What is the origin story for Tallahassee Reckoning - who founded the club and why?
Tallahassee (TLH) Reckoning was founding in 2023, by Dr. Ashlee Fontes (Comber). On the back of a career building the youth to professional women’s soccer pathway as we know it today in the United States.

TLH Reckoning is the first of its kind women’s soccer franchise emerging in Tallahassee’s 200-year history. TLH Reckoning’s pre-professional team and reserves team played their inaugural seasons in the Summer of 2024, with both teams competing in the USL W League and USL Academy respectively. In 2025, TLH Reckoning expanded to at full-time Academy, two pre-professional teams, and futsal. The pre-professional teams play in the USL W League and in WPSL. Additionally, TLH Reckoning launched its Community Ownership Model giving the local and global soccer community the opportunity to own the club. More details can be found here. Breaking geographic and institutional barriers the Reckoning is owned and operated by one of the most successful architects of the modern women’s game across the nation – former United Soccer Coaches President, co-founder of the Girls Academy league, Washington Spirit founding executive, FSU women’s soccer and W League alum; a female minority and a fierce advocate for girls and women in soccer.

Tell us about your badge and colors – how does it connect to the community and what are the elements?
Our crest was very intentionally designed and is full of meaning. Dr. Fontes loves all shades of pink and wanted that to challenge the gender norm of pink is for women --- instead, all shades of pink are powerful just like female athletes.

Change is Coming…It’s time for Reckoning. The TLH Reckoning logo is a visual representation of the power within.

With so many league options nowadays, what league do you play in and why did you pick that one?
We play in the USL W League and WPSL. We chose those leagues because they are the ones that support an established player development pathway for our pre-professional players who come in from all over the country/world to play for us as well as our local players. Both leagues have robust networks that we’re able to level to have our players scouted to be future professionals of the game.

Many clubs choose to sell hats, scarves or replica kits - how does your club keep the lights on and cover its league costs?
Dr. Fontes, not anywhere near a millionaire, has personally invested over $300,000 into TLH Reckoning to ensure players are invested in and have an opportunity to realize their dreams.

League fees and operational costs are why most do not choose to launch such endeavors. Our costs just for the two months in the summer and from us fully investing in our pre-professional players is well over $100,000.

We need fans in the stands! GET YOUR TICKETS!
We need sponsors!
We need community owners - check out our WeFunder campaign
- Anyone can become an owner for only $100.
We do have a very modest on-demand shop…
We need donations to our 501c3

People can also help support for FREE – follow, like, comment and share – engage with us on Instagram @tlhreckoning, on Facebook and LinkedIn /TLHreckoning

How did you finish last year? What are the goals for this season?
Our USL W League was in its second season and surpassed expectations. We finished second in our conference; made the playoffs; finished second in the league with the most goals scored; had multiple players on the national leaderboard for goals scored; had two players sign professional contracts after the season.

Our WPSL team was in its first year. We had a strong start but were not able to keep the moment. Going into next season, we will need to do a better job with roster management.

Our goals for next season for both teams will be simply to make progress from where we were the year prior. We love winning, but our ultimate goal is always focused on player development. We aim to continue to send college players back to their programs even more dominate than they were before; we aim to have more players sign professional contracts; we aim to have our younger players secure college scholarships.

How do you participate in, or give back to your community?
For the last two years, we’ve made an incredible investment into our community despite that we are resource constraints that we have as a start-up from finances to human resources.

We’ve sent sponsorship checks to each of the public high schools’ girls’ soccer teams in Leon County, Wakulla, and Thomasville.
We run an annual free community clinic for kids.
We’ve donated thousands of dollars to support organizations who help kids like the United Way of the Big Bend, Children’s Week.
We give scholarships to multiple players every season so that finances are never a reason that a local youth player or a pre-professional player can’t play.
Our operations along contribute thousands that go back to the community monthly in taxes and by choosing to use local vendors.

If there were one or two teams, within a 100 miles of you, to play a friendly against – who would you play and why?
They are well over 100 miles away, but we would love to play Austin Rise FC in a friendly because of they started with a similar philosophy and belief.