The Annapolis Blues want to win it all this season. Community support is their ‘secret recipe.’

It’s Blues season in Annapolis.

Walk around the state capital and you’ll see the soccer team’s blue and white scarves hanging in store windows and behind cash registers. Drive around and odds are good you’ll see the blue crab logo, representing the club, on the back of car while you sit in traffic.

The semi-professional men’s soccer team took Naptown by storm during its inaugural season in 2023, and it has regularly broken league attendance records at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium since.

Last year, the men’s team was promoted from the National Premier Soccer League to USL League 2, the fourth tier of men’s pro soccer. The Blues also added a women’s team, which plays in the USL W League.

Both teams reached championship games, but came up short of winning it all. Members of the men’s and women’s team said the supportive crowd in Annapolis feels like having an extra player on the squad. Could that make a difference this season?

Steven Hooper, the men’s general manager, said the club has been on an upward trajectory since it started. They “obviously” want to bring home the championship this year.

“We’ve been shooting to the moon every week,” Hooper said.

The club has incorporated itself into the fabric of life in Annapolis, getting support from local businesses and nonprofits, and giving residents a hometown team to cheer for.

For Annapolis Mayor Jared Littmann — who coached his kids’ soccer teams for years — it’s especially meaningful seeing the community come together, and to see the way the teams work together on the pitch.

“We have a chance to see professionals right here in Annapolis play the sport like it’s supposed to be played, setting the example for gamesmanship and strategy and skill, and engaging with the community,” Littman said. “Those are great examples to follow.”

Before the team played its first season, staff worked with residents to come finalize the name and design its jerseys. Being a community-focused club is the team’s “secret recipe,” said Hooper, who’s also the team’s vice president of sales and marketing.

Born and raised in Annapolis, Hooper has played soccer his entire life. Thinking about the way the community has come out to support the Blues gives him chills.

“It means everything to me,” he said.

The men’s and women’s teams both have impressive records. In 2024, the men’s team lost in a championship match against Virginia Dream FC, but finished atop the league they played in at the time.

Last year, in its inaugural season, the women’s team went undefeated in regular play. They lost in penalty kicks during a conference championship match against the under-23 team of the North Carolina Courage, a championship-winning National Women’s Soccer League team.

Captain Sarah Martin is a Bowie native who played college soccer for the University of Vermont.

Since graduating in 2018, she’s balanced a full-time job with professional and semi-professional soccer opportunities.

She also plays futsal for the U.S. Women’s National Team and was named its women’s futsal player of the year in January. (Futsal is a scaled-down version of soccer, usually played indoors on a hard court between five players on each team.) Wearing the national team crest, Martin said, brought an “immense feeling of pride.”

She was part of the Blues women’s team’s inaugural season. She followed head coach Ashly Kennedy from another team in the league. Martin, a midfielder, said losing in the playoffs gave the Blues “an even bigger fire under our butts” to perform this season.

“We want to come out harder and stronger, and show we are one of the better teams on the East Coast, if not the entire USL-W,” she said.

Though their home opener is Saturday, both the men’s and women’s team’s seasons already began — and both are off to a good start. Both teams won their first two games.

Brady Geho, the all-time leading scorer for the men’s team, said he thinks the squad this year is the best it’s ever been.

“Every training is super competitive, which is how it should be. Everyone is giving 100% effort,” said Geho, who’s from Westminster and played for Archbishop Curley High School in Baltimore and several universities.

The Blues home opener is a double header. The women’s team plays against Charlottesville Blues FC at 5 p.m., and the men’s team plays against Virginia Beach United at 7:30 p.m.

A general admission ticket — $18.50 for adults, $13.50 for 12 and under — gets you into both games. Tickets are available online and at the gate. Gates open at 4 p.m., and tailgating outside the stadium starts as early as 1 p.m.