History
The team was founded in 1996 and played in the now-defunct original A-League until it merged with the USISL for the 1997 season, creating the new A-League. The A-League was renamed the USL First Division in 2005. In 2006 the Rhinos moved into the newly-completed PAETEC Park, a 13,768-seat soccer-specific stadium. Construction at the stadium is ongoing and will, once completed, boost the capacity to approximately 20,000 seats.
The Rhinos have prided themselves on upholding a high level of play over their twelve plus year history. The team has never missed the playoffs, reaching the championship game six times (1996, 1998–2001, 2006). The Rhinos have been league champions three times (1998, 2000, 2001). They also won the 1999 U.S. Open Cup, becoming the only non-Major League Soccer team to win the cup since MLS began play in 1996.
The Rhinos were considered a candidate to be an expansion team at the MLS level when PAETEC Park was in the planning stages.
The team was declared insolvent in 2008 after defaulting on their stadium agreement, and PAETEC Park was seized by the city of Rochester. After a brief search for a new owner and investor who could improve the team's financial outlook, in March, 2008, the Rhinos official website announced that the Rhinos had found both in Utica businessman Rob Clark. The new owner then announced that the team will now be known as the "Rochester Rhinos," and that the financial situation of the team no longer put them in any danger of not being able to afford the upcoming season.
After two seasons under owner Rob Clark, on November 30, 2009, the club announced they would be joining the new NASL for its 2010 season. The United States Soccer Federation refused the NASL's application for sanctioning, and will instead operate its own temporary second-division league for 2010. The Rhinos will be part of that temporary USSF Second Division league. The Rhinos switched leagues again before the 2011 season to the third-division USL Pro league, who consider themselves equally competitive with the second-division NASL.
The 2009, 2010, and 2011 seasons saw many players come & go from the Rhinos roster, which is a change from their earlier history during the 1990s and early 2000s when players such as Lenin Steenkamp (9 years) and Doug Miller (8 years) stayed for many years. Nathaniel Short, Ryan Heins, and Isaac Kissi were with the team in 2009 and 2010, but of the three only Isaac Kissi was back in 2011.
The 2011 season ended with the Rhinos first in their division followed by a playoff season that lasted 2 games. The Rhinos saw off the Pittsburgh Riverhounds 4–0 in first round of the playoffs and then lost 2–1 at home to the Harrisburg City Islanders to finish the season.
On September 15, 2011, the official Rhinos website announced that head coach Bob Lilley would not be returning for the 2012 season. On October 12 Jess Myers, most recently an assistant coach of the Richmond Kickers, was named as the new head coach of the Rhinos.
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