The Western New York Flash (WNY Flash) was an American soccer club based in

Elma, New York :'' For other places with this name, see Elma''. Elma is a town in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 11,721 at the 2020 census. The town is named after the American elm tree. Elma is in the county's central area, southe ...

that competed in the

United Women's Soccer United Women's Soccer (UWS, also commonly abbreviated UWS) is a second-division pro-am women's soccer league in the United States. The league was founded in 2015 as a response to the dual problems of disorganization in the WPSL and of the fold ...

league. They have won league championships in four different leagues: the

USL W-League The USL Championship (USLC) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that began its inaugural season in 2011. The USL is sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer) as a Division II league since 2017, pl ...

in 2010,

Women's Professional Soccer Women's Professional Soccer (WPS) was the top-level professional women's soccer league in the United States. It began play on March 29, 2009. The league was composed of seven teams for its first two seasons and fielded six teams for the 2011 sea ...

in 2011,

Women's Premier Soccer League Elite The Women's Premier Soccer League Elite (WPSL Elite) was a women's semi-professional soccer league created by the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) to support the sport in the United States, both from continued interest by WPSL teams in profess ...

in 2012, and the

National Women's Soccer League The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league at the top of the United States league system. It is owned by the teams and, until 2020, was under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federatio ...

in 2016. The team was founded in 2008 as the Buffalo Flash and played in the

from 2008 to 2010. In 2011, the team became the Western New York Flash and joined

(WPS), its only season in the league. In 2012, the team was a member of

(WPSL-E) following the folding of the WPS. The Flash won three consecutive league championships from 2010 to 2012 under head coach

Aaran Lines Aaran Franklyn Lines (born 21 December 1976) is a New Zealand retired association football player and former head coach of the Western New York Flash. He represented New Zealand at international level. Club career Born in Lower Hutt, New Zeala ...

: W-League in 2010, WPS in 2011, and WPSL-E in 2012. The Flash reached the inaugural NWSL Championship during the 2013 season, but fell to the

Portland Thorns FC The Portland Thorns FC is an American professional women's soccer team based in Portland, Oregon. Established in 2012, the team began play in 2013 in the then-eight-team National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), which receives support from the Uni ...

while searching for their fourth-straight title. In 2016, the team won the NWSL Championship for the first and only time. The team was owned by the Sahlen family, who run the Sahlen's

meat packing The meat-packing industry (also spelled meatpacking industry or meat packing industry) handles the slaughtering, processing, packaging, and distribution of meat from animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep and other livestock. Poultry is generally no ...

company in Buffalo. Joe Sahlen was the team's owner. His daughter, Alex Sahlen, was the team President and a former defender on the team.

History

2009

In 2009, Buffalo Flash made its debut in the Great Lakes (formerly Northern) Division of the Central Conference, lining up against teams from Hamilton, Laval, London, Ottawa, Quebec City, Rochester and Toronto. It finished second, with a regular season record of 9–2–3 from their 14 matches, undefeated in their seven games on the road, and with 40 goals scored, and 10 conceded. In the post-season playoffs, the Flash reached the Central Conference semi-final, to end their inaugural season with a 10–3–3 record. They were beaten 3–0 by

FC Indiana F.C. Indiana, also known as F.C. Indiana Lionesses, is an American women's soccer team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 2003, the team is currently a member of the United Women's Soccer league. They play their home games at Newton Park ...

, the only other full-time professional outfit in the league. The 2009 team roster included players from six countries across four continents. There were four local players from Western NY, various US players from numerous states (including two with USA U-20 National Team experience), players from the full

Italian National Team The Italy national football team ( it, Nazionale di calcio dell'Italia) has represented Italy in international football since its first match in 1910. The national team is controlled by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC), the governing bo ...

, Portuguese National Team, South African National Team, and also from Spain and Japan. To aid team bonding, the squad were housed in the same apartment complex.

2010

Before the 2010 season Buffalo Flash signed English trio

Gemma Davison Gemma Suzanne Davison (born 17 April 1987) is an English footballer who plays as a winger. She has previously played for Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Reading whom she joined from Chelsea in 2018. After joining Arsenal at youth team level f ...

, Eartha Pond and

Ann-Marie Heatherson Ann-Marie "Annie" Heatherson (born 27 March 1984) is an English former footballer who most recently played as a forward and captain for Yeovil Town of the FA Women's National League. She began her career with Charlton Athletic and played for ri ...

