Being the New Team, the Underdog

Every league has one: the team that nobody expects much from. The one that starts at the bottom, without the resources, the stadium, or the history of the established clubs. That’s who Berryville FC is right now.

Practicing as a team, Gavin is on the run.

We’re the new team. We’re the underdog. And you know what? We’re proud of it.

• We didn’t get placed in the league we wanted.

• We didn’t get the perfect setup or the easy pathway.

Instead, we’ve been handed the hard road — the one where we’re forced to fight for every goal, every point, every bit of respect. But history tells us that’s the best road to be on.

Think about Leicester City. In 2016, they were 5000–1 outsiders in the Premier League, a team most pundits predicted would be fighting relegation. Instead, they shocked the world and lifted the trophy. Or look at Atalanta in Italy — a small club from Bergamo that used discipline and relentless determination to rise from obscurity and punch above their weight in Serie A, even reaching the Champions League. These clubs didn’t have the biggest budgets, but they had the heart of underdogs — and that’s what made them dangerous.

We don’t have to look only overseas for examples, either. Here in the U.S., clubs have shown what the underdog story looks like on our soil. Orlando City SC began as a lower-league team in the USL before earning a spot in the MLS, and now plays in front of tens of thousands of fans. FC Cincinnati began small, drawing large crowds as an expansion team and fighting its way to become one of MLS’s top clubs. Even LAFC, now a powerhouse, was once just a new name in a crowded city — and within a few years, they were winning trophies. These clubs demonstrate that starting small doesn’t limit your potential. It just makes the story better when you rise.

That’s precisely where we stand at Berryville FC. We’re building from the ground up. We don’t have a decades-long legacy or deep pockets, but we have something just as powerful: hunger. We have a vision to create something lasting in our community, to give players a platform to grow, and to prove that the underdog can rise.

Being the new team in a league we didn’t choose isn’t a setback — it’s an opportunity.

It means we get to test ourselves, to surprise those who underestimate us, and to show that hard work and resilience can take us places talent and reputation alone never will. It means we get to write a story no one saw coming.

Tristian doing his thing.

But here’s the truth: we can’t do it alone.

• We need players who want more than just a game on the weekend.

• We need players who believe in building something, who want to take the more challenging path, who want to look back one day and say, “I was part of that from the beginning.”

• We need players who see being the underdog not as a weakness, but as the ultimate motivation.

If you’ve ever dreamed of being part of a club’s rise, this is your chance.

If you’ve ever wanted to push yourself, grow as a player, and help turn an underdog into a contender, Berryville FC is the place for you.

Register for a tryout here: https://bit.ly/BVFC-Soccer-Tryouts

We are the new team. We are the underdog. And we’re inviting you to join us and help prove that even underdogs can become giants.