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Charleston Battery defender Benji Ettienne takes control of the ball during a home game against Louisville City.
Photo by Mic Smith
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Big fans
Queen Anne’s Revenge supporters fly the team colors and take no prisoners in their enthusiastic support of the Charleston Battery.
Photo by Mic Smith
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Best seats in the house
The Ravenel Bridge provides the backdrop to the Charleston Battery’s new home stadium at Patriots Point.
Photo by Mic Smith
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Sign here
Soccer fans young and old line up for autographs from players like right back defender Matt Sheldon, knowing that he and other Charleston Battery stars could be called up to the the top rung of U.S. professional soccer. “It’s a dream I’ll always have, to play in the MLS or even higher, to be honest,” says Sheldon.
Photo by Mic Smith
In the 31st minute of an early-season match against United Soccer League’s top team, Louisville City, Charleston Battery midfielder Andrew Booth intercepts a back pass and squares the ball to forward Mauro Cichero. Taking a deft touch to line up his shot, Cichero strikes it low and left past the opposing goalkeeper to find the back of the net, as thousands of Battery fans at Patriots Point Stadium—many of them clad in the home team’s yellow-and-black jerseys—roar like crazy.
The Supporter Section, a stand of bleachers devoted to the most diehard and passionate part of the fan base, goes especially wild. Someone in a pirate hat lights a flare, and yellow smoke envelops the fist-pumpers, the foot-stompers, the flag-wavers and the noise-makers. Drummers drum a war beat as confetti rains down on the main supporter groups—The Regiment, The Queen Anne’s Revenge, The Bombshells—who break into a call-and-response chant:
We are the Holy City!
Home of the Battery …
Can you hear our cannons roar?
Can you feel our thunder?
We’re the fleet of Charleston
Come to put you under!
The team on the field is equally joyous, celebrating Cichero’s second goal of the season by piling on top of him near the corner flag. The Battery are now up 1-0 on a team that hasn’t lost a game all season, and nearly everyone in the stadium is cheering them on.
Because, as anyone who’s ever fallen in love with the world’s most popular sport will tell you, soccer is “the beautiful game.”
Jeff Uyak, a longtime Battery supporter who used to live in England, puts it this way: “It’s football,” he says, using the term for soccer that most of the world uses. “Period. End. And it’s local football. And local football is life.”
Long before America went crazy for soccer and NBC started airing English Premier League matches on television, and long before the U.S. was awarded the 2026 World Cup—Tommy Byrne was a Charleston Battery diehard.
He’s been a member of the supporter group The Regiment for over a decade. He goes to every home game. He’s got Battery tattoos. He goes to at least one away game every season and trades scarves with the rival supporter group. During the pandemic, he got together on Zoom with fellow supporters to watch the games on ESPN+, which airs all USL matches.
“Traditionally, in all soccer teams, they have a supporter group,” he says before the Louisville City game, unfolding a lawn chair for the tailgate and explaining the fervor of Battery fandom.
Other supporters are helping themselves to hot dogs and sausages as a Bluetooth speaker blares get-pumped-up music. “Frequently, they’re called The Ultras. We’re friendly and welcoming. We’ll sing and chant, but we’re not mean about it. We’re just out here to have a good time.”
These groups may only constitute a small percentage of the roughly 3,000 fans in regular attendance at Battery games, but they are certainly the loudest and most intense. They are not exactly rivals who support the same team—in fact, you can be a member of multiple groups—but each group has its distinct identity. The Queen Anne’s Revenge has been described as “the rowdy younger brother” to the older and more traditional Regiment; The Bombshells are all women.
No matter their name or makeup, the supporters all know the same songs and chants for their beloved Battery, one of the United Soccer League’s oldest continuously operating teams.
Founded in 1993 by Tony Bakker, who owned the software company Blackbaud, the team played for many years at MUSC Health Stadium on Daniel Island, the first non-MLS soccer-specific stadium in the country. Bakker sold his ownership in 2016 to B Sports Entertainment, whose three-season tenure is generally regarded by Battery fans as “the dark days.”
