In the lowest division of American professional soccer, roster turnover from year to year is to be expected.
It’s a bit unusual, however, to field an almost entirely new squad. But that’s exactly what Forward Madison will do as it takes the field this weekend for its eighth campaign in USL League One.
Only Derek Gebhard, the longest-tenured member of Forward Madison and the team’s all-time leading scorer, returns from the 2025 season. The rest of the 17 players announced to this point not only have never played in Madison, but have never played in the league.
But don’t call it a rebuild.
"We're looking at it more as a reload than a rebuild,” said head coach Matt Glaeser. “I think there's some foundations that we're pretty confident with just sort of structurally as an organization."
Following a ninth-place finish in a 14-team league, and winning just eight of 30 games, it was clear some changes needed to be made. A complete roster overhaul wasn’t the intention, however.
"It's not always just like the club makes the decision. There's a lot of times it's a mutual thing too,” Glaeser said, noting that the club entered discussions with a handful of players from the 2025 squad who were up for new contracts. “I know there's some guys, for instance, that were on our roster last year that got massive pay rises even within our league."
Early on in an injury-plagued 2025 campaign, the front office and coaching staff knew they’d need to do something different.
“We knew probably by May or June of last year that we weren't going to keep doing what we'd been doing,” chief operating officer Conor Caloia said. “We needed a different approach."
Perhaps the most significant change in the offseason was the addition of sporting director Matt Cairns, who has taken over player personnel responsibilities, freeing Glaeser to focus on managing the squad.
“It's really hard on coaches to have to sign players, because coaches, they're the ones arguing or negotiating with an agent, and then have to turn around and the player reports, and the coach has to try and get the most out of them,” Caloia said, “It's really been unfair to Matt Glaeser for the last four years to have to do that."
"For so many years, the League One model is to bring back veteran players, hope they perform better. And it's kind of a crapshoot. And I think we're going away from that crapshoot and looking a little more at data and science in trying to build something more long term,” Caloia added.
Cairns has put together a roster that’s considerably younger – the average age of this year’s player is closer to 23 than to 28 as it was last year – as well as bigger and more athletic.
(“I used to feel tall around here. I don’t anymore,” Caloia quipped.)
Physical resilience is a priority, Cairns said.
"USL League One poses a unique challenge week to week,” he said. “You can be playing in Texas in July, in Florida in August, and in Madison, Wisconsin, in April or May… We need players that have the physical skill set to cover big spaces… and the technical ability to control games with the ball. We want to be the protagonist, we want to take the game to the opposition."
The team is also looking for players on their way up, players who are hungry to prove themselves and potentially move to a higher level in the future.
"Even more so than the backgrounds in particular, it's more like where they're at,” Glaeser said. “Guys that maybe haven't peaked just yet, guys that are still on the phase of development and where maybe their best years are still in front of them."
“If players move on, it means that they've done incredibly well, and that will likely mean the team's done incredibly well,” Cairns said. “We want players who are ambitious and want to go on to MLS, Europe, wherever their level can take them."
“Renewed optimism”
There’s a lot happening around Breese Stevens Field besides the League One season getting underway this weekend. New turf will be installed by May 1; a women’s team will take the field later this spring; the World Cup being hosted in the United States will renew interest in the sport; the stadium will celebrate its 100th anniversary.
"I'd say there's renewed optimism around here. I think we feel good,” Caloia said. "The energy is the best I've seen around here in a couple years, for sure. Maybe since I've been here. It's a different type of energy."
"We're excited about a group of players that are really excited to come into our environment and have a point to prove in the league, maybe not as much known quantities within our league, like what we've seen in the past,” Glaese said."With that comes a lot of excitement, and there comes a lot of hope for what we could become… just a lot of being ready to learn each other, to get to know each other, to grow and to build this thing really together."
Win or lose, Caloia said he’s confident the team will be fun to watch.
"My hope is we're more exciting for our fans,” he said. “While we've had some ups and downs on the field over the years, we're not normally amongst the leaders in goals scored… this time of year, we always talk about being more offensive… but we're not always lighting it up. And my hope is we will be a little more exciting to watch."
One thing that hasn’t changed since the team first kicked a ball in 2019: the fan base is among the most dedicated in the American lower divisions. The team averaged nearly 4,000 fans per home game, even in the down year of 2025.
"We have the best environment in the league,” Cairns said. “You've got a whole community invested in a soccer club… Forward Madison reminds me of a European club in that sense — the Flock, the supporters section, how much they care about the team, the atmosphere at home games … Players want to come and be a part of that and play for real fans that care about the team, that are passionate about the team, and a team that has an impact on the city it's playing in. They're not tucked away 20 miles outside of town, playing in front of 1,000 people, and 500 of them were free tickets."
The Mingos kick off Saturday at 6 pm at defending league champions One Knoxville, which notched its first win of the season over Westchester over the weekend. The club is hosting a watch party at Prost, 401 East Washington Avenue.
