Published for One Knoxville fans — October 2026
By Toxlay Sports Editorial Team · Last updated October 23, 2026
⚽ One Knoxville Fans — Your Champions Are Defending the Crown!
The Scruffy Boys did the double in 2025 — Shield and title — and the defense of the crown runs through the playoffs again. Blue shirts, full voice — this is the season to wear the champions’ colors.
The Club
One Knoxville Sporting Club — One Knox, the Scruffy Boys, named for Knoxville’s “Scruffy City” nickname — was founded in 2021, began play in USL League Two in 2022 and stepped up to USL League One as a professional club in 2023. The rise since has been startling: from expansion side to the league’s standard in three professional seasons, powered by owner Drew McKenna’s project and the Scruffs supporters.
Home is Covenant Health Park in downtown Knoxville’s Old City — a new multi-use stadium opened on April 15, 2025, shared with the Knoxville Smokies baseball team, with a video board shaped like the state of Tennessee. The club lists capacity at 6,500; the 2025 Final there drew a League One-record 7,500. A pre-match block party runs on Central Street before home games, and the fortress feel is real.
Head coach Ian Fuller — a long-time Minnesota United assistant — took over ahead of the 2025 season and immediately delivered the club’s first trophies, replacing Mark McKeever, who had coached the side through its League Two days and first two League One campaigns.
And what trophies they were: the 2025 double — the USL League One Players’ Shield and the league championship, won 2–0 over Spokane Velocity in the Final on November 16, 2025. One Knox became the fourth club in league history to win the Shield and the playoff title in the same season. This club does not do things by halves.
⭐ FAN FAVORITE
#9 Krioutchenkov — One Knoxville Style Jersey
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The rookie sensation in champions’ blue. Eleven league goals, two more in the famous D.C. United upset — the shirt of the title defense, made for Scruffy Boys fans.
Last Season (2025): The Double
Year one at Covenant Health Park became the greatest season in club history. One Knox finished top of the league — 16 wins, nine draws, five defeats, 57 points — on the back of the league’s meanest defense: 26 goals conceded, a league fewest built on a League One-record rate of blocked shots. The Players’ Shield was clinched on the final day, a 1–0 home win over Greenville sealed by Babacar Diene, two points clear of Tennessee rivals Chattanooga.
Then came the sweep. Charlotte beaten 2–1 in the quarterfinal, Naples 1–0 in the semifinal, and on November 16, 2025, the Final: One Knox 2–0 Spokane Velocity before a sold-out, league-record 7,500 crowd — Nico Rosamilia at four minutes, Kempes Tekiela’s penalty at 54. Unbeaten at home all year. Jordan Skelton took Defender of the Year, Sean Lewis Goalkeeper of the Year, Diene became the club’s first player to 10 league goals, and Rosamilia was Final MVP. The double, in the stadium’s first year. Scruffy City, silver city.
Best Players Right Now
Denis Krioutchenkov — #9, center forward. The breakout star of 2026: a rookie professional who finished as One Knox’s top scorer with 11 league goals and 14 in all competitions — including two in the famous Open Cup win at D.C. United, the second of them a 113th-minute equalizer that forced the winning shootout. A Week 1 Player of the Week who never stopped being a headline.
Babacar Diene — #7, forward. The 2025 history-maker — the club’s first player to double figures in a league season, scorer of the Shield-clinching winner, October 2025 Player of the Month — stayed for the title defense and remained a core starter, scoring at D.C. United in the Open Cup and in the regular-season finale at the Cosmos.
Nico Rosamilia — #77, winger. The 2025 Final MVP — his fourth-minute opener set up the title win over Spokane — and still decisive: a goal and an assist in the October 7 playoff-clinching rout of Chattanooga, and the assist for the opener in the finale at the Cosmos.
Mikkel Gøling — #17, attacking midfielder. The Danish playmaker retained from the title team, a regular starter in Fuller’s attack all season and a repeat Team of the Week selection — the craft behind the champions’ forward line.
Jordan Skelton — #4, center back, captain. The club’s defensive cornerstone and the reigning League One Defender of the Year, an All-League First Team pick three straight seasons who set the league’s single-season blocked-shots record. He captained the side throughout 2026 and anchored the back line that kept One Knox in the top six.
Johan Garibay — #25, goalkeeper. Stepped up from deputy to No. 1 after Sean Lewis’s departure and held the job all season — his three saves won the USL Cup shootout at FC Tulsa, and he collected multiple Team of the Week honors in the spring.
Star Spotlight
The night One Knox knocked an MLS team out of the Cup. April 15, 2026, Open Cup Round of 32 at Audi Field: D.C. United 3, One Knoxville 3 — and the League One champions won the shootout 6–5. Diene equalized at 75 minutes; substitute Krioutchenkov put Knox ahead; D.C. twice leveled, the second time in extra time; Krioutchenkov scored again at 113 minutes to force the shootout his team won. A signature giant-killing by a third-tier side. The run ended in the Round of 16 at Columbus Crew, but the night in D.C. is already club folklore.
The rivalry win that sealed the playoffs. October 7: One Knox beat Tennessee rivals Chattanooga 3–0 at Covenant Health Park to clinch its playoff place — Teddy Baker’s 12th-minute free kick after Rosamilia drew an early red card, Rosamilia’s own finish at 41, and Krioutchenkov at 54, his 10th league goal of the season. Derby night, playoff ticket punched.
