CCL marks 25th anniversary with announcement of new brand identity

Published in Partnership with Club Champions

Charlottesville, Virginia – The Club Champions League (CCL) has announced it is kicking off the 2023-24 season by unveiling its new name, logo, brand identity, and website to illustrate its continued evolution.

The Virginia Club Champions League (VCCL), a 501(c)3 nonprofit youth and amateur soccer organization, was founded in 1997. As the league expanded to Northern Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., in 2013, it dropped the ‘V’ to become the Club Champions League to reflect its growing membership beyond the borders of Virginia.

Over the past ten years, the CCL has helped over 150 independent clubs develop from within while expanding its business model to include college showcases, tournaments, coaching education, events, and international travel management. The CCL has evolved to be more than just a league.

The new name, Club Champions, embraces the organization’s mission of providing a quality, professional platform for youth soccer leagues, events/tournaments, and international travel, regardless of a club’s size or demographic. Club Champions will also continue to help clubs save money through a low-cost barrier of entry.

“We are true ‘Champions’ of clubs and teams,” said Brian Kuk, Club Champions, Executive Director. “For over 25 years, through the ever-changing landscape of youth soccer, we have been a leader in the marketplace, offering event and league opportunities that meet the competitive needs of clubs and teams and save them money.”

“Our lower-cost, higher-value soccer experiences allow youth soccer clubs and teams to apply these savings to hiring additional staff, developing facilities, providing financial aid, and more,” Kuk continued. “Since 2013, we have saved clubs over 2.5 million dollars. This evolution is just another step in our efforts to focus on helping clubs and teams grow on and off the field.”

The new logo (two versions seen above) presents a modern, inclusive, uniting, collaborative, abstract, colorful, intuitive, creative, and daring brand identity. The circle addresses the shape and inclusiveness of the sport of soccer worldwide. This is also seen as the flames inside the logo do not touch. The flames encompass the connectivity of the Club Champions’ three key pillars: Events (black flame), International Experiences (orange flame), and League play (red flame). The white Cup inside the flames showcases the ability of anyone to succeed and find success. The black in the logo exudes the prestige, authority, and strength of the Club Champions’ key pillars. The orange lies in the spectrum of red and cheerful yellow and provides the warmth, friendship, self-confidence, enthusiasm, and enjoyment that youth soccer players often express when they play the game. Red harnesses the energy, courage, passion, and determination of the players, coaches, teams, clubs, and fans. The white offers truth and purity in the Club Champions’ mission.

“The new logo is modern and vibrant and tells the story of an organization dedicated to its mission of helping clubs, teams, coaches, and players of all levels. This evolution will also allow us to be more nimble and agile to meet the needs of our member clubs and teams,” stated Darryl Gee, Club Champions, Technical Director.

The Club Champions event portfolio presents opportunities for travel teams of all levels around the country to participate in the following events:

• Commonwealth Clash: Top August youth soccer tournament for U9-U19s
• Adidas College Showcase: Top December College Recruiting event for U15-U19s
• Adidas National Cup: Nationally recognized February event for U9-U19s
• Kwik Goal Jamborees: Locally Competitive, Educational, Fun one-day events U8-U10s (year-round)

All events are for boys and girls and take place in Richmond, Virginia, while Kwik Goal Jamborees are geographically located around the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Club Champions has also partnered with United States Youth Soccer (USYS) and Elite Development Program (EDP) to establish the USYS National League Regional Showcases managed by EDP and in collaboration with Club Champions and Virginia Youth Soccer Association (VYSA). In 2023, over 150 college coaches attended River City Sportsplex. In 2024, there will be a Girls-only Showcase from January 26-28 and a Boys-only Showcase from February 2-4.

The Club Champions international travel portfolio offers individuals, regardless of league affiliation, through a tryout process, the opportunity to try out for UNITED teams that will travel each summer to Sweden (Gothia Cup, U17-U18s), Denmark (Vildbjerg Cup, U15-U16s), and Iceland (Rey Cup, U13-U14s). Depending on the number of players trying out, Club Champions may take more than one team per travel experience.

The Club Champions offers two league options: team-based and club-to-club league play. The pinnacle of team-based league play is PRO23, a competitive summer league platform for top youth, amateur, current and former college, and former professional players. Team-based options are geographically located around Virginia, available for boys and girls, and include:

• NextGen U8-U10s Available in Northern Virginia and Southeast Virginia
• Super League U11-U12s Available in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and D.C.
• DMV Premier League U13-U19s Available in Northern Virginia, Maryland, and D.C.
• Premier League East U11-U19s Available in Central and Southeast Virginia
• Premier League West U11-U19s Available in West Central, West, and Southwest Virginia
• PRO23 U16+ Available in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C.

Team-based league play for U11-U19s in all divisions leads to The Pinnacle, an end-of-the-season Final Four event that matches the top teams from each age group and gender from each league. Champions are crowned in the U11-U19s in the Fall and U11-U15s in the Spring.

The League of Champions is an elite club-to-club soccer experience. Club-to-club allows a club’s technical director to oversee all players, coaches, and teams at one location on the same day. Centralized scheduling allows games to be played on the same day at one site. Coaches with two teams have games deconflicted, and families with multiple children travel to only one location. Club Champions are crowned at the end of the Fall and Spring seasons. Teams compete for an age group championship while also accumulating club points for their club. Club points are associated with the team’s standing in their age group division. Overall Club, Boys, and Girls Champions are crowned each season.

Visit ClubChampions.org for additional information.