouts. “We’re an exception to that.”
Castleman, an assistant coach with PFC the past two seasons, said he was impressed by the number of area high school and college players trying out for the Pelicans.
“That shows me that our local (youth) clubs are doing a great job producing players,” he said.
The Women’s Premier Soccer League allows teams to have as many as 30 players on its roster; with two teams competing in the same WPSL division, Castleman said most of the players participating in Sunday’s tryouts would earn a roster spot, probably on the academy team. Tryout results are expected to be announced within a few weeks.
About the Pelicans
Pensacola FC fields senior and academy teams for both men and women; the Pelicans’ seasons normally include 10 or so matches played from May-July, with home matches at 2,500-seat Ashton Brosnaham Stadium.
The teams are comprised primarily by college and high school players on summer break; some players receive room and board, often provided by sponsor families, but some live in the Pensacola area and are familiar names to local soccer fans.
Pensacola FC women’s program started as the Gulf Coast Texans in 2011. The Texans beat Boston Aztec 4-0 to win the 2012 WPSL national championship and lost the 2017 title match 2-1 to Fire & Ice SC of Belleville, Ill.
The club became Pensacola FC in 2018 and returned to the WPSL championship game, which it lost to the Seattle Sounders, 3-1. The Kanu-led 2019 PFC team edged the Utah Royals Reserves 4-3 for PFC’s most recent national title.
About the WPSL
PFC is returning to the WPSL after playing with United Women’s Soccer and the Gulf Coast Premier League since 2021. The WPSL, formed in 1998, is better organized, more experienced at operating a national organization, and better fits the Pelicans’ needs, according to PFC General Manager Gayle Wiltz.
Both the senior and academy teams will compete in the Third Coast Division of the WPSL’s Gulf Coast Conference. According to the WPSL website, other Third Coast Division teams will include Florida Roots (Panama City Beach), Gulf Coast United (Daphne, Ala.), and The Reckoning (Tallahassee).
Five teams are slated for the conference’s Delta Basin Division: Baton Rouge United, Hattiesburg FC, LA Krewe Rush (Lafayette, La.), Mississippi Blues SC (Clinton, Miss.), and Shreveport United.
Division champions will compete for conference championships, conference champ for regional titles, and region champs for the national crown.
‘Future of U.S. Soccer’
Defender Emily Sams helped the Orlando Pride win the NWSL Shield in 2024. / Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images
A Sports Illustrated article in October called Sams “the future of U.S. Soccer.” Such declarations may be premature but she is undoubtedly one of the best young players in NWSL. She was Florida’s Class 4A Player of the Year in 2016, won an NCAA championship with Florida State University in 2021 and, last year, helped the Orlando Pride win its first NWSL championship while earning a spot on the league’s 2024 Best XI and Defender of the Year.
Sams played youth soccer with the Gulf Coast Texans’ Pensacola organization and with the Pelicans, including a United Women’s Soccer division-winning squad in 2021.
Racing forward
Racing Louisville forward Uchenna Kanu played for Pensacola FC’s WPSL national championship team in 2019. Photo: Racing Louisville
Kanu, 27, is a striker for Racing Louisville and the Nigerian women’s national team. The prolific scorer has more than 60 senior-team goals for five clubs, including 17 in 12 appearances for pro-am Pensacola FC between 2018-2020. “Uche” also has played for the Super Eagles in the Olympics and the World Cup.
