October 1, 2026
P R E S S R E L E A S E
OKLAHOMA CITY (October 1, 2026) — The Women’s Premier Soccer League announces the addition of Breaker City Athletic for the 2027 season. Today’s announcement kicks off the 2027 expansion class, making the Northeast Pennsylvania club the first to be added for the league’s 29th season.
“We looked to the WPSL as the platform where we could fill a vital need in our local area,” Gregory Swatt, Breaker City Athletic owner and general manager, said. “We have so many talented young women athletes who lack a proper way to showcase their skills.”
Based in Hazleton, Penn. 90 miles northwest of Philadelphia between Harrisburg and Scranton on Interstate 81, Breaker City Athletic is a community-centered non-profit with the mission of making competitive women’s soccer accessible and meaningful to the region by bringing athletes, families, and supporters together through the shared love of the game and honoring Hazleton’s rich, hard-working heritage, while engineering a brighter, healthier future for the entire region.
“We are committed to building more than a team. We aim to create a lasting connection between our players and the community, inspire the next generation of female athletes, and build an organization that Hazleton can proudly call its own,” Swatt said.
With a background in coaching and sports management, Swatt recognized the vital need for the establishment of a definitive, high-level pathway for talented female athletes to showcase their skills and advance to the next level. Breaker City Athletic will operate as a non-profit with a vision that extends beyond the playing field, pioneering holistic community development initiatives combining elite soccer with accessible youth sports programs, health and wellness campaigns, and local vocational training.
“The WPSL and Breaker City Athletic share a unified mission of promoting competitive women’s soccer,” Swatt said. “Our core values align perfectly with that of the league, and together, we can deliver on expanding these critical opportunities for female athletes.”
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For more information about Breaker City Athletic, visit Breakercitywfc.org or follow on Instagram.
For more information about the WPSL, visit WPSLsoccer.com.
About the Women’s Premier Soccer League
With more than 180 teams competing across two divisions in 2026, the Women’s Premier Soccer League stands as the largest women’s soccer league in the world and is the longest continuously running women’s soccer league in North America, crowning Kansas City Current II as its 28th league champion in July. Launched with eight teams in Northern California in 1998, the WPSL’s two divisions now span 150 cities in 38 states, from the Pacific Northwest to South Florida, New England to Southern California. Some of the games most iconic players honed their talents in the WPSL including Brandi Chastain, Alex Morgan, Megan Rapinoe, Rose Lavelle, and Catarina Macario. In 2026, more than 125 WPSL alumnae played professionally in leagues across the globe, dominated rosters in the 2025 NCAA Division I College Cup, and MAC Hermann Trophy balloting. The WPSL is one of the leading pillars in women’s soccer in the United States and remains committed to its mission of advancing the game through long-term impact and its affiliations with the United States Soccer Federation and Tier 1 League sanctioned by the United States Adult Soccer Association.
