Author: Scott Adamson

Greenville becomes third founding member of USL Division III

By Scott Adamson
Adamsonmedia.com

Almost from the moment the United Soccer League announced it was forming a third division circuit, the prospects of Greenville, South Carolina, landing a club was more a case of “when,” not “if.”

Today is the day.

League executives gathered at Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research in Greenville Tuesday morning to make it official. Greenville entrepreneur Joe Erwin, President of Erwin Creates, leads the ownership group which also includes his son, Doug.

“The world game belongs in a world-class community, and we already feel like Greenville is part of USL,” Erwin said. “We are thrilled to be a part of the USL’s new Division III league and to bring professional soccer to our community. The Upstate has a passion for the sport that extends from community soccer clubs that attract thousands of youth to high school teams that compete at the highest levels and nationally-ranked programs at Clemson University and Furman University.

“This is more than just a game, it really contributes to quality of life. As we evaluated all the factors in making a decision, we realized this region is more than ready to support pro soccer at this level.”

The league is expected to have 10 to 12 teams in 2019, and then further growth will be targeted to populate regions.

The Greenville entry joins South Georgia Tormenta FC and FC Tucson as the first three founding members of USL Division III, which begins play next March.

With Major League Soccer serving as North America’s lone first division league in a closed pyramid system, USL competes as a second tier organization and has formed a third level that will play under the USL umbrella.

USL Division III has targeted U.S. communities with populations from 150,000 to one million, with a focus on, “markets that possess strong local ownership groups, populations with broad-based diversity, a vibrant millennial and strong family base, established corporate support, and stadiums to properly showcase the sport for fans, partners and the public.”

Greenville’s population is roughly 60,000, but its broader metro area – which includes Anderson and Mauldin – is more than 880,000.

“We are honored to have such an economically diverse and vibrant market like Greenville, South Carolina, as a founding member of USL Division III,” USL CEO Alec Papadakis said. “Greenville is a dynamic city, with a storied soccer history driven by the nationally-recognized programs at Clemson University and Furman University, along with the international influence of global corporations headquartered in the region. We welcome Joe Erwin to the USL family. As a long-time resident of this community, successful businessman and major contributor to Greenville’s economic growth, Joe is the right person to lead this effort and develop a successful club for the region’s passionate fans.”

Chris Lewis will serve as team president.

“Our success strongly depends on having the proven leadership of someone who understands professional sports, the market and, most significantly, is an active member of our community,” Doug Erwin said. “We found that in Chris, and we’ve placed him at the top of the pyramid running this organization.”

Team branding and stadium decisions are to come.

“If you ask me where we’re going to play in March, I’ve got no answer for you yet,” Joe Erwin said. “There’s a lot of work left to be done.”

The announcement of a USL Division III club marks the second time in less than four months the South Carolina city has been chosen to host a team.

Greenville FC became a member of the National Premier Soccer League last November and begins regular season play in May.

Extreme pain and doctor visits add up to fun and adventure

Last Wednesday, I had a near-death experience.

Brain Farce is an alleged humor column written by Scott Adamson. It comes out basically whenever he feels like writing it. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

As I faded from consciousness and started to slip into the great unknown, I was suddenly pulled into a bright, white tunnel of light. And at the end of the tunnel there were several figures waving to me. They weren’t completely clear, but I’m pretty sure they were members of the boy band O-Town, urging me to join them at the Mohegan Sun Casino and Resort.

But I refused, for I was not yet ready to pass from this life, even though going to one of the largest, most spectacular entertainment, gaming, dining and shopping destinations in the United States was tempting.

Nah, I’m just funnin’ with you.

I was nowhere near death (or a casino), but I did feel bad enough that my wife, Mary, insisted on taking me to a doc-in-a-box – for the second time in five days.

The “adventure” started last weekend when my back began to ache.

That morning I had walked several miles and done some yard work, and I just figured maybe I pulled a muscle or something.

By afternoon the pain increased dramatically, and spread to my stomach.

And this wasn’t the garden variety stomach ache – you know, the kind where it hisses and growls and occasionally speaks in unknown tongues. This was a sharp, almost continuous pain that caused me to double over.

Mary started researching what my malady might be. Even though the pain was in my back and stomach, it could be my heart, gallbladder,  kidneys, any number of things.

There was also the chance that an alien had embedded itself in my stomach and was prepared to burst out John Hurt-style, but it’s been months since I’ve had close contact with extraterrestrials, so I quickly discounted that as an option.

Whatever it was, she ushered me into the car and began driving toward the clinic. Long story short, the clinic was closed, but by the time we got there I felt better anyway, and we decided to head home.

The more I thought about it, the more I was sure it was just a case of gas gone nuclear and would never happen again.

Man, was I ever wrong.

It happened again mid-week, and this time we went to a bigger, better (and more importantly, open) doc-in-the-box.

It’s no exaggeration to say the pain I felt was the worst I’ve ever experienced. So much so that after doing X-rays and performing an electrocardiogram test, the doctor actually had to give me a pain-relieving shot before sending me to the emergency room.

That’s when my day got markedly worse.

I was told the minute I got to the ER I was to see a certain doctor, who would immediately set up a CAT scan. That was fine with me, because I love animals.

But the CAT scan didn’t come until after I had been there for five hours – and after a nurse had used my left arm for target practice trying to draw blood. In retrospect, I don’t think he was a nurse at all, but just a random dude who happened upon some blue scrubs, showed up, and clocked in.

