Western Mass Pioneers is an American soccer team based in Ludlow, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1998, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American soccer pyramid.
The team plays its home games at Lusitano Stadium, where they have played since 1998. The team's colors are red, black and white.
Contents
History
In August 1997, the USISL announced it had awarded an expansion franchise to Gremio Lusitano, an amateur soccer club based in Ludlow, Massachusetts. The USISL had set a condition for new teams which prohibited ethnic team names which prevented the club from using the name Gremio or Lusitano. Therefore, the region's newspaper, the Springfield Union-News, held a week-long "name the team" contest which resulted in the selection of Pioneers. In October 1997, general manager Rick Andre named Leszek Wrona, who had both played for and coached Gremio Lusitano, as head coach of the Pioneers. In September 1999, the Pioneers expressed an interest in moving up to the A-League after winning the USL D-3 Pro League. However, the team elected to remain in the D-3 Pro League. In 2001, John Voight replaced Wrona has head coach. Wrona would return in 2005, leave in 2007 and return again in 2008. By 2003, the team was fielding ten Junior Pioneer youth teams which competed in the Super Y-League. Through all these years, the team has remained under the ownership of Gremio Lusitano.
On December 22, 2009, following the exodus of teams from the USL to the new North American Soccer League, the Pioneers announced that they would self-relegate, and play in the USL Premier Development League in 2010.
Players
Notable former players
This list of notable former players comprises players who went on to play professional soccer after playing for the team in the Premier Development League, or those who previously played professionally before joining the team.
Honors
USL League Two Eastern Conference Champions 2021
USL League Two Northeast Division Champions 2019, 2021
USL D-3 Pro League Champions 1999
USL D-3 Pro League Northern Division Champions 1999, 2002
USL Second Division Regular Season Champions 2005
Head coaches
Leszek Wrona (1998–2001, 2004–2006, 2008–2010)
John Voight (2002–2003)
Tom d'Agostino (2007)
Joe Calabrese (2011)
Federico Molinari (2012–present)
Stadia
Lusitano Stadium, Ludlow, Massachusetts (1998–present)
Attendances
Attendance stats are calculated by averaging each team's self-reported home attendances from Kenn.com https://kenn.com/blog/soccer/all-time-usl-third-division-attendance/
https://kenn.com/blog/soccer/all-time-usl-league-two-attendance/
1998: 2,004
1999: 2,430 Playoffs: 3,975 Overall: 2,842
2000: 2,313 Playoffs: 4,041 Overall: 2,601
2001: 2,385
2002: 1,992 Playoffs: 3,422 Overall: 2,122
2003: 1,496
2004: 1,280
2005: 1,790 Playoffs: 3,846 Overall: 2,132
2006: 1,230
2007: 2,041
2008: 1,787
2009: 1,838
2010: 765 (14th in PDL)
2011: 795 (13th in PDL)
2012: 896 (9th in PDL)
2013: 1,058 (11th in PDL)
2014: 910 (12th in PDL)
2015: 654 (11th in PDL)
2016: NA
2017: NA
2018: NA
2019: NA