Fort Wayne

Fort Wayne FC is now finding its feet in USL League One. The step up came in 2026, and it has been an adjustment: no silverware yet at the new level, a squad still working out what the higher standard demands week to week.

The club took shape in 2019, backed by local businessmen including DaMarcus Beasley, the Fort Wayne native and United States international who took charge of football operations. Mike Avery has coached the side since the beginning, having also served as sporting director in the early years — a rare case of continuity through the move from amateur to professional football.

Those pre-professional seasons in USL League Two built the case for promotion: division titles in 2023, when Fort Wayne topped the Great Lakes Division, and again in 2024 and 2025 in the Valley Division. Aurie Echevarría, in goal, picked up the club's first Golden Glove award in 2023. The current squad carries some of that development forward — Johnny Aye, an academy product, debuted at 15 in 2025 — alongside experience brought in for the step up, with midfielder Jeremy Garay arriving having already played in MLS with D.C. United and for El Salvador. Up front, Lilian Ricol scored 9 goals in his first professional season and was later sold to San Antonio for a league record fee, while Taig Healy matched that tally and struck the fastest goal in club history, 44 seconds into a match.

Fort Wayne has settled into a couple of rivalries built more on geography than trophies — Michiana FC to the west, in what's known as the South Bend rivalry, and Toledo Villa FC across the Ohio line, both billed in matchday programmes as archrivals. Home games are played at Ruoff Mortgage Stadium, which opened in May 2026 on Bass Road just off Interstate 69. Capacity is meant to run to 9,200, though the opening match was capped at 4,000 while construction was still being finished around the stands.