There’ve been hundreds of sasquatch sightings in the High Country around Boone, North Carolina in recent weeks. Far from causing alarm, the resulting emotions land somewhere in the neighborhood of excitement, anticipation and generalized Open Cup buzz.
“We’ve got the community engaged here,” said Michael Hitchcock, famed lower-league soccer impresario and Appalachian FC co-owner and founder, about the campaign to promote the amateur club’s First Round U.S. Open Cup home game at Ted Mackorell Soccer Complex on March 19th. “You can’t turn your head around here and not see one of our posters – there’s 500 up at last count.”
The symbol of the NPSL-based amateur club is, aptly, given the surroundings, a bigfoot. He’s 90 percent of the club’s crest. He’s everywhere on gameday and all over the club’s merchandise, which produces much of the revenue that allows Appalachian FC to operate. The latest Sasquatch-themed delight is a training top, specifically for the 2025 Open Cup, which turns its wearer at least part-sasquatch (see above). You can (and should) buy one here.
It will take some doing to surpass the approximately 2000 folks who turned out the last time Appalachian FC side lined up at home in a Cup game. That was back in 2023 and also in the First Round. But the Squatchiest Club in World Soccer is out to show what they’ve got cooking. And belief in the squad – and through all the mountains beyond – is high.
A Sasquatch with a Message
Bigfoot is out there, he’s dragging the oldest soccer prize in this country’s history in his huge right fist, getting the word out about the big Open Cup day coming to Boone.
“We’ve got a USL League One (Div. III pro) team coming to Boone for a proper football match in this country’s oldest and most fun tournament,” summed up Dale Parker, who coaches the men’s team at Greenwood, South Carolina’s Lander University in the Fall and makes the 200-mile trip to Boone for the summers to work the touchline for Appalachian FC.
Parker’s accent is well east of the mountain twang of Greater Appalachia. It’s from a place called Worksop, Nottinghamshire in England (near Sheffield). But don’t think for a minute he’s an import devoid of connections and passion for this High Country. Recruited to play college soccer for Lees-McRae College in the nearby town of Banner Elk, Parker set his roots down deep in Appalachia– falling in love with and marrying one of its daughters.
