One Knoxville had a season for the ages in 2025.

But 2025 was just the next step in the club’s rise towards excellence. Founded originally as an amateur side, the club played it’s first (and only) season in USL League Two as an amateur team. The team performed well enough to make it to its conference finals before losing in the playoffs. Paired with the sharp branding, beautiful uniforms, there was plenty of reasons to assume that One Knoxville was going places.

In the offseason, the club announced its intentions to move professional and join USL League One. Each professional season has been a series of moves upward in performance and finish. 2023, the team lost more matches than they won and finished the season outside of the playoffs. In 2024, there was improvement, moving up to fifth place and a playoff berth that concluded in the league’s quarterfinals. But 2025 was when the magic truly happened.

*Match MVP Nico Rosamilia celebrates in the League One final.*

The performance in the regular season was impressive stuff. Particularly for a pro side, winning 16 matches with a plus 17 goal differential and claiming the regular season crown by two points. The playoffs would extend that run of form, with One Knoxville allowing a single goal in three matches and winning their first USL League One title in front of a league-record 7,500 fans. It was the fourth season for the club and in that short time the team had gone from amateur to professional to champions.

Aside from the impressive run in USL League One, this year also saw the club add a women’s team that plays in USL W League, making them an even more complete club. They are building something special in Tennessee.

The season saw One Knoxville cap an impressive run, building layer after layer, methodically constructing a championship club. That sort of effort and planning is the kind of stuff we should be begging our soccer clubs to emulate. This is the stuff of trophy cases, this deserves a Club of the Year Nomination.

- Dan Vaughn