Mele French Melelina Soline "Mele" French (born June 15, 1984) is an American soccer forward who played for the NWSL's Seattle Reign FC and W-League's Seattle Sounders Women in 2015. French was named the W-League's Most Valuable Player for the 2014 season ...

and

Kelly Parker Kelly Parker (born 8 March 1981) is a Canadian former soccer midfielder who last played for Atlanta Beat in Women's Professional Soccer. She was also a member of the Canadian national team from 2003 to 2012. Career Prior to joining SC Freibur ...

arrived from German club

SC Freiburg Sport-Club Freiburg e.V., commonly known as SC Freiburg () or just Freiburg, is a German football club, based in the city of Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg. It plays in the Bundesliga, having been promoted as champions from the 2. Bund ...

Kimberly Brandão Kimberly Maria Brandão (born 26 April 1984) is an American-born Portuguese retired professional footballer who played as a centre back. Through 2012, she was a captain of the Portugal women's national team, which she has represented since 200 ...

returned despite attending a training camp with

Sky Blue FC NJ/NY Gotham FC is a professional women's soccer team based in Harrison, New Jersey. Founded in 2006 as Jersey Sky Blue, the team was known as Sky Blue FC from 2008 until 2020. A founding member of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) in 2013 ...

, but

Erika Sutton Erika Christine Sutton (born February 4, 1987) is an American soccer defender currently playing for Boston Breakers of Women's Professional Soccer. Club career She spent 2009 with Buffalo Flash of W-League. She was sent on a week-long loa ...

left for the

Boston Breakers The Boston Breakers were an American professional soccer club based in the Boston neighborhood of Allston. The team competed in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). They replaced the original Breakers, who competed in the defunct Women's ...

and

Sarah Wagenfuhr Sarah Anne Inserra (; born December 31, 1986) is an American soccer player from Colorado Springs, Colorado who plays for the Colorado Rush of the United Soccer Leagues' W-League. She was a defender for the Florida State Seminoles and the Uni ...

joined St. Louis Athletica. In 2010 Buffalo Flash competed in the Midwest Division of the

, finishing the regular season 14–0–2 against

Chicago Red Eleven Chicago Red Eleven was an American women’s soccer team, founded in 2005. The team was a member of the United Soccer Leagues W-League, the second tier of women’s soccer in the United States and Canada. The team played in the Midwest Division ...

Cleveland Internationals Cleveland Internationals was an American soccer team based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Founded in 2004, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, in the Great Lakes Division ...

Kalamazoo Outrage Kalamazoo Outrage was an American soccer team based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. Founded in 2007, the team played in the USL Premier Development League (PDL), the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The franchise folded at the ...

and

London Gryphons London Gryphons is a Canadian women's soccer team, founded in 2004. The team is a member of the USL W-League, the second tier of women's soccer in the United States and Canada. The team plays its home games at North London Stadium in the city ...

. Buffalo Flash won the W-League Championship by defeating the

Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on March ...

3–1 at Harry Welch Stadium in Santa Clarita, California. They finished the season undefeated, while Kelly Parker was named W-League

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

2011

The team made plans to move to

for the 2011 season. In September 2010, team president Alex Sahlen and coach Aaran Lines—both of whom have played for

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

-based soccer teams—indicated that the team was looking at playing up to half of its WPS home games at Rochester's Marina Auto Stadium (now Rhinos Stadium). On September 24, WPS officially confirmed that the new team would indeed join the league. The name of the WPS team was announced as the Western New York Flash on December 1, 2010. The September announcement confirmed that the team would play half its home games at Marina Auto Stadium. The remaining games were originally intended to be played at

Niagara Field Niagara may refer to: Geography Niagara Falls and nearby places In both the United States and Canada *Niagara Falls, the famous waterfalls in the Niagara River * Niagara River, part of the U.S.–Canada border * Niagara Escarpment, the cliff ...

