URBANA — Mark Sikora knows the appetite Champaign-Urbana has for sports.
The longtime Parkland men’s soccer coach sees it during the school year, when the Cobras, Illini and local high schools are all competing at the same time.
But the summer months were quieter until this summer, when Sikora brought Junction FC to Urbana as part of the Women’s Premier Soccer League, a pre-professional women’s soccer league.
“Soccer has become more prevalent across the country,” Sikora said. “But fandom, we’re not there yet ... I hope that this team is another way to get more people out and say, ‘Oh, you know what, this is actually way more fun and exciting than I thought, and there’s way more to it.’”
Junction FC — 3-3-2 in its first eight matches — is off to a good start, as assistant coach Josh Stebbins sees it. The club has drawn healthy crowds to Urbana High School’s McKinley Field, larger than what he’s noticed for the team’s road games.
“When we went on the first few road games, you were probably lucky to see 25 fans in the stadiums,” Stebbins said. “I think St. Louis had the biggest (crowd) and even then, it probably wasn’t even a quarter of the amount of people we had shown up for our first (home) game. ... It really felt like it was an atmosphere. It didn’t feel like (we just) needed a place to play.”
There are plenty of local names on the roster, as well. Nine of the club’s players are from Champaign County. Local coaches Stebbins, Kip McDaniel and Noy Radanavong are roaming the sidelines.
“I think the team, for one, has meshed really well,” said Celia Barkley, a recent Urbana graduate who was The N-G’s girls’ soccer Player of the Year for the 2023 season. “And everyone loves playing together, which always improves the environment. On top of that, the soccer quality has just been great to play in and it’s also improved over the season with the chemistry of the team.”
Meredith Johnson-Monfort — a 2018 Mahomet-Seymour graduate and member of Janet Rayfield’s Illini from 2018-21 — is among the roster’s most experienced players.
“That was something that I was kind of nervous about before (the season), feeling like I was geriatric, practically,” Johnson-Monfort said. “But I would say it all goes back to everyone wanting what’s best for the team, I think that there is really that collective mindset of: ‘What can I do to make my teammates better to make this team reach its max potential?’”
On the other side of the equation is Alaina Kimble, one of a handful of current high school standouts on the roster who will enter her junior year at Centennial this fall.
Kimble has enjoyed the chance to learn from the likes of Johnson-Monfort and current college players.
“There’s definitely a hard adjustment,” Kimble said. “But it’s also really beneficial to get to play with such experienced players and learn a lot from them, from all the years they’ve had.”
Sikora’s idea for Junction FC came about a year ago when evaluating summer opportunities for his Parkland players.
His connections with Diablos FC in Bloomington-Normal led to his invitation to the club’s advisory board when it rebranded as Junction FC in Decatur.
Sikora then pushed for a women’s team based in Champaign County to provide an opportunity for his daughter and her teammates to continue playing locally.
Paperwork for the new team was due by January.
“I said, ‘If I want to be involved, I want to do a women’s team and I want to do it here,’” Sikora said. “Selfishly, because I only live down the street. And also, my daughter plays, and for me, personally, her and her teammates, giving them an option to do something, and have something to strive to strive for.”
Many of the team’s 30 players live within about 90 miles of Urbana, a distance that many have grown used to commuting while competing for club teams before.
The opportunity for players to have host families is something Sikora has worked on, as well.
“We talked to local club families and we had a couple of families volunteer to do that,” Sikora said. “And so we have that option.”
Kip McDaniel was chosen as the club’s coach, with Stebbins and Radanavong joining in turn.
“Not quite to Mark’s kids’ age, but I have my own daughter at home (so) I’m kind of in the same boat,” Stebbins said. “If we’re going to be around here, and there’s something that can provide an opportunity, it’d be great to kind of get my hands in it and make sure it’s as successful as can be.”
Urbana’s Junction FC doesn’t share much in common with the men’s club in Decatur, which operates as part of the Midwest Premier League.
The club’s name — and train theme — are about it.
“We stay in contact and we talk a lot about the brand, if you will,” Sikora said. “But I also want these female athletes to feel like they are the most important thing ... we try to stay as separate as possible, so that way we can control what we want.”
Food trucks for fans and the chance for players to take part in a meet-and-greet at Dick’s House of Sport in Champaign have helped bring the new club to life in its first season.
“I’m really excited for where the future of the club goes because I really do think that the sky’s the limit,” Johnson-Monfort said. “I think we’ve got a lot of resources, kind of an untapped market in central Illinois and I think that girls come to play.”
And Sikora’s hope is that the team will exist well beyond its debut season, which has started with three wins and three draws in eight matches.
Junction FC will host two more home matches, with F.C. Spirit due to visit McKinley Field on June 23 before FC Pride closes out the regular season on June 29.
“Do I see myself doing this five, ten years down the road?” Sikora said. “Probably. Why not? I love soccer and coaching, obviously, is something that I’m really big into, as well. But I think if it works, then why not?”
