thumb|right|upright=0.8|Penn FC crest from their final season
Harrisburg City Islanders, known as Penn FC in their final season, were an American professional soccer team based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 2003, the team most recently played in the USL Pro, the second tier of the United States soccer league system.
In October 2018, the club formally announced it would not participate in the 2019 season and would have to resume play in 2020 as a member of USL League One, a league in the third tier. In December 2019, it was reported that the club had ceased operations and had no employees.
On November 15, 2017 the team was rebranded as Penn FC. The rebrand served in conjunction with a partnership with Rush Soccer youth development program. Penn FC served Rush Soccer's professional team and the club's most important piece to their extensive network. The team played its home games at FNB Field on City Island. The team's colors were blue, black and grey corresponding to Rush Soccer's branding established in 1997. In December 2019, ahead of the 2020 season, reports noted that the club had ceased operations and no longer had any employees on payroll.
History
League
USL Pro Soccer League – inaugural season (2004)
The Harrisburg City Islanders were announced as a new professional soccer team on September 24, 2003 as a member USL Pro Soccer League’s Atlantic Division on the third tier of the American soccer pyramid. As the team prepared for its inaugural season, Bill Becher was named the first head coach of the club and forward David Bascome was signed as the first player. The City Islanders won their first match 5–2 on the road against the Northern Virginia Royals with Steve Fisher scoring the club's first ever goal. In 2009, Ty Shipalane became the second City Islander to win Rookie of the Year and became the first City Islander to jump directly to Major League Soccer after signing with D.C. United at the conclusion of the season.
The 2011 season saw the USL Second Division be reorganized into the USL Pro with Harrisburg competing in the National Division. The City Islanders won the USL Pro National Division title over the Rochester Rhinos advancing to the first USL Pro final against the newly formed, and regular-season champion, Orlando City. Similar to the last championship appearance, the City Islanders would play to a draw (2–2) in regulation time, only this time falling on penalty kicks 3–2. Shortly before the 2017 season, George Altirs was announced as new majority owner of the club so as to "stay in Harrisburg and build an international developmental base that is unique and exciting." As majority owner, Altirs "will oversee the technical side of the club, including player and staff selections, transfers, and outside, non-local partnerships for the Harrisburg City Islanders." The ownership addition was intended to allow the City Islanders to keep pace with the growth of the USL.
On November 15, 2017, it was announced that the City Islanders would be rebranded as Penn FC starting with the 2018 season. The rebrand was announced as a focus on player and product development, situating the team as the top of a development pyramid for the existing Rush Soccer program. Ahead of the 2018 season, Penn FC made some key signings including the return of former City Islander standouts Ken Tribbett and Lucky Mkosana, and forward Tommy Heinemann.
Penn FC's inaugural season started off with mixed results, going 6-4-7 through their first 17 matches. Conflicts with baseball operations and schedule at FNB Field required the team to have long away stints until a final 9-match home stand. The team's poor away form mid-season carried into the home-stand with Penn FC going 1-2-6 in their remaining 9 matches. The team finished 13th in the Eastern Conference, their lowest position since joining the USL.
Hiatus and Ceasing Operations
Prior to the conclusion to the 2018 season, the Penn FC officially announced the team would be on hiatus for the 2019 season and return play in 2020 as part of the newly formed USL League One in the third tier of American soccer. After months of speculation, there had been minimal announcements regarding the team's preparations for entering League One. In December 2019, during the USL Winter Meetings, reports noted that the club had ceased operations and no longer had any employees on payroll after 16 years of professional soccer. The City Islanders carried a 2–0 lead into halftime behind goals by Nelson Becerra and Andrew Welker, but heavy substitutions allowed the Union to demonstrate their superior depth, and they scored five times in thirty minutes before Jose Angulo pegged one back.
With both teams fielding numerous reserves, the City Islanders won the 2012 rematch, which was played at Hersheypark Stadium. Jorge Perlaza and Kai Herdling scored for the Union, while a brace by Garret Pettis and goal by Yann Ekra carried the USL-PRO outfit to the 3–2 victory.
After five years of cooperation, it was announced on August 19, 2015 that the affiliation would dissolve at the conclusion of the 2015 season as the Union would develop their own USL team, Bethlehem Steel FC, in the Lehigh Valley starting in 2016. The final friendly between the two teams as affiliates took place in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in front of a record crowd of 6,546 attendees. The Union won the match 3–1.
The table below summarizes the results of the annual contests between the Islanders and Union.
Colors and badge
The team's colors were blue and white. The logo can also be adorned with a gold star above it, representing the USL Championship the team won in 2007. The team has since issued two anniversary crests for their 10th and 12th seasons.
In 2016, the City Islanders alternatively dropped "Harrisburg" from the team's title in an attempt to increase the club's footprint in central Pennsylvania.
<gallery>
File:Harrisburg City Islanders.svg|2003–2017
File:2016HarrisburgCityIslanders_logo.png|Alternative logo (2016)
</gallery>
Stadium
For the first 12 seasons, the City Islanders competed at the Skyline Sports Complex. Since the 2016 season at FNB Field on City Island in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The stadium has a capacity of 6,187 spectators. The City Islanders also compete at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania which serves as an alternate home ground during the 2016 season.
