Scenic City SC kicks off its 2025 UPSL Fall season this Saturday when Birmingham FC visits Chattanooga. The game will kick off at 7pm at the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts field. The hosts come into the season on a high off a successful Spring campaign in which they won the UPSL Georgia Division One and earned promotion to the Premier Division. They’ll play this Fall in Georgia Zone 2.
I recently chatted with their co-founder, Joshua Luff, to talk about the club’s mission (on and off the field) and their hopes for the season.
We began talking a little about Joshua’s own journey in soccer.
Joshua: I grew up playing in the Chicagoland area and played soccer for some big clubs. As a kid of the 80s and 90s, I got a lot of exposure to top level youth and indoor professional soccer. That was what was available in those days. I was trained by some top level coaches especially playing Division 1 college soccer. There were no professional opportunities outside of the indoor game, and this wasn’t a life I wanted long-term. I had teammates go to Northwestern, Indiana, Navy, Cal State, Bowling Green and those guys were fully capable of Division 1 soccer.
I moved down to the Chattanooga area in 2019. My son was born in 2010 and has spent time with the Chattanooga FC Academy and Red Wolves ECNL Academy. I think highly of both clubs. MLS Next is fantastic for CFC and what the Red Wolves are doing with the fist team is very good. But there was a gap in coverage between Academies and first teams. That led myself and Nick Odeny to start up Scenic City. We both have regular full-time jobs but despite our limited resources and time we thought we could still make a difference. Chattanooga should be producing a lot more Division 1 and Pro soccer player. So, we’re trying to help push that along, in the most positive way possible. If you see a need, a way to fix it, go do it. That’s the mantra.
In a nutshell, what is the mission of Scenic City SC?
Joshua: To develop local players. For them to become pros or just go to college, even D3 schools. We want to give young men an avenue to get more battle tested in the game. A lot of colleges don’t recruit because kids in this country don’t have much experience beyond playing at youth levels. So why not fix that? It can’t just be a load of 2010s and 2009s playing grown men, there needs to be a blend of different age group opportunities. So, a solution to this problem is a mixed age group who want to play college and perhaps pro someday to move up the ranks and earn that place. A lot of people think kids become pros at 18 or 19, but most don’t until their 20s. Unfortunately, in the Southeast there’s not a lot of men’s college soccer. Things like the UPSL, NPSL, and USL League 2 help solve that.
What made Scenic City SC choose the UPSL over other options in the semi-pro landscape?
Joshua: NPSL is great, but in this region there’s a lot more travel involved. NISA Nation is also quite disparate right now, I’m hoping it grows. USL 2 is another fantastic league with unbelievable talent. I watched Vermont Green and thought they’re good enough to play USL 1 teams. Great fanbase, love seeing that for the game. But based on demographics and that ‘blended group’ I spoke about, UPSL is the best fit. If you want to get guys who are working a job and trying to play soccer, develop, or stay in good shape, the logistics matter. I was part of the group that was previously Chattanooga United, Nick and I then formed Scenic City. We chose to play in Georgia to reduce travel. Travelling to the likes of Southern Indiana was too much of a burden. High school and college students on their break could do it, but guys who are working couldn’t. So, for us, it became a matter of logistics. In USL 2 in this region the logistics aren’t bad, but they only play in the summer, we want to be year-round. But the presence of all these other leagues is great as we can draw from them to find opponents for friendly games.
We don’t intend to step into the academy scene. We’re never trying to compete with CFC or the Red Wolves. Maybe CFC will close the same gap we’re looking to as they also look at UPSL. Their mission will be different anyway, and that’s great.
The club’s debut campaign was the UPSL Division One Spring season. Having only lost one game, they advanced to the playoffs where Georgia Revolution and Georgia Impact were both vanquished. This culminated in the Georgia Final against Athletico Buford FC in late June. Playing at home, Scenic City won 2-1 and won promotion.
Tell me about your Spring Season. It was hugely successful.
Joshua: We only lost one game. Knowing the guys we had, I can’t say I’m totally surprised. We saw an incredibly overwhelming response from the guys who really bonded together. You know, Nick and I are not doing this for the money. We would run Scenic City as a non-profit if we could. Neither of us takes a coaching salary or pulls money out. It all goes in and back to the players who pay a little, which we try to keep manageable. It’s amazing when you see the guys pull together and you’ve built a true team, a true club where everybody has a role to play. Everybody did something and owned a part of that success. I may be ‘the leader’ and the ‘Head Coach’ but they were the ones to pull together and do it together, and I think it’s incredible. That’s what a team is all about, we carry each other.
