This weekend sees the return of Birmingham Legion’s two lower league teams.
Legion FC 2 kicks off at home Saturday with a game against East Atlanta FC. As previously, games will be played at the Legion training facility on Dunnavant Valley Road. Kickoff will be at 5:00pm (I think! It’s not clear if the league website has all games on Eastern time). Games will be streamed on SportsEngine, so if you don’t have an account, get one!
The team is led by head coach Carlo Schiavoni, who is also an assistant with the Championship team and was a midfielder at UAB. The team itself is of course heavily rotated from last year, as is the nature of pre-professional teams. Chances are you will not recognize any names on the roster. Notably, Jay Heaps’ son Jack is not on the team any more. The players range in age from 19 to 24 and are mostly on various college teams.
The team is in the South Central Division, which has a total of 7 teams, down from 10 last year. From Alabama there are also Montgomery United and Dothan United. The other 4 teams are all from Georgia, 3 from the Atlanta area and one from Columbus. Swarm FC in Atlanta sounds like a new addition but is just a rebranding of Southern Soccer Academy. The regular season will thus consist of 12 games and will run through July 11th.
The league-wide season in fact started last week, but there were only 4 games played across the entire league. One was in the South Central: Columbus United beat Apotheos 2-1.
Early indications are that the league will be dominated by the usual teams. The initial Power Rankings have Vermont Green at #1; Gevork Diarbian played for that team back in 2022. Other names you may be familiar with also show up: Ballard FC (#2), Asheville City (#5), Des Moines Menace (#8). Coming in at #7 is Dothan United. Asheville City won the South Central in 2025 but has shifted to the South Atlantic Division. Dothan was second last year but made it all the way to the National Semifinals, where they lost to Vermont Green on penalties. They will be a force to reckon with.
Last year’s Legion 2 finished 4th in the division with a 5-5-2 record; with 2 of the teams above them now gone they have a good chance to make the playoffs.
The W League also kicked off last week with quite a few games. That did not include Legion WFC, who have an interesting start to their season: this Friday (5:00pm) they play the Chattanooga Red Wolves, making for an intriguing double-header. As with the 2s, games will be on SportsEngine. They are likewise in the South Central Division, but there are only 5 in the division (down from 7). The one common team is Swarm FC; the others are Chattanooga, Asheville City and One Knoxville. The season will be 10 games (ending Junbe 28th), which means they play two teams 3 times. In the Legion’s case those will be Chattanooga at home and Swarm away. There was one game played in the division: the Red Wolves and One Knox went to a 0-0 draw.
Legion WFC is much younger overall than the 2s, ranging from 18 to 22. The oldest player is in fact Sydney Soehn (Tommy’s daughter), whose continued presence is a bit surprising. Her dad is up with Minnesota United; I guess the family hasn’t moved yet. Sydney is at Wofford College. The youngest player is Colby Cook, who just committed to Lipscomb University. Head coach of the team is not listed on the website right; up till last year it was Nathan Archard.
Last season was rough for WFC; they posted a record of 4-7-1 and were 5th in the division. They’ll need to step it up.
Asheville City burned through the division last year with an 11-0-1 record but only made it to the second round of the playoffs. They have a #4 preseason ranking this year. They are the team to beat, if you can.
Update:
Jack Heaps is still eligible to play for the 2s but is currently in Boston on an internship required by his college courses. The WFC head coach will be announced very soon; word is that it will be Janet Parks, who is with BUSA and was previously an assistant coach for WFC.
