At Lansing Common FC we couldn’t be more excited about the future. Headed into 2023 we have big plans and even bigger dreams, and can’t wait to share some of them with you. But before we move forward, we wanted to take a moment to look back on a great 2022.
Our second season was a tremendous year of growth and learning for Lansing Common. We finished with 6 wins, 2 losses, and 2 draws, finishing second in the Midwest Premier League East (again!), coming even closer to winning the league this year than we did in 2021. The 23 goals we scored was good for second in the league, and we only conceded 13.
We had a lot of individual accomplishments to celebrate as well:
- Guershom Sylvain and Jack Voight tied for the MWPL East Golden Boot, with 6 goals each
- Ethan Brandt set the record for most saves in a Lansing Common season with 50, and what we’re pretty confident is a league record for saves in a game with 12
- Ty Usiak led the team in assists with 5
- In addition to Ethan Brandt, 3 players logged over 1,000 minutes for us last summer: Mark Wischmeyer (1045), Landon Hungerford (1080), and Kevin Payne (1080). Hungerford and Payne played every minute of every MWPL game for us.
Last but not least, we set the Midwest Premier League attendance record with 787 fans at our July 23 season finale and welcomed nearly 3,500 fans to Eastern Stadium in 2022. To each of you who were part of those numbers, thank you! If you didn’t make it to a game this year, we hope to see you in 2023.
Off the field we continued to grow our impact in the Lasing Community, connecting people through the beautiful game, breaking down barriers in youth soccer, and supporting local non-profits that make our community a better place to live. Here are some of the highlights:
- Our Community Soccer Kickoff (remember when our season-opening friendly got canceled at the last minute?) raised $1,477 for the Mikey23 Foundation
- Through our charity kit sales we were able to donate over $7,000 to the Refugee Development Center and Care Free Medical
- We covered the costs for 43 Lansing youth to participate in Parks and Rec soccer last spring so they could play completely free of charge.
- Our Community Engagement Team painted lines and prepped the field for the Refugee Development Center’s U15 boys team this fall when they competed in Capital Area Soccer League
- Over 115 volunteer hours giving back to our community
- Together we donated over $12,000 to non-profits that help strengthen our Lansing community
This offseason we’ve welcomed a new head coach, Brent Sorg, and we’re incredibly excited about heading into 2023 with Brent leading the team. We’ve had some transitions on the Board of Directors as well. With his term ending, Geoff Sykes, who’s been on the board since day one, is stepping down, and we’re grateful for his service to the club (don’t worry, he’s not really going anywhere and will still be designing our awesome Moneyball kits). We were happy to welcome Renee Smith to the board, who was elected at our annual meeting this fall along with Scott Oberlander, who was re-elected.
We head into 2023 full of excitement and optimism. On the field, coach Sorg and the team are eager to grab that next rung and bring home a league title. Off the field we continue to build new relationships and strengthen our existing partnerships, helping us grow our impact in the Lansing community.
We’re beyond grateful to the Lansing community, to our fans, our members, and our sponsors for helping us achieve what we have through these first two seasons. As we continue to grow in 2023, we hope to bring in more new sponsors, introduce new fans to Lansing Common, and continue to grow our membership. In 2022 we had 241 members and we’d love for that number to be over 300 next season.
Whatever role you’ve played in helping Lansing Common succeed, we appreciate you. Thank you for helping us build Lansing’s community soccer club, and we hope you’ll join us for what’s next.