We also talk about life skills all the time. I’ve been fortunate enough to be fairly successful in the business world and recently I sent a message to a friend who was a French national team player. I emailed him to thank him for all the things he taught me on the soccer field and how it helped me in life. If you apply lessons from the soccer field, you can be successful off it. Be hard working, dedicated, focused on improving, being honest with yourself. If you’re right footed and not good with your left; work to improve that! I want these guys to become the best they can be.
How has the roster build for Fall been going?
Joshua: We’re fortunate that, outside of several who’ve moved on to play college or do other things, it’s largely the same group as in Spring. Everybody else stayed. We picked up a few new guys who won’t replace them but add more. For Division One [their B team, more on that below] we’ve got a boatload of younger new players. Some will play High School in Spring, some will not and stay on with us.
So, we have 20 guys, and now another 20 new guys with the Division One team. Bringing the new guys in is a new challenge, and we want to overcome it. We have an original core where there’s great trust and a bond. Now we’re trying to integrate 20 people into that. What’s great to see is many of the original guys stepping up and asking, “How can I help?”
You face some tough opponents in your division.
Joshua: There are some great teams, great talent. To prepare for them we’ll continue to build and work together as a unit. We know the results will follow the hard work and prep we put in. If and when we do lose or tie or don’t get the three points we’d hoped to achieve, we’ll use it as an opportunity to learn. We try to find that every single week, regardless. That’s where you can see a team grow, from the losses.
But even in the wins. After we win, I ask them what could we have done better. We know what we did right, but what can we do better? When you lose, you always question everything: what if this, what if that, what about that missed opportunity, that red card, etc. But from a life lessons standpoint, learning from success is as important as learning from failure.
You know, last season everybody took away a lot from that single loss we had. I can live with a loss if people learn life lessons. That really caused people to think we could have controlled this; we could have done better. It’ll be the same mantra for the Fall. We’ll aim to be a lot more focused on controlling what we can control, rather than the things we can’t. I don’t want to put expectations, just as we didn’t last year. We want to go out, control our game and do our jobs. Everyone plays their part, we’ll figure it out together.
Why is Scenic City also launching a B team this Fall?
Joshua: We always wanted to get to the point of having two teams, at some point. In Spring we were fortunate enough to win and get promoted. We’re thankful for that and it was a fun season to be part of. But ultimately the real goal was to have two teams. One team will be more competitive and play for the wins. The other can still be focused on winning games but have a little more focus on development, getting used to our style, and getting some game time.
Both teams train together, that’s an important point. While there will be some separation for little parts, it’s important not just to develop the Division One guys but that they learn how the entire squad works and that they get to know fellas in the Premier Division team so they’re familiar with them when they eventually make the step-up.
Are you hoping to see fans at Scenic City games? Why should they come?
Joshua: Yes, we’re definitely hoping for fans to come out. Last season we had some good turnouts, especially in the Playoffs. We would love to get more community involvement but that’s a struggle since we’re so club oriented and we focus so much on player development. I’ve not done the best job on social media, and we don’t want to spend precious funds on that. The money and time we have we put into the players and the team. We hope the team themselves spread the word. We hope this article helps spread the word. We’ve got some talented high school photographers who come and post on social media. Ultimately, we want the club to be community based and built. While we can’t pay for a lot of things, we can build it together.
It will be $5 for admission at the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts soccer field. Our Division One games will be there also and we’ve a tentative schedule blocked off with CSLA where we’re hoping to have both teams play the same day. CSLA has been really great. We’re also hoping to provide some concessions.
And finally, where do you want to see Scenic City SC in five years?
Joshua: I’d really like for guys to come back five years from now saying they’ve accomplished their goals and their dreams. For them to have played Division 1 college soccer or just got more time in college than they would have done otherwise. We had one player last year that got opportunities to trial with some MLS academies, because they saw he was playing-up in age and he was performing. Our top scorer last season was a 2010. He’s playing for Baylor [High School] now in the Spring, hopefully he’ll have success there because he’s more ready due to having played for us.
I’d like more community involvement. Hopefully more in the way of resources and other things, people to pitch-in any way they can. And from the players’ perspective, not just accolades but being able to say, “I learned a ton from that” and it translates into whatever career they chose.
The Southeast Soccer Report will be providing coverage of Scenic City’s maiden Premier Division season this Fall. The opening game of the regular season kicks off Saturday evening (September 6th) at Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts. The visiting opposition will be FC Birmingham at kick-off will be 7pm (Eastern). Entrance is only $5.
You can follow Scenic City SC’s journey on Instagram (@sceniccitysc) and their website (https://www.sceniccitysc.com/). My thanks to Joshua for his time and to Evan Strand for the banner photo. You can follow Evan on Instagram (@shotsbystrand).