OUR STORY 

We have a truly humble origin story!  It all began as the ‘Windsor Warriors’ a girls U8 team in the Town of Windsor’s Recreational Department coached by Ceri Jones (current Club President), Chris Thomas (current coach) and Matt Golumbowksi who were all Dads of players.  This group of girls stayed together playing for a few years in Windsor and then the Fort Collins Soccer Club league as a ‘Travel Rec’ team.  While the team were playing at the U14 level, Ceri invited James Walters (current Executive Director), a friend and fellow Welshman, to help coach the group.   

People seemed to enjoy the type of environment and experience we were creating for our girls so we were quickly joined by another local U12 team coached by Katie Pelkey, current Vice President of our Board of Directors member and proud Mum of two Lightning players.  We were then joined by Megan Casterline and Ben Wallace’s teams (our OG’s’ and all still loyal coaches!) and the ‘snowball’ just kept gathering momentum.  As more teams joined our group, a shared vision started to materialize about the creation of an actual Windsor based ‘all girls’ Colorado Soccer Association (CSA) affiliated Club.  A lot of work ensued behind the scenes to construct the framework for our organization and, in the Winter of 2021, our CSA application was incredibly approved on our ‘first attempt’ and the ‘Windsor Warriors Athletic Football Club’ was officially born!  Then, only two years ago, we decided to welcome boys teams to our Club to truly cater to most soccer needs in Windsor and the surrounding area!

There was no ‘grand design’ for a certain number of teams or players, rather, just a shared philosophy that we spent hours discussing which was based on a dream of creating a ‘grassroots community based’ Club that mirrored the sort of Welsh rugby/soccer environment that Ceri and James had been raised in.  One that would hold true to the strong values and principles that guide us.  One that would welcome players and coaches of all ages, levels of commitment and ability.  One that would offer families excellent ‘value for money’ and prioritize ‘Experience Over Outcomes’!!  This is our Club’s matra and it speaks to our journey together and a conviction that if we patiently focus on the ‘experience’ of learning and not worry about the ‘outcomes’ then the ‘results’, on and off the field, will naturally follow!  Indeed, we truly believe that it is more important to prioritize a player’s character, even before their soccer skills, and in doing so the scoreline will take care of itself and you’ll gain ‘victories’ in every sense of the word.

The amazing rapid growth of the ‘Windsor Warriors AFC’ resulted in a serious logistical challenge - there were simply not enough pitches to train and play on via the Town of Windsor, who we had built a wonderful relationship with.  The Club was approached by Kevin Ireland, Future Legend’s Soccer Academy Director, to see if we were interested in establishing a partnership with them that would result in us having unprecedented and exclusive access to their emerging Complex facilities including the Dome, the Stadium and North turf pitches along with the promise of the 8 full size pitches to be developed on the east side of the Complex.  In the Spring of 2024, an agreement was reached that resulted in a rebrand of our Club to the ‘Northern Colorado Lightning Academy’ (NOCOLA).  In many ways we were sad to shift from the Warriors badge and colors but the creation of a holistic soccer brand that thematically tied into the Hailstorm and Rain FC clubs being run by Future Legends made a lot of sense.  Additionally, we have always felt that it’s not the badge on the chest that matters as much as the heartbeat behind it!       

Now, in just under 4 years of being an official CSA club, we have organically expanded to 45 teams, almost 600 players and more than 40 coaches across the ‘Intermediate’ (aka ‘Travel Rec’), ‘Lightning Development Program (LDP)’, ‘Competitive’ and ‘Elite’ levels of play!  The LDP presents us with an incredible pipeline for talented U10 players and, in the Fall of 2024, we created our ‘Sparks’ Friday night program for players 4-7 years old!  Additionally, we have now run highly successful summer and winter skills camps open to players from all clubs and we are excited to build a ‘Little Strikers’ experience for 2-3 year olds in 2025.       

Friends, we believe our future is very bright and that we can have a positive impact on our community by helping to nurture the development of our young people.  The speed of our Club’s evolution has candidly surprised us but we continue to run the NOCOLA with the same level of passion, pride, wonder, humility and appreciation that we had with only one girls Travel Rec team - as Ceri often puts it, “we’re building an airplane in the sky”!!  It is truly our privilege to lead this incredible collection of kids, parents, coaches, administrators and sponsorship partners!  This is a legacy project that we hope will outlive us all; thank you for believing and joining us in our journey together!

Cheers,

Ceri Jones and James Walters - Club Founders