River Light Women

Spartan Athletic Park sits on the Aurora University campus, a 1,100-seat ground built for college athletics rather than professional football, and it is here that River Light Women play out their USL W League season. The club leans on that setting rather than working around it — a campus stadium in Fox Valley, Illinois, for a side still finding its footing in the American pyramid.

River Light FC came together in 2023 and 2024, backed by Chad Swieca, who runs the club through Soccer Speed LLC, and general manager Heather Bickerton. There is no academy behind the first team, just summer camps and a roster drawn largely from Chicago-area college players. Anne Iwinski took over as head coach in 2025, arriving from Naperville Central High School, where she had already built a reputation before stepping up to the W League.

The debut season went further than most expansion sides manage. River Light finished second in the Heartland Division in 2024, took a wild card into the playoffs, and lost in the semi-final to Detroit City FC. The follow-up year brought a step back — third in the division, no playoff spot — but by then the club had already found the fixture that defines its calendar: Minnesota Aurora FC. Both clubs describe the meeting as a fierce rivalry, and neither side plays it down.

The colours run white at home, navy on the road, with yellow as the accent, and they carry over pitch that has hosted Aurora University's own teams for years. On matchday, that borrowed ground becomes River Light's own, 1,100 seats filling with a crowd built around a two-year-old club still writing its early chapters at Spartan Stadium.