Eulogizing a special 2025 season in wake of roster moves ahead of next year
In the week leading up to the USL League One Final, One Knoxville SC manager Ian Fuller acknowledged how his side, understanding that the title match would be its last together as a group, was approaching the contest as a unified front with singular focus.
That solidarity was palpable in the players’ performances on the pitch. Intense yet measured, structured yet intuitive and determined yet creative, they exhibited individual flair while harnessing their idiosyncratic strengths and cooperatively applying them toward a shared purpose. Upon achieving that goal, the love and admiration they felt for one another were tangible, as well.
Like it had when it lifted the Players’ Shield as the champion of the regular season, the team celebrated winning the playoffs with smiles, hugs, laughter, dancing and no shortage of “spirited” enthusiasm. (Having borne witness to a portion of the afterparty following the acquisition of the former trophy, I can only imagine that the bash for the latter was even more euphoric and rip-roaring.) But after a grueling campaign exacting physical exertion and requiring untold sacrifices, this One Knox team deserved at the very least to commemorate its triumphs with bacchanalian excess unencumbered by the exigency of an early morning training session.
Now, 10 days removed from the bleary-eyed afterglow of that double victory, the cold, hard reality that non-amateur athletics is a business has set in with the announcement of changes to the roster in advance of the 2026 season. Although all but one member of the coaching staff and a vital core of the squad will be returning for next year’s title defense, several notable players are out of contract and will be moving on from the club.
Unfortunately, instability is the accepted order of professional soccer in general, and that is especially true at this level of the sport. Top prospects often ascend to higher tiers, and, as painful as it may be for supporters, such progression is beneficial to both individual player development and the overall health of the domestic game.
Fans of the Smokies, the minor league baseball team with which One Knox shares the grassy expanse of Covenant Health Park, are used to quality players regularly making the jump to AAA Iowa or even to the parent club on the North Side of Chicago. The same pertains to fans of the University of Tennessee, as matriculation and NIL-era transfers reshape that institution’s rosters on a yearly – if not semester-by-semester – basis.
Before the 2025 season fades too far in the rearview to clearly distinguish its characteristics, though, let us take some time to recognize the people who made it so special and to (hopefully) encapsulate the significance of their accomplishments.
Helming a program for the first time after serving as an assistant in his prior coaching roles, Fuller merits foremost credit for plotting the proper course and deploying his troops with tactical acumen for the duration of the eight-month campaign. Heatedly confrontational with officials when circumstances demanded it, Fuller nevertheless was an even-keeled, steadying presence for his team at all times. That he navigated uncharted waters to lead One Knox on its path to glory is noteworthy on its own, but the fact that the journey coincided with the gaffer supporting his spouse Susannah Collins through her cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment is genuinely remarkable.
Back-to-back Goalkeeper of the Year Sean Lewis has been a talismanic figure for the club since its promotion to League One in 2023. The Michigander’s 12 clean sheets were the most in the division in 2025, and he was singlehandedly responsible for preserving multiple wins and draws. Seeing him pull off spellbinding saves had almost become old hat, but his calm comportment between the pipes certainly will be missed next year as he departs the side.
The center-back pairing of Jordan Skelton and Sivert Haugli, undoubtedly the best in the league this season, was instrumental in earning One Knox its first hardware. While Skelton, the Geordie club captain and recipient of Defender of the Year honors, will be returning to the fold in 2026, Haugli had a monster season and always looked destined for greener pastures. We extend our best wishes to the Norwegian as he aims to further his career elsewhere.
Fuller’s system utilizes fullbacks taking up advanced positions, and both Jaheim Brown and Stuart Ritchie thrived in this scheme in 2025. Voted season MVP by the Scruffs supporters’ group, Brown even got on the scoresheet with a trio of spectacular goals. Although the Jamaican promises to be an important cog next year, negotiations are still ongoing with kooky California kid Ritchie. (In full disclosure, the left back is a favorite amongst the BLANK staff, so if a procedure to replace the incisor that was knocked out is a holdup in the talks, we may be willing to chip in to help keep him around. We also could recommend a good dentist.)
Abel Caputo (Venezuela), Callum Johnson (New York City) and Angelo Kelly (Honduras) all featured prominently in a constantly rotating defensive midfield, with each starting and making relief appearances off the bench throughout the season. Caputo will be the only one of the three back in 2026, however. Johnson, having won an NCAA championship with Clemson, is retiring at the top of his game as a double winner with Knoxville. Former USL Championship player Kelly is also moving on, although he will be fondly remembered for his contributions on the pitch and for postgame merriments that included his adorable son Milo.
As 2025 progressed, Mikkel Gøling was displaced from the starting 11 as Fuller tweaked his formation, but the young Dane scored some crucial goals in the early part of the year and should be a major factor in the next. His replacement, Kempes Tekiela, slotted perfectly into the lineup as an attacking midfielder rather than in his traditional striker role. After two years with One Knox, the fan favorite bids the Scruffy City adieu as the top goalscorer in franchise history. The German’s offensive impact cannot be overstated, as he either facilitated or finished several key tallies in his tenure here, none more salient than those he bagged in the homestretch to this season.