Enter businessman Rob Salvatore, who bought the team in 2019. Salvatore describes himself as a very hands-on owner (“kind of like the CEO”), and one of his first big decisions was to move the team to a new stadium in Mount Pleasant. He also replaced longtime Battery coach Mike Anheuser with Conor Casey, who played for 16 seasons in the MLS.
Although some fans were skeptical about these moves, they now relish the new location and new coach.
“With Conor, he came in and said, ‘I’m gonna make the team the way I wanna make it,’” says Byrne. “It’s very pressing, very forward, and it makes it super exciting to watch.”
On the day of their game against Louisville City in late April, goalkeeper and fan favorite Joe Kuzminsky is amped. He pounds his goalie gloves together, encouraging his teammates to come out strong.
Behind him, Drew Bartow fires up a chant that, he says, has “been passed down kind of like grandma’s biscuit recipe.”
“As a goalkeeper right in front of them, I think I have a really good relationship with them,” Kuzminsky says about Battery fans. “They’ve been so warm and welcoming. That Southern hospitality is real. And on the field, it’s better having those fans behind you, yelling your name or cheering you when you make a save or score a goal.”
Bartow returns the sentiment: “I love this because these kids are hustling. They want to make it to the next step if they can. Most of them don’t, but they give it 110% every time.”
Therein lies one of the attractions of minor league sports. As a fan, you know that the players play their hearts out every game because they have ambitions to move up. Battery players are just one rung away from the top level of U.S. professional soccer—the MLS. The Greenville Triumph, South Carolina’s other professional soccer team, plays one division below the Battery in USL League One, and The Greenville Liberty Soccer Club is a new women’s pre-professional soccer team that began competing in May.
These players know, then, that scouts are always watching. Take Battery right back defender Matt Sheldon, for instance. In the fifth minute of the game against Louisville, he runs all the way up the pitch to take a throw-in, launches a long throw into the penalty area, then races all the way back downfield to defend again.
“It’s a dream I’ll always have, to play in the MLS or even higher, to be honest,” says Sheldon, who at 29 has played all over the world, from New Zealand to Germany. “I know that comes from performing and from having really great seasons in the USL. I truly believe that if I have a couple of standout seasons, I can make that progression.”
This means that Battery players train year-round, and professional soccer is a full-time job. Although they have their hobbies outside of the sport (Kuzminsky restores old cars, Sheldon has a YouTube channel with nearly 500,000 subscribers), they’re here to play ball for a living.
And for the first 72 minutes against Louisville, it looks good for the Battery. Kuzminsky’s fine saves, Sheldon’s good tackles, and Leland Archer’s strong clearances have kept the away team off the score sheet. But then Louisville City finds some space on the left, and Kuzminsky is beaten at the near post. Patriots Point goes nearly silent, save for a smattering of applause from the Louisville City fans and their players.
But the Battery supporter groups are not deterred, and they start up their chants again.
Finally, when the Battery do hold the top team in the USL to a 1-1 draw, the players walk over to the supporter section after the final whistle and clap for the people who have been clapping all game long for them.
Byrne is beaming as he says, “I tell you what, having that kind of interaction is super important to us because it makes us feel like they appreciate the fact we’re coming out here, we’re screaming our lungs out. I’m gonna be hoarse for two days, and they’ve been running for 90 minutes, they’re exhausted. I get it. But that right there means everything to everybody.”
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Get There
The Patriots Point Soccer Complex is located at 85 Patriots Point Road in Mount Pleasant. Single-game tickets start at $12 for general admission. For more information, visit charlestonbattery.com.
Charleston Battery upcoming home games
Saturday, Sept. 3, at 7 p.m. vs. New York Red Bulls II
Saturday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. vs. Tampa Bay Rowdies
Friday, Sept. 23, at 7 p.m. vs. Rio Grande Valley FC Toros
Saturday, Oct. 15, at 5 p.m. vs. Loudoun United FC