Vermont Green FC announced Tuesday that the club’s women’s soccer team will compete in the USL W League as early as next season as part of a new division.
The Green’s participation in the 2026 USL W League season is contingent on the formation of the league’s Northeast division. The division needs a minimum of five clubs to officially join. Vermont is the third club to commit as a founding member, along with a Hartford Athletic expansion side and current W League team AC Connecticut.
The USL W League is the country’s premier pre-professional women’s soccer league. Athletes are given the opportunity to compete at a high level while retaining their college eligibility. The W League fields over 90 clubs across the United States.
“We are prepared and hoping to play in 2026,” said Vermont Green FC co-owner Patrick Infurna. “We need to find two more Northeast division teams to make it happen, but we’re confident that it will. … We've basically been talking to USL about wanting to be in the women's game since the formation of the men's team.”
The club’s men’s side reached the pinnacle of success earlier this year when they won the USL League 2 national championship.
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The Green committed in 2024 to hosting women’s exhibition matches until they were able to establish a full-time club in a national league. They’ve held three women’s matches in Burlington since then, all of which sold out.
Sam Mewis, who won the 2019 World Cup with the U.S. Women’s National Team, coached the Green in each of their exhibition matches.
“Coming here, I was immediately introduced to the UVM teams, to Vermont Green, to just the general community around this area that is so passionate about soccer,” Mewis told Vermont Edition in June. “It's been so exciting and so unexpected, but something that's become really special to me and that I'm excited to get to share more with the community."
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Mewis’ role with the upcoming Vermont Green women’s side is still being figured out, but she will be involved, and the club is happy to have her around, Infurna said.
The 2025 USL W League season ran from early May through mid-July. While next season is still months away, the Green are committed to fielding more women’s soccer in the future.
“The assurance that there will be women’s soccer at Virtue Field this summer with the Vermont Green badge on it, no matter what, that’s why we felt confident,” Infurna said. “We're really confident that this is going to come to fruition, and we think the league will do their due diligence and make sure that it happens.”