Mark Doyle was brought in at the beginning of the year to be the starting left winger, but he suffered several injury setbacks that sidelined him for most of the campaign. His form was excellent when he was fit, but, sadly, the Irishman exits Knoxville without having demonstrated his full potential. A star was born in Doyle’s absence, however, and he will hope to shine even brighter next year. Exciting rookie Nico Rosamilia, a New Jersey native, developed into a dependable two-way player, always willing to track back defensively and in the end scoring the match-winning goal in the playoff final, of which he was named MVP. His expectations for 2026 ought to be through the roof as a result.
On the opposite flank, Stavros Zarokostas split time with Gio Calixtro, but the Greek eventually established himself as the unquestioned starter by elevating his game to a height previously unreached. His assists and goals were critical to One Knox’s success down the stretch; his many slaloming runs in possession elicited a number of oohs and aahs all season; and he will be welcomed back next year with open arms. The young Oregonian Calixtro is an industrious worker who showed potential in his two-plus seasons with the club, but he will pursue his playing career outside of East Tennessee.
Tekiela was the first-choice No. 9 when the season began, but a minor injury forced Babacar Diene into the starting lineup early on, and his presence and productivity were potent enough that he never relinquished the spot. Leading the line with aplomb, the Senegalese striker seemed to get better as the year wore on, and he was the scorer of several important and aesthetically pleasing goals in August, September and October, even earning Player of the Month for the latter. Knoxville again contending in the league in 2026 will be contingent upon Diene replicating his form of this year.
Many fringe players also featured and performed to varying degrees of success over the course of the 2025 season. Chief among them is Dani Fernández (Spain), who lost his starting center-back role to Haugli but still operated in numerous positions and at consistent intervals, making a substantial impact as a substitute and even adding a couple of timely goals. With One Knox since its inception, he will return for another go in 2026. Joining him will be Jamaican international Scott McLeod, who fell out of favor after enduring a rough patch to start the year but who will be looking to improve his stock come next spring.
Forwards Kimarni Smith (England) and Lucas Meek (Washington) showed flashes of brilliance in their time with the club, but both were bitten by the injury bug and will hope to reinvent themselves in new environs. The same is true for Knoxville native Heath Martin, who has experienced a journeyman career in between stints with his hometown team. From an external perspective, all three appeared to be positive influences in the dressing room and frequently were seen with smiles on their faces.
At this point, James Thomas, the club’s first-ever signing and its original skipper, is for all intents and purposes a local product (albeit one with a Surrey accent), and he remains in discussions to extend his contract, as do backup netminder Johan Garibay (California) – who produced two shutouts in just five appearances and could be poised to take over the starting job in Lewis’ stead – and third-string keeper Nic Lemen, from my family’s ancestral home of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Aside from constituting the 2025 One Knox roster, what all of these individuals have in common is that they collectively galvanized the city around soccer in a way that would not have been possible (let alone conceivable) a few short years ago. The club twice set league attendance records, culminating in a hard sellout of 7,500, including 1,000 standing-room tickets, for the final. And while the roster moves are indicative of the ephemeral nature of team sports, this specific group will forever be etched in local lore – not just for what it accomplished, but also for what it represents.
For two-thirds of the year, I had the honor and the privilege of watching the squad in action in person and writing about my impressions of its evolution en route to the extraordinary conclusion to the season. For the sake of journalistic integrity, I attempted to remain an impartial observer and report only the facts as I saw them, but I’ll be the first to admit that my coverage contained a fair amount of editorialization.
I’m OK with that, though, because I believe my passion for and comprehension of the sport were better conveyed as a result, and I also think it allowed my descriptions of what transpired on the pitch to be livelier and more accurate. Luckily for me, our publisher prefers personality – “flavor,” as he calls it – over sterility, so he was fine with it, too. I preface all of this to say that the following is exclusively personal commentary.
Tim Vacek, chairperson of the board for the Scruffs, posted an eloquent screed to social media two days before the final that expressed a fully realized idea that had been percolating in my mind for a while as a concept for this very article. Rather than being sore that he beat me to the punch, however, I instead was elated, as it reinforced a conviction that I suspect we are not alone in harboring: that the compendium of talent One Knox brass assembled so invigorated the city because it directly reflected the composition of the community.
As I alluded by referencing the nationality or place of origin for each of its players, the organization is a multiethnic, multicultural entity that embodies the combined heritage and values of all 903,000-plus people who comprise the Knoxville metropolitan area. The message encouraging tolerance and commanding respect for others that is relayed over the PA before every match isn’t lip service paid to a lofty abstraction; it’s in keeping with the club’s motto that it exists for everyone, irrespective of race, religion or creed.
Fusing its diverse and disparate backgrounds into an impenetrable alloy stronger than the sum of its parts, the 2025 iteration of One Knox excelled because of its differences, not in spite of them. Through blood, sweat and tears, it scrapped, fought and persevered, winning both the league and the postseason in the process. Exemplifying and reciprocating the dedication of its loyal fanbase, the team found common ground; united in order to achieve an ultimate goal; and realized the American Dream.
