If you attended a Portland Hearts of Pine game this season, you have probably seen a banner or a booth from the Lightkeepers Supporters Group, which backs the state’s new women’s soccer team, the Maine Wildness.
But if you have been to a women’s college soccer match, or possibly even a high school girls’ game, you may also have encountered a few members of the group, shouting out their support for the athletes.
That’s just how the Lightkeepers roll, according to Kara Peruccio, president of the Lightkeepers.
“We organized ‘Lightkeepers on Tour,’ where we’re seeing all of Maine’s women’s college soccer teams play,” Peruccio said. “Some of these players might end up on the Maine Wildness, so it’ll be fun to say, ‘I saw her back in September.’ It’s also been a lot of fun while the Hearts of Pine season hasn’t been the most exciting, and it’s nice for players to have fans there who aren’t just friends and family.”
Ultimately, though, the supporters group is here for the Maine Wildness, the new women’s team under the Soccer Club of Maine, which was recently named as the parent club of both the Wildness and the men’s team, the Portland Hearts of Pine.
The Wildness will open its inaugural season in May with six home games at Fitzpatrick Stadium, part of a 12-game schedule in the USL W League. The pre-professional league gives top college players and elite prospects a taste of professional-level competition, travel and training during their off-season. Players aren’t paid, which lets them keep their college eligibility.
The Lightkeepers formed early this year following the news in fall 2025 that the Soccer Club of Maine was interested in starting a women’s soccer team. When the club held its brand reveal for the Wildness on Oct. 15, the Lightkeepers were front and center in the celebration. They also signed their 100th member that day.
One of the main reasons that the Lightkeepers formed was so the Wildness wouldn’t feel like an afterthought to the men’s side. Some of its members are also part of the Dirigo Union, the supporters group for the Hearts of Pine.
But Peruccio said the organization’s mission goes deeper than that. The group’s name hints at it. According to its website, the Lightkeepers strive to “be the light,” making the community a better place to live through advocacy and volunteer opportunities.
“It was about wanting a supporters group that was a little more politically vocal about issues, especially because women’s sports are inherently more political,” Peruccio said. “I think women have been some of the bravest athletes out there to really stand up for social issues and use their platform.”
For Lightkeepers member Julia Priceman, that was Mia Hamm, the U.S. women’s national team legend who won two World Cups and two Olympic golds in the 1990s and 2000s. Women weren’t regularly seen playing sports on television but Hamm and her teammates took the country by storm with their success on the international soccer stage. Hamm also risked her star status to join teammates in boycotts before the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. Those fights won better pay and benefits and paved the way for the USWNT’s later equal pay victory.
“For us to have a women’s team here in Maine, I knew I had to jump in,” said Priceman, who lives in Yarmouth with her husband, Mark, and their two daughters, ages 8 and 4. “I have also taken to heart, because I wanted to be more involved with my community, that if you want a village, you have to be a villager.”
Priceman’s husband “is a big sports guy,” she said, so it was an easy decision to apply for season tickets for the Wildness (the Pricemans purchased four).
“Sports have been a big part of our lives together,” Priceman said. “We have tried to show to our girls as much women’s sports as possible.”
Hannah Sirois, the Soccer Club of Maine’s vice president of fan experience, has been working with the Lightkeepers since its inception, just as she did with the Dirigo Union when it first formed. Sirois laughed at how she really had no idea about the importance of supporters groups when she first started, but now sees them as invaluable because they act as ambassadors for the club.
“They’re really our boots on the ground, right?” Sirois said. “They’re actively going out there and keeping the team, not even just the players, but the team in general and the brand, top of mind for people, because it’s part of who they are now.”
Sirois pointed out that 80% of the Wildness season ticket holders are new to the club. That’s why she sees groups like the Lightkeepers, along with the Halyard, a second Wildness supporters group, as so important in helping fans identify with the women’s team.
At Hearts of Pine games, the Dirigo Union takes up Sections 118 and 119. For Wildness games, those same sections will be set aside for the women’s supporters groups. Sirois said she gets goosebumps thinking about the first women’s match.
“I think the specialness of that moment is going to be so clear in everyone’s eyes: boys, girls, male, female, all genders,” Sirois said. “Anyone who is showing up on that day. I just can’t wait to see the faces of our fans taking in that moment.”
The Lightkeepers and the Halyard supporters groups are working well together, Sirois said, because they just want to help the women’s team however they can. Together, the two groups will bring a similar vibe to games, just like the Dirigo Union does for the men’s side. That means cheers, music and probably even some smoke like what visitors encounter at the men’s games.
“I’ve been talking to them for months, and everyone is just offering, ‘How can we help? We’re so excited. Do you want us to help set up the events? How can we show up?’” Sirois said. “And just the enthusiasm and the buy-in, even before we released the name and the brand. That’s what matters, right? It’s everyone’s team. It’s their team now, and they’re bought in.”
The Lightkeepers charge a $25 fee to be a member, but that’s on a sliding scale, Peruccio said. No one who wants to be a member will be declined. Many supporters groups use their funding for organizational expenses, while the Lightkeepers put a majority of it into the community.
One example recently was a clothing drive in which more than 100 sports bras were given to Maine Needs, a nonprofit that provides donated clothing, hygiene products, household items and other necessities to people.
“We are a Maine state nonprofit, so we can use our money as we see fit,” Peruccio said. “The goal is we’ll use our funds to put on the best match day USL W has ever seen. But we also donated several hundred dollars to different charities and we organize a lot of community efforts.”
The Lightkeepers worked closely with the club in the aftermath of the mid-July shooting of a man in Biddeford by an ICE agent. The Soccer Club of Maine issued a statement calling for ICE to be held accountable. The Lightkeepers called for stronger action by Maine state officials, while also demanding the abolition of ICE.
“The club actually encouraged the Press Herald journalists to reach out to us because they felt like part of our identity as a supporters group is speaking up,” Peruccio said. “They’ve been great to work with, knowing that sometimes they can’t always express the same things that we’re going to say.”
Both the Maine Attorney General’s Office and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General have open investigations into the shooting.
Normally, the interaction between the club and its supporters is more lighthearted, like the celebration at the Oct. 15 brand reveal.
Asked about her thoughts on the Wildness name, Peruccio said it was perfect.
“Young girls are told not to run wild and not to be loud, and ‘wildness’ gives permission to be your loudest self,” Peruccio said. “Some people see it as negative, but that’s society telling us to contain and constrain ourselves. We aren’t doing that anymore.”
It’s in these moments of supporting girls and young women that the Lightkeepers find a true sense of purpose.
“I’m really hoping that a couple (Maine) girls make the Wildness because you better believe that we as Lightkeepers are gonna be cheering them on during their college season in the fall,” Peruccio said. “We want our players to go on and make their conference teams, play in tournaments. I think the USL W will be really unique because we then get to follow these players’ careers after the summer.”
To learn about becoming a member of the Lightkeepers, click here.