, a smaller facility on the campus of

Niagara University Niagara University (NU) is a private Catholic university in the Vincentian tradition in Lewiston in Niagara County, New York. It is run by the Congregation of the Mission and has 3,300 undergraduate students in 50 academic programs. Appro ...

in Lewiston that was set to be expanded to 4,000 for the 2011 WPS season. The league also attempted to negotiate a deal with

All-High Stadium All-High Stadium (Robert E. Rich All-High Stadium) is a football stadium in Buffalo, New York. It was opened in 1926, and received a Memorial Day dedication on May 29, 1929. The stadium was modeled after classic European soccer stadiums of the ti ...

in Buffalo, although the owners of the field,

Buffalo Public Schools Buffalo Public Schools serves approximately 34,000 students in Buffalo, New York, the second largest city in the state of New York. It is located in Erie County of western New York and operates nearly 70 facilities. History The Buffalo Public Sc ...

, never responded - likely due to existing conflict with four city high schools (which take precedence) and an agreement with Medaille College. However, the December announcement indicated that the entire 2011 home schedule would be in Rochester. The Flash selected

Alex Morgan Alexandra Morgan Carrasco (born Alexandra Patricia Morgan; July 2, 1989) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a striker and captains for San Diego Wave FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL), the highest division of ...

with the first pick in the 2011 WPS Draft. On January 25, 2011, the Flash signed 2009 and 2010 WPS MVP and WPS Golden Boot Marta. With a 13–2–3 regular season record, the Flash earned the regular season title and the right to host the WPS Championship presented by Citi. On August 27, 2011, Western New York Flash capped their inaugural season in WPS by capturing the 2011 WPS Championship title 1–1 (5–4) in a penalty kick shootout in front of the largest championship crowd in league history.

2012

When it was announced that WPS had suspended its 2012 season, the Flash announced their plans to continue playing and shortly thereafter joined the new

. During the 2012 playoffs, the Flash won the championship in penalty kicks.

2013

The Flash joined the newly formed

for its inaugural 2013 season. The team won the first-ever

NWSL Shield The NWSL Shield is an annual award given to the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team with the best regular season record as determined by the NWSL points system. The NWSL Shield has been awarded annually since 2013 and is recognized as a ...

after finishing in first during the regular season though they ended the season tied for first place with both FC Kansas City and

, but won the tiebreak over both teams to claim the shield. With the number one seed, the Flash earned home field advantage through the playoffs, and drew No. 4

for its semifinal match. The team shutout Sky Blue 2–0 in the opening game, earning the right to host the Thorns in the 2013 NWSL Championship at Sahlen's Stadium in Rochester. The Flash ultimately finished second, losing to Portland in the championship game to the score of 2–0, denying the Flash a bid for a record-breaking fourth-straight title in a fourth different league.

2014

The Flash had one of their first down years during the 2014 season, unable to reach the heights of the previous season. They missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, placing seventh out of nine teams in NWSL.

2015

The Flash once again had a disappointing season, once again missing the playoffs with a seventh-place finish out of nine teams. The low finishes for the team in the past two seasons caused for quite a few cases of transition, most notably with long time head coach

who was eventually replaced by Paul Riley.

2016

The Flash had quite a bit of roster turnover as well as a new coach so expectations were low for the season, but the Flash ended up making the playoffs for the first time since the inaugural NWSL season. The semi-finals saw the Flash upset the top seed

away from home after scoring two goals during extra-time, thus partially avenging their NWSL Cup loss to the Thorns in 2013. The NWSL Championship saw the Flash face the

Washington Spirit The Washington Spirit is an American professional soccer club based in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area that participates in the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). It is a continuation of the D.C. United Women of the W-League and cont ...

in Houston. The Flash eventually came out on top, winning their first ever NWSL Championship. This ended up being the final season for the WNY Flash in NWSL, with the franchise rights being sold to the owners of

North Carolina FC North Carolina FC is an American professional soccer team in Cary, North Carolina, a suburb of Raleigh. Founded in 2006, the team plays in USL League One, the third tier of the American league system. The team has played its home games a ...

, moved to Cary, North Carolina, and rebranded as the

North Carolina Courage The North Carolina Courage is a professional women's soccer team based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded on January 9, 2017, after Stephen Malik acquired National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) franchise rights from the Western New York F ...

2017

On March 7, 2017, the Flash announced that they would join the

for their upcoming season, with the team playing matches in Buffalo for the first time since 2010. This is the fifth league overall that the Flash have played in during their nine years of existence. Gary Bruce, an assistant under Paul Riley, was named the new head coach.