Stadium expansion/upgrade
Recognizing the need to modernize the facilities with the growth of the USL, in 2015 the parent company of the Harrisburg City Islanders, the Harrisburg Capital Soccer, Inc. have begun applying for grant funding to facilitate upgrades to the existing complex. The proposed upgrades were anticipated to include increasing capacity to 5,000 seats, dedicated VIP areas, entrance plaza, upgraded concessions, restrooms, indoor locker rooms, state-of-the-art broadcasting booth, and a new scoreboard. New seating is intended to be an upgrade from existing bleachers with a mix of individual bucket seats, ten luxury suites, a VIP deck with seating, and bleacher seats with back supports. This expansion is intended to meet the minimum capacity required by the USSF for a league to compete as Division 2 in the American soccer pyramid.
Relocation to FNB Field
The 2016 season marked the City Islanders transition from Skyline Sports Complex to FNB Field on City Island in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The transition was a result of the collaboration with the current tenants, the Harrisburg Senators, and to keep pace with the stadium standards being implemented by the USL.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;margin-left:1em;"
|-
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;"|Period
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;"|Stadium
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;"|Location
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;"|Capacity
|-
|2004–2015
|Skyline Sports Complex
|City Island, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
|4,000
|-
|2016
|Clipper Magazine Stadium
|Lancaster, Pennsylvania
|6,000
|-
|2017–2018
|FNB Field
|City Island, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
|6,187
|}
When Penn FC announced their hiatus for the 2019 season, the decision was largely cited as looking for a more permanent stadium solution. Sharing FNB Field with the Harrisburg Senators proved to be difficult with scheduling and poor playing conditions because of the transitions between soccer and baseball fields.
Youth development
As the City Islanders, The City Islanders Academy system fielded both boys and girls teams U-9 through U-17, and U20 and U23 adult men's teams. The club also fielded teams that competed in the Super-20 League, a league for players 17 to 20 years of age, operated by the United Soccer Leagues. The academy has also established partnerships with 17 youth soccer clubs across Central Pennsylvania.
The re-branding of the club to Penn FC has also begun the club's partnership with Rush Soccer, an established youth academy system based in Littleton, Colorado representing over 32,000 youth soccer players from 85 clubs around the world. The goal of the partnership was to provide the academy with a professional team to be at the pinnacle of the Rush Soccer development program, drawing from large player pools and international affiliations. Rush soccer became a pioneer by reverse-engineering the pathway from youth soccer to the professional level. During the City Islanders affiliation with the Philadelphia Union, members of the Sons of Ben (supporters of the Philadelphia Union) also provided support.
Capital City Crew
Ahead of the 2017 season, the newly formed Capital City Crew became the recognized supporters group of the team.
Broadcasting and media coverage
Most Penn FC home matches were broadcast live on Invica, with tape delay feeds on ABC 27 Weather Channel, Comcast channel 245 and Verizon Fios channel 462. Additionally, many road games were broadcast through USLLive. Michael Bullock covers the team for the Patriot-News, while Derek Meluzio provides commentary and videos from his Upper 90 blog. The column "Confessions of a Soccer Nobody" appears regularly in the Sports' Burger, offering additional coverage and insight.
As of the 2014 season, USL began regularly broadcasting all league matches on the USL YouTube channel. Home match broadcasting is provided live by Inivca where play-by-play announcing covered by Brian Keyser with color commentary by Charlie Gerow.
Sponsorship
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;margin-left:1em;"
|-
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;"|Period
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;"|Kit Manufacturer
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;"|Shirt Sponsor
|-
|2007–2014
|rowspan="2"|Adidas
| Capital Blue Cross<br>Snickers
|-
|2015–2016
|Capital Blue Cross<br>Select Physical Therapy
|-
|2017–2018
| Capelli Sport
| Capelli Sport<br>Select Physical Therapy
|}
Staff
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;" text-align:center;"| Position
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;" text-align:center;"| Staff
! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;" scope="col"|Nation
|-
|Technical advisor<sup>1</sup>||Bill Becher|| United States
|-
|General manager<sup>2</sup>||Tim Schulz|| United States
|-
|Head coach||Raoul Voss|| Germany
|-
|Assistant coach||Rodolfo Correia|| Portugal
|-
|Goalkeeping coach||Steve Widdowson|| United States
|-
|Strength and conditioning coach||Denis Clarke|| Ireland
|-
|Club president||Tiago Lopes|| Portugal
|-
|Academy coordinator||Dave Kern|| United States
|}
Referenced from HCI coaching staff and front office.<br>
<sup>1</sup>Bill Becher appointed general manager in February 2016.<br>
<sup>2</sup>Tim Schulz, Rush Soccer President & CEO, appointed general manager in January 2018.
Notable former players
Head coaches
- Figures correct . Includes all competitive matches
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|-
!rowspan=2! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;width=150"|Coach
!rowspan=2! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;width=120|From
!rowspan=2! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;width=120|To
!colspan=7! style="color:white; background:#176DB6;"|Record
|-
!style="color:white; background:#176DB6;width=40|G
!style="color:white; background:#176DB6;width=40|W
!style="color:white; background:#176DB6;width=40|D
!style="color:white; background:#176DB6;width=40|L
!style="color:white; background:#176DB6;width=50|Win %
|-
|align=left| Bill Becher
|align=left|September 24, 2003
|align=left|January 23, 2018
|-
|align=left| Raoul Voss
|align=left|February 7, 2018
|align=left|October 13, 2018
|-
!colspan="3"|Total
|}
Honors
; United Soccer Leagues Champions
: Winners: 2007
: Finalists: 2011, 2014
|-
|2017
|3
|0
|2
|1
|0
|4
| -4
|17px
|
|-
|2018
|3
|0
|1
|2
|0
|2
| -2
|17px
|
|}
Key
- 17px Won
- 17px Lost