Rapids FC

Tax status: unknown — no 501(c)(3) Form 990 located on ProPublica under “Rapids FC” in Michigan. Club may operate as for-profit, as an unincorporated select-soccer association, or as a nonprofit below Form 990 reporting threshold. Other Grand Rapids clubs (Midwest United FC, PASS FC, etc.) are confirmed 501(c)(3); Rapids FC’s structure is not.

Overview

Rapids FC is a youth select soccer club operating in the Grand Rapids, Michigan metro area, serving Cascade, Ada, Forest Hills, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, and surrounding communities in Kent County. The club describes itself as having “empowered youth through high-quality, player-focused soccer for over 25 years,” placing its founding around 1999–2000. The program runs year-round (10-month training environment) and serves players from age 3 through U19.

Rapids FC is distinct from two other Grand Rapids soccer entities with similar names: Grand Rapids FC (the senior men’s USL League Two club, founded 2014, ceased operations 2021) and AC Grand Rapids (the announced MLS NEXT Pro team scheduled to launch in 2027 under owner David Van Andel).

Financials

(LOW confidence — no public Form 990 located.) ProPublica searches under “Rapids FC,” “Grand Rapids soccer,” and Cause IQ’s Grand Rapids-Kentwood metro soccer directory return no entity matching Rapids FC. The two largest verified 501(c)(3) clubs in the Grand Rapids metro by revenue are Midwest United FC ($3.6M) and Michigan Rangers FC ($1.3M); Rapids FC does not appear in any of these listings. Plausible explanations include: for-profit operating structure, unincorporated select-soccer association running through volunteer treasurer accounts, or sub-$50K filing-threshold nonprofit (unlikely given multi-program scope and 25-year operating history).

Teams & Players

Specific counts not publicly disclosed. Programs include:

• Juniors Development Program (ages 3–7)
• Select Teams (U7–U19)
• Elite Development Program (U11–U12)
• Premier Program (U13+)
• Recreational programs, including TOPSoccer (adaptive/inclusion soccer)

The U13+ Premier track is the club’s competitive flagship.

League Affiliations

• MSPSP Premier (Michigan State Premier Soccer Program)
• Great Lakes Premier League (GLPL) — U13–U19
• Michigan State Youth Soccer Association (MSYSA) — sanctioning body
• Grand Valley Soccer Association (GVSA) — local league for younger ages

The competitive ceiling sits at MSPSP / Great Lakes Premier — one tier below national platforms like ECNL or MLS NEXT. Within West Michigan, that places Rapids FC below Midwest United FC (which holds the regional ECNL-RL flag) but at peer tier with PASS FC and other state-league select clubs.

Facilities

Rapids FC trains at four primary venues, all leased / shared-use — there is no dedicated club-owned facility:

• Cornerstone University — 1001 E Beltline Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49525
• Mary Free Bed YMCA — 5500 Burton St SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546
• Grand River Riverfront Park — 12570 Grand River Dr SE, Lowell, MI 49331
• Cascade Township Park — 3810 Thornapple River Dr SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546

The geographic spread (NE Grand Rapids → SE Grand Rapids → Lowell → Cascade Township) reflects the club’s strategy of serving a dispersed eastern-Kent-County member base across multiple suburbs rather than centralizing at one campus.

Leadership

• Bre Brendsel — Executive Director
• Gabe Mata — Director of Operations
• Scott Bonsall — U13–U19 Age Group Director
• Ashley Robinette — Juniors Development Program Director and U7–U8 Age Group Director
• Mike Goodrich — Director of Player Retention
• Kaitlin Hammis — Club Administrator
• Niki Herrema — Administrative Assistant
• Nic Simonton — Director of Social and Visual Content

The leadership structure is unusually deep on the administrative / director side for a club without a published 990 — the seven director-level roles plus an administrative assistant suggest a sizeable underlying operation.

Industry Context

Rapids FC operates in the East-Kent-County / Cascade / Forest Hills suburban corridor, an affluent customer base east of the city of Grand Rapids. The Grand Rapids metro youth-soccer market is competitive: Midwest United FC holds the dominant scale position and the regional ECNL-RL franchise; PASS FC (Plainfield Area Select Soccer) competes on the city’s north side; Michigan Rangers FC runs an elite-pathway program. Rapids FC’s positioning at the MSPSP / GLPL state-league tier with broad recreational and developmental programming suggests a community-club operating model rather than an elite-pathway one — closer to peer-with-PASS than peer-with-Midwest-United. The launch of AC Grand Rapids (MLS NEXT Pro) in 2027 will introduce a new senior-level pro presence in West Michigan that may shift the competitive landscape for top-tier youth players over the medium term.

Open Questions

• Legal entity structure (for-profit, nonprofit, unincorporated)
• Total team count and player count
• Tuition structure across Premier, Elite, Select, and Recreational programs
• Relationship (if any) with the AC Grand Rapids project or any of its founder-clubs
• College placement track record