There aren’t many supporters groups in American soccer specifically created by and for women. That’s meant at times the stands of soccer stadiums can feel a bit overinfluenced by testosterone. It was that issue which Forward Madison FC supporters group Mingo Ladies sought to address when April Kigeya and Sarah Griffin founded the group in 2019.

“That’s really how I got involved too,” said Alexa Nichols, a member of Mingo Ladies since 2019. “I bought season tickets, didn’t know a single person, I had never been to a match before. I threw out a post on social media, and said basically, ‘I know nobody, is there anyone that wants to hang out?’ April got back to me and said ‘come find me, this is what I’m wearing.’”

“We’re going to donate food back and also establish gardens at the homes of those in need, so we’ll go back in and actually set up gardens, provide supplies, and volunteer hours. We’re also getting our members involved growing additional food at their residences.

We want to make it this system where everybody can get involved in their own little way.”

Mingo Ladies is organized nominally as a supporters group for Forward Madison, but its activities often have nothing to do with the club or soccer in general. It is truly a grassroots community organization which coalesced around a soccer club.

“The people I meet, I always say I otherwise wouldn’t meet them outside in Madison. In my day-to-day world, I don’t think our paths would have crossed,” said Kigeya. “But it’s just so cool that there’s so many different walks of life, different education backgrounds, different employment backgrounds, and because soccer was new to Madison at the time we started, a lot of attention was brought to the team and it was great to build the group off of that.”

“I always say The Flock is like the best people of every group in Madison coming together. It’s incredibly welcoming and supportive of the community,” said Nichols. “Showing up to soccer games, there were just so many women there supporting and I think it was natural to create a group.”

In terms of creating a supporters group for fans who identify as women, Kigeya and Nichols hope to see more pop up around USL in the near future.

“Do it!” said Kigeya when asked what her advice would be. “Sarah [Griffin] and I were two people, and we just said, ‘what are we going to call it?’ I started the Instagram page, she started the Twitter page, and then we just put it out there. We didn’t have any other people at the time, but we knew that if we created a group, people tend to go to something that they can relate to.”

As the group grows, both Kigeya and Nichols say a key point of emphasis is that it maintains its inclusivity. The fact that it’s as much an avenue for community engagement as it is to support a soccer team only helps Mingo Ladies (and The Flock as a whole) in creating a space where supporters feel comfortable being themselves.

“In general, we look at everything as, ‘how can we make sure that we’re supporting everybody that wants to join us?’” said Nichols. “How can we make sure that no one is being excluded for some specific reason?”