The rookie finishes the job. October 17, the regular-season finale at the New York Cosmos: Krioutchenkov scored his team-leading 11th league goal, Eli Conway and Diene added the rest, and One Knox won 3–0 while holding the Cosmos to zero shots on target — real momentum carried into the title-defense playoff run.
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More champions, same Knoxville blue.
This Season (2026): Defending the Double
One Knox’s regular season is complete — 32 games, 15 wins, nine draws, eight defeats, 54 points — and the champions are in the playoffs, sealed with the October 7 derby rout of Chattanooga. The final seeding, fifth or sixth, is set by the league’s last results on October 24, with Spokane level on 54 points and holding a game in hand: either way, One Knox open their title defense with an away quarterfinal in the October 30 – November 1 window. The 2026 Players’ Shield is gone — Charlotte Independence won it with 66 points — but the trophy One Knox care about is the one already in their cabinet.
Defending the double proved harder after a winter exodus: two-time Goalkeeper of the Year Sean Lewis left (he signed for Spokane, and kept a clean sheet against Knox on October 11 — in Knoxville), playoff hero Kempes Tekiela joined Union Omaha, and veteran Callum Johnson retired. Garibay stepped up, rookie Krioutchenkov became the new spearhead, and the champions stayed in the top six all year, finishing with nine league clean sheets and momentum from that 3–0 finale win. The defense of the crown starts on the road. The Scruffy Boys would not have it any other way.
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Mark Your Calendar
October 30 – November 1, 2026 — Playoff Quarterfinal, away (opponent and venue set October 24). No regular-season games remain for One Knox — the schedule finished on October 17. The quarterfinal pairing depends on the final day’s results elsewhere: fifth or sixth seed, on the road, single-elimination, against one of the top-four hosts. Semifinals follow November 6–8 and the USL League One Final lands in the November 13–15 window — the stage where Knoxville’s season ended in glory a year ago.
The playoff block, in full: 17 clubs, one table, top eight advance; higher seed hosts. The 2026 Players’ Shield went to Charlotte Independence. One Knox are the defending champions of the tournament itself — and every top seed in the draw knows the Scruffy Boys knocked out an MLS team in April.
Biggest Rivalries — The Wars
1. Chattanooga Red Wolves SC — the Tennessee Derby. The in-state war and the defining rivalry of One Knox’s professional era: the two Tennessee clubs fought the 2025 Shield race to the final day, Knoxville edging it by two points, and the edge is real — the club itself billed October’s meeting as a “Rivalry Win.” Latest editions: the 3–0 playoff-clinching rout at Covenant Health Park on October 7, 2026, and a 1–1 USL Cup draw in June that Knox won on penalties, 5–4.
2. Lexington SC — the Battle of the Barrel. Born when both clubs entered League One together in 2023: Kentucky vs. Tennessee, with the season-series winner taking a full-size whiskey barrel and a bottle of bourbon from a distiller in the loser’s home area. The clubs’ first-ever League One match, in March 2023, finished 2–1 to Knoxville. Lexington moved up to the USL Championship in 2025, so the barrel sleeps — the rivalry is cup-only until the soccer gods reunite them.
3. Greenville Triumph SC — the mountain neighbors. South Carolina’s Upstate club, a short drive over the Smokies, and the opponent in two of the biggest results in Knox history: the 1–0 win on October 25, 2025 that clinched the Players’ Shield, Diene scoring, and a 2–0 win in May 2026, before a 1–1 draw at Greenville in August. And a word for Spokane Velocity: beaten in the 2025 Final, winners of the October 2026 rematch in Knoxville with ex-Knox keeper Sean Lewis in goal — a third straight postseason meeting is very much on the cards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where does One Knoxville SC play, and what is the stadium like?
Covenant Health Park in downtown Knoxville’s Old City, 500 E. Jackson Avenue — a new multi-use stadium that opened on April 15, 2025 and is shared with the Knoxville Smokies baseball team. The club lists capacity at 6,500, and One Knox set a USL League One record crowd of 7,500 there for the 2025 Final against Spokane Velocity. A pre-match block party runs on Central Street before home games.
Who is One Knoxville’s best player?
Rookie striker Denis Krioutchenkov, No. 9, is the star of 2026 — One Knox’s top scorer with 11 league goals and 14 in all competitions, including two in the famous Open Cup win at D.C. United. The team’s most decorated player is captain Jordan Skelton, No. 4, the 2025 USL League One Defender of the Year, while Babacar Diene, No. 7, scored the goal that clinched the 2025 Players’ Shield.
What trophies has One Knoxville SC won?
The 2025 double: the USL League One Players’ Shield, for the best regular-season record, and the USL League One championship — a 2–0 win over Spokane Velocity FC in the Final on November 16, 2025. They were the first trophies in club history, and One Knox is defending the title in the 2026 playoffs.
How can I get tickets or watch One Knoxville SC?
Tickets are sold through the club at oneknoxsc.com, including 2027 season memberships. League One matches stream on ESPN+ and ESPN Select, with U.S. Open Cup ties on Paramount+ and CBS Sports Golazo Network; the 2025 Final aired on CBS Sports Golazo Network.
⚽ One Knoxville Fan Shop
The full champions’ trio — Krioutchenkov, Diene and Rosamilia in blue.
Sources & official links: One Knoxville SC official site · USL League One official site · One Knoxville tickets
Blue shirts, full voice, champions twice over — one Knox, Knoxville.
