Club History

Anglers was founded November 2021, but the Club traces it’s origin back through two other local clubs.

Victory FC2, founded in 2010, would reincorporate as Anglers Football Club in 2021.

Woodland Park FC, founded in 2014, would merge with Anglers in 2023.

Over the years, the Club has reinvented itself multiple times, but we have always endeavored to remember our roots, borrowing from the cultures of the clubs that preceded us and learning from both their successes and missteps.  For more on their stories, read on!

Victory For Christ Football Club (hence the FC2) was founded when a father and son, frustrated by the time commitment and financial cost of the typical club soccer experience, decided to try something new.  Their idea?  Form a team outside the Colorado Soccer Association and play friendlies against local opponents on weeknights.

So, in the fall of 2010, Patrick Malfitano and his son Spencer launched a team, The Anglers, but it was not without challenges or opposition.  Teammates and friends within the local soccer community said this idea would never work…  Even more challenging, a director of another prominent club looked to discredit the validity of The Anglers.  But, through it all, the Malfitanos pressed on and fielded a team of Spencer and his friends, a total of seventeen elementary-aged boys.

Over the years, their team became a small club through nothing but word-of-mouth marketing and adopted the name Victory FC2.  Under the Malfitanos’ leadership, VFC2 competed for twenty-one seasons over eleven years.  A true feat for an idea that would never work…

In 2021, Patrick was faced with a pivotal moment in the life of his family.  With his youngest daughter graduating from high school, he was ready to step away from soccer, possibly dissolving VFC2 in the process.  Seeing a unique opportunity to grow a program that had filled a need in the soccer community, Brendan Campagna and Jason Rollins, a father of multiple VFC2 players, took over.  From the remnant of Victory For Christ Football Club, Anglers Football Club (a name meant to honor that original team from 2010) was launched.

Woodland Park Football Club (WPFC) was founded when local families, desiring soccer opportunities beyond the Parks & Rec league, but not wanting to drive down to Colorado Springs multiple nights a week, sought to create something new.

So, in the spring of 2014, they formed WPFC.  Teams would practice locally in Woodland Park during the week, then travel into Colorado Springs on the weekend to compete in the Pride Recreational League.  It was a successful balance of convenience and better competition.  Over the years, teams grew, eventually needing to adopt a waitlist full of hopeful families.

In fall 2023, Marcie James, the director of WPFC, was ready to move on after her own sons had transitioned to competitive soccer with other clubs.  With no new leadership in place, the organization was on borrowed time and planning to dissolve.

Anglers had been playing friendlies against WPFC over several seasons, and when Marcie shared the details of their situation with Anglers leadership, the clubs began exploring options of a merger that could keep teams in Woodland Park playing.  Like with Victory FC2, there was an opportunity to grow and evolve a program that had filled a need in the soccer community, albeit a different community than where Anglers was currently operating.  In November of 2023, Woodland Park Football Club was grafted into Anglers Football Club.

Media Coverage

January 2024