Pensacola FC’s Justin Witkin on the Team’s First National Title — and What’s Next

Attorney and club owner Justin Witkin joined Rick’s Blog Live to talk about Pensacola FC’s run to a men’s national championship, the road ahead in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, and where a future USL Soccer stadium might fit into Pensacola.

Pensacola FC owner Justin Witkin stopped by Rick’s Blog Live this week to talk about a championship he still seemed a little surprised to be talking about. The club won its first men’s national championship Sunday, beating Iron Rose FC of Roseville, California, 1-0 in extra time in Denton, Texas — and Witkin, who’s been around the sport since he was seven years old, says the moment hit him harder than he expected.

“I was really surprised by the amount of emotion that I felt. When we won that trophy, boy, I was just flying. And I was literally flying. The players picked me up and threw me in the air.”

A club with deep roots. Pensacola FC didn’t start as a men’s program at all. The club began in 2011 as the Texans, built around a women’s team that went on to win national championships in 2012 and 2019. The men’s side is newer — this was only its sixth season — competing in the League for Clubs, which Witkin describes as the fourth tier of the U.S. Soccer pyramid, roughly equivalent to Single-A in baseball terms. It’s a short, brutal season: 14 games in just over two months, played almost entirely by college players and recent grads chasing a shot at a professional contract.

The road to the title ran through familiar and unfamiliar territory alike:

• Beat rival Tallahassee to win the East Division
• Beat Union 10 of Daphne to win the Gulf Coast Conference
• Advanced past Capital City FC of Austin, Texas, by forfeit after that club played ineligible players
• Beat the East Region winner from New York in the national semifinal
• Beat Iron Rose FC of California, 1-0 in extra time, for the national title

Witkin credited the team’s continuity for the run, noting Pensacola FC keeps roughly 50% of its roster year to year despite constant turnover from graduating and international players who have to return home. Team captain Mikey Lightbourne has been with the club all six years.

On the bigger question hanging over the club — whether Pensacola ever lands a USL Soccer franchise — Witkin said he remains engaged with the mayor’s office on the possibility, even after an initial site option fell through. He pointed to the city’s ongoing study into adapting Blue Wahoo Stadium for soccer as a hopeful sign, though he acknowledged real engineering hurdles, from the stadium’s north-south orientation to the physical work of removing a pitcher’s mound.

“There is no better place. I mean, if I could pick, I would, number one, always pick Wahoo Stadium. It’s so wonderfully located.”

For now, though, Witkin said he’s content to let the club savor a first-of-its-kind moment. “It’s not that often you get to say, ‘I won a national championship,'” he said. “I don’t care what level… and we did it this year, and it felt darn good.”