Highland Heights, KY (August 20th, 2024) - The 2024 season for Kings Hammer FC's USL W League, USL League 2 and USL Academy teams' has come to an end. This year, Kings Hammer FC saw record attendances at our home games, hosted at Northern Kentucky University's Scudamore Stadium. To close out the season, we caught up with a few members of our 2024 season staff as they took a look back at some of their favorite moments of the season.

Jacob Morrison, Kings Hammer FC USL W League head coach, spoke on the objectives the ladies had for the season, saying, “For our USL W-League program, we set out to achieve certain goals. One of these goals was to compete for the top two in the conference. We landed in second place and anchored ourselves by achieving excellent results against talented teams. Another goal was to change the narrative of how we envision ourselves here at Kings Hammer FC.” 

As the season came to a close, Morrison expressed excitement for the direction the team is headed. “We attracted professional level talent to our team, reinvigorated the excitement for high level soccer, and gave our youth programming a pathway to the highest level of soccer possible here in the United States.I am proud of the players, the coaching staff, and the support staff here at Kings Hammer to make this season possible.” 

Bronson Gambale, Kings Hammer's national technical director and assistant coach to both the men’s and women’s team, was elated about the fan and staff support the USL program received this season. “First, I want to thank the fans, the operational staff, support staff, and all of our coaches for creating such an awesome environment for these players. It was extremely exciting to see our pre-professional pathway in full force this summer,” he said. “Our USL Women took a huge step forward this year with the introduction of an exciting staff, a lot of new faces, and huge contributions from our youth academy. Both teams continued to put highlights on each weekend in front of large crowds. As the National Technical Director, Kings Hammer is proud to provide a full player pathway and develop the future of soccer.”

Gambale was eager to discuss both teams. Speaking on the men’s team, he said, “A highlight from the season with the men was going toe to toe with Fort Wayne both times at home and showing everyone that, even with a young squad, Kings Hammer FC men will continue to play a great brand of soccer and be a clear development pathway.” Turning his attention to the women’s team, Gambale continued, “A clear highlight for me was the opening game of the season when the ladies traveled to Indy to take on the reigning national champs. We came back from being two goals down and stopped them in stoppage time.”

The KHFC USL Academy team finished up their first ever full-time season at the end of July. Head coach Tony Awor is proud of the growth he’s seen in his team this past season. “Overall, I am very pleased with our first year as a full-time member of the league. Competing in a U20 league, with our core players being from the 2006, 2007, and 2008 birth years, we held our own against formidable opponents, including the National Champions, Indy Eleven.”

Awor chose to reflect on a bittersweet moment that ended the USL Academy’s summer season. “Our final match against a strong Lexington SC team, that fielded 5 seasoned professionals, showcased the high level of competition in the USL A league. Although we faced a narrow 1-0 loss, I was proud of our boys' performance. We demonstrated grit, tactical awareness, and the ability to create scoring opportunities while defending effectively.”

In addition to the amazing players and staff, our fans showed up time and time again to support our program. Kings Hammer FC is extremely grateful for the KHFC community that continues to grow here in the greater Cincinnati area. Thank you to all of our players, coaches, support staff and fans for another fantastic season in the books.