Stadiums

In 2009 the team played their home games at

Orchard Park High School Orchard Park High School is a secondary school in Orchard Park, New York. The school has approximately 1725 children in grades 9–12. The students are divided among three houses with a principal for each house and a principal who oversees the en ...

Field, in

Orchard Park, New York Orchard Park is a town in Erie County, New York. It is an outer ring suburb southeast of Buffalo. As of the 2010 census, the population was 29,054, representing an increase of 5.13% from the 2000 census figure. The town contains a village als ...

, 15 miles south-east of downtown

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, and trained daily at the nearby Sahlen's Sports Park in

. In 2010 the team played home games at the

Demske Sports Complex The Rev. James M. Demske Sports Complex is a baseball, soccer, lacrosse, and softball venue in Buffalo, New York, United States. It is home to the Canisius Golden Griffins baseball, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's lacrosse, and sof ...

Canisius College Canisius College is a private Jesuit college in Buffalo, New York. It was founded in 1870 by Jesuits from Germany and is named after St. Peter Canisius. Canisius offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and minors, and around 34 master's ...

. In February 2011, the Sahlen family obtained the naming rights to

Marina Auto Stadium Rochester Community Sports Complex Stadium, also called the "downtown soccer stadium", is a soccer-specific stadium in Rochester, New York within the Rochester Community Sports Complex. It is home to the Flower City Union of the National Indep ...

, which was called Sahlen's Stadium from 2011 through 2015. After that time, the team played their home games in Rochester. The stadium has a seating capacity of 13,768. The stadium's highest attendance record was set on July 20, 2011 at 15,404 during a match between the Flash and

magicJack MagicJack is an Internet-based telephone service (VoIP) provider in the United States and Canada. It offers nationwide VoIP and cellphone services. MagicJack VOIP service is a computer peripheral that, in combination with telephony service ...

(led by player-coach and Rochester native, Abby Wambach) after the

2011 FIFA Women's World Cup The 2011 FIFA Women's World Cup was the sixth FIFA Women's World Cup competition, the world championship for women's national association football teams. It was held from 26 June to 17 July 2011 in Germany, which won the right to host the even ...

. The game was also the largest single-game crowd in WPS history. The UWS Flash play most of their home matches at

, with one match in 2017 played at

Colors and badge

The Flash's home colors were white and away colors are red. The Flash logo was designed to reflect that of Sahlen's, the team's parent company.

Year-by-year

Players

Notable former players

Former members of the team who have represented their respective senior national teams are:

Coaching staff

From 2009 to 2015,

led the team as head coach winning three consecutive league championships and the inaugural

. After he resigned in 2015, Paul Riley led the team to its first

NWSL Championship The National Women's Soccer League Playoffs (or NWSL Playoffs) are a single elimination tournament among six teams in the National Women's Soccer League of the United States, deciding the winner of the NWSL Championship. Since playoff games can ...

in 2016, with

Scott Vallow Scott Vallow (born June 8, 1977 in Modesto, California) is a retired American soccer goalkeeper, most famously for playing with the Rochester Rhinos, 2005-2010. Scott was the assistant coach of the North Carolina Courage soccer team, having follo ...

as an assistant and interim head coach during Riley's suspensions. Charlie Naimo served as Technical Director from 2014 to 2016. Gary Bruce serves as head coach of the Flash's United Women's Soccer team.

Honors

League

* NWSL Championship ** Winners (1): 2016 ** Runners-up (1): 2013 * NWSL Shield ** Winners (1): 2013 *

WPSL Elite The Women's Premier Soccer League Elite (WPSL Elite) was a women's semi-professional soccer league created by the Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) to support the sport in the United States, both from continued interest by WPSL teams in profess ...

Championship ** Winners (1): 2012 * WPS Championship ** Winners (1): 2011 *

Championship ** Winners (1): 2010

References

External links

*
Sahlen's Buffalo Flash join W-League in 2009

Sahlen's Sports Park
{{New York Sports Sports in Buffalo, New York Sports in Rochester, New York Women's soccer clubs in New York (state) USL W-League (1995–2015) teams 2008 establishments in New York (state) Association football clubs established in 2008 National Women's Soccer League teams 2017 disestablishments in New York (state) 2017 establishments in New York (state) Association football clubs established in 2017 Women's Premier Soccer League Elite teams United Women's Soccer teams