Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC is an American professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team based in

Windsor, Colorado Windsor is a home rule municipality in Larimer and Weld counties in the U.S. state of Colorado. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town was 32,716. Windsor is located in the Northern Colorado region. History In 1873, a settl ...

. The club was founded in 2021, and made its competitive debut in 2022. The team plays in USL League One, the third tier of the American soccer pyramid, and is owned by the Katofsky family and the Future Legends ownership group.

History

Soccer in Colorado

There are three other professional

teams in the state of

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

. Colorado Rapids play in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

Colorado Springs Switchbacks Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC is a professional soccer team based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 2014, the team is a member of the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The franchise is owned by Martin E ...

play in USL Championship and

Colorado Rapids 2 Colorado Rapids 2 is a professional soccer club based in Denver, Colorado area that competes in the MLS Next Pro league, the third division of American soccer. The team is owned by, and operates as the reserve team of, the Major League Socce ...

play in MLS Next Pro.

Inaugural season

Because USL League One had an uneven number of teams for the 2022 season, Northern Colorado played the first competitive match in its history in the

U.S. Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a Single-elimination tournament, knockout cup competition in men's Soccer in the United States, soccer in the United States of America. It is the oldest ongoing nati ...

on April 6 of that year, against the Colorado Springs Switchbacks. Despite losing

Irvin Parra Irvin Raúl Parra (born August 18, 1993) is an American professional association football, soccer player who currently plays as a Forward (association football), forward for Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC, Northern Colorado Hailstorm in USL Leagu ...

to a red card in the 27th minute, the Hailstorm won 1–0 in extra time, with

Jerry Desdunes Jerry Desdunes (born 13 April 2001) is a Haitian professional footballer. Career Desdunes played locally with Depoze FC and Exafoot, before moving to the United States in 2018 to join the Kalonji Soccer Academy. In 2021, Desdunes played with US ...

scoring their first-ever goal in the 96th. On April 9, 2022,

Ethan Vanacore-Decker Ethan Vanacore-Decker (born October 6, 1994) is an American professional Association football, soccer player who currently plays for the Richmond Kickers in USL League One. He is a resident of the Manahawkin, New Jersey, Manahawkin section of S ...

scored the first league goal for the Hailstorm play during their inaugural USL League One match which finished in a 1–1 draw with

Richmond Kickers Richmond Kickers is an American professional soccer club based in Richmond, Virginia. The Kickers compete as a member of USL League One (USL-1). The club was established in 1993, and began play that same year as a United States Interregional S ...

. In just its fourth ever competitive match, the Hailstorm defeated

side

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 20 ...

away from home by a score of 1–0 on April 20, 2022, to advance to the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup. The Hailstorm were eliminated from cup competition on May 11, 2022 by fellow League One opponents Union Omaha by a score of 2-0 in the round of 32. The Hailstorm played their first home game against North Carolina FC on June 8, 2022, after 10 games (including cup matches) on the road while awaiting a home venue in Colorado. The game took place at Jackson Stadium, on the campus of the

University of Northern Colorado The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) is a public university in Greeley, Colorado. The university was founded in 1889 as the State Normal School of Colorado and has a long history in teacher education. The institution has officially changed ...

, since the completion of TicketSmarter Stadium was delayed until later in 2022. The game saw Irvin Parra score the Hailstorm's first home goal in spectacular fashion, making #2 on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

's top ten list that evening. The Hailstorm would go on the finish the match in a 1-1 draw.

Stadium

The team will play their home games at TicketSmarter Stadium located at the

Future Legends Complex Future Legends Complex is a sports complex the western United States, located in Windsor, Colorado, southeast of Fort Collins. On November 30, 2020, the Orem Owlz of the Pioneer League announced that they would move from Utah to Windsor and pla ...

, a 118-acre multi-sport complex that is scheduled to open in 2022. The complex is expected to have 10

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

fields and 12 soccer pitches. The team will share the complex with a minor-league baseball team, the

Northern Colorado Owlz The Northern Colorado Owlz are an independent baseball team of the Pioneer League, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball (MLB) but is an MLB Partner League. They are based in Windsor, Colorado and will play their home games at the u ...

. The Owlz and Hailstorm "will play in a secondary location while construction concludes." Due to construction delays, caused by an months-long investigation into the possible presence of a historical site in June 2021, the team obtained permission from the University of Northern Colorado (UNC, in Greeley, Colorado) to use their soccer facility, Jackson Stadium throughout the month of June, 2022. Due the resumption of inter-collegiate soccer at UNC, the team then obtained permission from

Colorado State University Colorado State University (Colorado State or CSU) is a public land-grant research university in Fort Collins, Colorado. It is the flagship university of the Colorado State University System. Colorado State University is classified among "R1: ...

(CSU, in Fort Collins, Colorado) to use

Canvas Stadium Canvas Stadium, officially Sonny Lubick Field at Canvas Stadium, is an outdoor college football stadium in the western United States, located on the campus of Colorado State University (CSU) in Fort Collins, Colorado. The home field of the CSU R ...

, an artificial turf college football stadium with a capacity of 40,000+ throughout the month of July, 2022.

Players and staff

Current roster

Front office and Technical staff

Record

Year-by-year

1. Top Scorer includes statistics from league matches only.

Head coach records

* Includes USL Regular Season, USL Playoffs, U.S. Open Cup. Excludes friendlies.

References

{{Colorado Sports Soccer clubs in Colorado Association football clubs established in 2021 USL League One teams Larimer County, Colorado 2021 establishments in Colorado