Racing Louisville FC enjoyed a historic 2025 season that saw the team’s first foray into the playoffs, the perfect foundation for an even stronger season this year.
Much of Racing’s success last year was built through a deliberate restyling of the team’s core identity. Racing welcomed back 9 of the 11 players who were part of the 2025 playoffs run this year, and the team’s emphasis will be on translating last season’s gains into an even more substantial 2026.
Emma Sears, Taylor Flint, and Jordyn Bloomer are all back
Emma Sears hardly needs an introduction, but it’s worth giving one anyway. Sears was the team’s strongest scorer in 2025 (and the top American scorer in the entire NSWL) and played a massive role in the USWNT’s SheBelieves Cup win.
Sears is considered a strong part of the next generation of the USWNT. “I’ve been really looking forward to this, and for the past few months, knowing that Columbus was gonna be hosting one of the games, I was crossing my fingers and doing everything I could to have made this roster, and so to be here now, I’ve been joking all week that it’s something’s in the air here,” Sears told reporters following the team’s 5-4 victory over Canada.
Taylor Flint is a second familiar name Racing Louisville fans will see on the pitch. Flint, who helped lead the team to their best-ever start to a campaign last season, recently re-signed through 2028.
“Re-signing with Racing felt like the right decision on every level. I’m proud of the soccer I’m playing, I believe in this team, and I want to be part of what we’re building,” Flint said at the time. “Over the last few years, my husband and I have made a life here — the way the city embraced us, the people we’ve met, the support we’ve felt — it all made this feel like home. That made the choice easy.”
Goalkeeper Jordyn Bloomer is also back, having signed her own contract through 2028 last season. Bloomer stepped up as the starting goalkeeper after teammate Katie Lund suffered an injury. She ended the 2025 season with 83 saves, including three penalty kick stops, and also became the first goalkeeper to save multiple penalty kicks in August, when she made two saves against the Orlando Pride.
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Natalie Mitchell is part of Racing’s future
Part of that vision includes newcomer Natalie Mitchell, who joined Racing Louisville this month. Mitchell graduated from Virginia Tech, where she started every single game of her four-year run with the program and scored 24 goals and 19 assists. Her collegiate career also included Third Team All-ACC honors in 2023, and the United Soccer Coaches named her Fourth Team All-Atlantic Region in 2025 and 2024. She was the leading scorer for the Hokies in 2023 and 2025, was the leader in assists in 2022 and 2024, and ranks in the top 10 all-time in the school’s history in starts, points, goals, assists, game-winning goals and shots.
“I am so excited to be joining Racing Louisville, the environment is everything I could’ve hoped for,” Mitchell said in a team press release. “The group is competitive and demanding but incredibly supportive and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to grow as a player with this team!”
Racing head coach Bev Yanez also said, “Natalie has come into our environment and fit in culturally in a seamless way.”
“She works incredibly hard, always has a smile on her face, and arrived with a very open mind to learning our style of play and the group’s values,” Yanez continued. “She has truly earned this contract and opportunity, and we’re excited to be part of her development and journey.”
Mitchell is the sixth rookie the team has signed this season. The group also includes Macy Blackburn, Audrey McKeen, Maja Lardner, Taylor White, and Mirann Gacioch.
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Bev Yanez will lead the way
Racing Louisville will once again be helmed by Bev Yanez, who is in her third season as head coach of the team and fresh off her 2025 NWSL Coach of the Year award. Yanez was notably the first American and also the first former NWSL player to receive the award.
“I’m shocked. I’m so grateful,” Yanez said during her acceptance speech at the time. “I’m so grateful for the team — for the team believing in me, trusting in me. I couldn’t be up here without them. I couldn’t be up here with the staff that’s invested so much time and belief in the vision that we had this season.”
“And my family,” Yanez added. “They’ve always believed in me and always told me to follow my dreams no matter what they were.”
As the first person in NWSL to make it to the playoffs as both a player and a coach, and the first female coach to make it to the playoffs since 2013, Yanez has already proven her abilities on and off the pitch. Now, it’s time to lead the team to yet another historic season.