He and the staff also insisted on redoing all the tests that had already been done at the doc-in-a-box a couple of hours earlier, even though the paperwork I presented told them specifically not to do that.

This caused Mary to curse.

She cursed out of earshot of my tormentors, but she cursed eloquently and with great conviction.

It’s one of the reasons I love her.

Once the crew finally got their shit together, they gave me another shot for pain, put me on an IV, and administered an ultrasound test. They looked at my liver, gallbladder, appendix, and, I suppose, whatever else lurked beneath the surface.

By the end of my seven hour odyssey you know what they found?

Nothing.

I mean, they found all the organs, but they just couldn’t pinpoint the problem.

Kidney stones were ruled out, and they couldn’t be sure my gall bladder or appendix were causing the pain.

They just told me to follow up with my primary care physician, gave me a prescription for Hillbilly Heroin, and then sent me on my way.

I was puzzled – and concerned.

I eat healthy foods (mostly, except for Pop-Tarts), I exercise (usually, unless I’d rather sit around and eat Pop-Tarts) and my weight is under control (give or take 15 or 20 pounds … and the availability of Pop-Tarts).

But then I realized that some people in the best of health die unexpectedly.

Look at Roger Bannister. He was the first man to break the four-minute mile and was in tip-top physical condition. Yet, he passed away recently.

He was 88, but still.

Finally, my “regular” doctor looked me over on Thursday and sent me to a gastroenterologist, who set up an MRI on Friday that proved negative.

So …

On Monday I’ll have something called a HIDA scan in which a radioactive tracer is injected into a vein in my arm. My only hope at this point is that during the procedure, I’ll be bitten by a spider and thus became a superhero.

I think after all this nonsense, I’ve earned it.

NIT is now a college basketball laboratory

OK, let’s get some housekeeping things out of the way.

Out of Left Field is written by Scott Adamson. It appears weekly and sometimes more frequently if he gets up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. Follow him on Twitter @adamsonsl

First and foremost, it’s the National Invitation Tournament, not the National Invitational Tournament.

And secondly, joking that the NIT also stands for “No Important Teams” is cute and all, but it’s a bit harsh.

Now, there is no argument over the first issue … you can look it up.

The second? OK. The NCAA Tournament is the only postseason event that “matters,” but if you like college basketball – and like to watch off-the-radar schools compete in tournaments – the NIT can still be fun.

In the Big Dance, you get to see small schools from small conferences play on the sport’s biggest stage.

In the NIT, you might come across a team you forgot even existed. But sometimes those teams will put on great shows and score victories that are very important for their school.

Last year, for example, CSU Bakersfield stunned California, 73-66, in the first round, while Belmont shocked Georgia, 78-69 and Oakland rallied from a huge deficit to upend Clemson, 74-69.

None of those outcomes altered the landscape of college basketball, of course, but they raised the profile of the winners – even if it was just for a couple of days.

And that made it meaningful for them, even if it’s not meaningful for the person who spent hours filling out their NCAA brackets at work.

But the NIT is more than just a postseason consolation prize nowadays. Thanks to the NCAA, it is also a laboratory.

When it gets underway on March 13, it will be using rules that could conceivably go into effect in May, 2019 – the next time the governing body can officially alter its rules and regulations.

“The NIT is an exciting event with a rich tradition and history, yet it also provides us a platform to consider how the game might look in the future,” Dan Gavitt, NCAA senior vice president of basketball, said in a news release. “We’ve seen the adoption of recent experimental rules and how they have had a positive impact. This track record of the game evolving is a result of us having the flexibility to see if the rules work and are met with satisfaction.”

This year will mark the third time in four years experimental rules have been in place for the NIT, and the four changes this year are pretty big:

​• The 3-point line will be extended by approximately 1 foot, 8 inches to 22 feet and 1.75 inches – the same distance used by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) for international competition.

​• The free throw lane will be widened from 12 feet to 16 feet, the width used by the NBA.
​• The games will be divided into four 10-minute quarters and teams will shoot two free throws beginning with the fifth foul of each quarter.
• The shot clock will reset to 20 seconds after an offensive rebound, instead of the full 30 seconds.

The changes are designed to give NCAAs rules, oversight and competition committees “data and feedback” as they consider changes to the game.

All rules used in the NIT have been on the table before, but this will be the first time for coaches and officials to see them in action.

“The style of play in men’s college basketball is healthy and appealing, but the leadership governing the game is interested in keeping the playing rules contemporary and trending favorably,” Gavitt said. “Experimenting with two significant court dimension rules, a shot-clock reset rule and a game-format rule all have some level of support in the membership, so the NIT will provide the opportunity to gather invaluable data and measure the experience of the participants.”

I think the four quarter format is long overdue. It’s used in virtually every other level of basketball and it just makes sense for the NCAA men to join the party.

I’m also intrigued by the wider lane. While basketball is not supposed to be a contact sport it most certainly is. However, this could make it less so and also increase the number of driving buckets.

It’s a highly significant alteration.

I don’t have strong feelings one way or another about the increased length of 3-pointers, but I am hopeful the clock reset will quicken the pace of games.

The thing is, there’s a chance none of these rules will be part of college basketball come 2019.

But then again, they might.

Sure, the “No Important Teams” moniker isn’t going away; the NIT will always pale in comparison to the NCAA Tournament.

But it still has a place. Hey, maybe going forward we should think of it as the National Innovation Tournament.