Category: Sidewinder Insider

The soccer community – players, coaches, supporters – can’t get enough of “The Beautiful Game.” And when it comes to community soccer, Lee Squires is excited about doubling his pleasure.

Squires, who guided Greenville Football Club in their first season of competition last summer, is back to coach the squad again in its second year as members of the National Premier Soccer League.

As an expansion team in 2018, GVLFC finished 4-7-3 in the Southeast Conference Division of the South Region, but was in the mix for a playoff spot until the final week of the season.

The club showed marked improvement from week to week, and there were plenty of positives.

“There were many individual moments that were special, such as the first win down in New Orleans, the last minute equalizer at home to Chattanooga, or the two wins over Asheville,” Squires said. “But overall, it was great to see how the club grew in year one, both on and off the field. The connection to the fans and the culture we built is something that we will carry forward into this season, more so than any win and moment on the field from last year.”

Squires already had a great coaching pedigree before taking the reins of Greenville’s adult amateur soccer club. As head coach of Lander University, Squires has compiled a 57-13-9 record with four NCAA Tournament appearances. Last fall the Bearcats finished 16-2-3 and won the Southeast Region championship – making their deepest run in the postseason in 13 years.

According to the skipper, segueing from one team to the other isn’t a difficult transition.

“I wouldn’t say there are too many differences,” Squires explains. “I get more time with my college guys than the Greenville guys, so we can cover more things in practice. We are trying to build a summer squad of high level players, so the depth throughout the team in the summer may be higher.”

Greenville FC President Marco Carrizales said in an earlier interview that bringing Squires back is a huge boost going into 2019.

“His hunger to be better as a coach and his desire to perfect his craft were things that made me very comfortable,” Carrizales said. “Player development and player happiness are essential for us to recruit high level talent, and Lee provides that for us. I can confidently say that Lee has full trust from us and I’d like for him to stay for as long as we can have him.”

Even though the NPSL season is still three months from kickoff, preparations are well underway. On Saturday, the first of two open tryouts were held at the Kroc Center, with the next slated for February 16.

In 2018, four trialists earned roster spots.

“Tryouts are a great way to bring players in who have an interest in competing for the club,” said Squires, who worked with more than 30 hopefuls over the weekend. “Of course, we cannot make an in-depth assessment on every player in just one day, so we are looking for little things that show there is development potential in a player. Ultimately, we want these guys to make our roster, but in reality they just need to show well enough on the day for us to want to see more going forward.”

As was the case in 2018, GVLFC will face Anderson University in an exhibition once tryouts are complete. That preseason match is set for March 2 at 3 p.m. at the Kroc Center.

GVLFC will once again be aligned in the Southeast Conference Division this season, although there are some changes.

The Atlanta Silverbacks have been rebranded as Atlanta SC, and Chattanooga FC will be making its farewell tour of the league’s amateur wing as it transitions to the NPSL Founders Cup and professional status.

But the bulk of the league will still be based on the adult amateur model, and Squires says that’s important for the growth – and health – of American soccer.

“It’s huge, especially in the smaller or mid-size markets,” Squires said. “Soccer needs to be accessible to as many people as possible, so teams like ours can reach people who cannot easily get to the nearest MLS team. You can see from our fan base last summer what soccer can mean to a community like Greenville.”

GVLFC dug its roots even deeper in the community when the formation of Greenville FC Academy was announced on Monday. The early stage developmental program will be offered at no charge to participants and their families, and is open to participants age 8-12.

Academy training sessions will be led by Greenville FC players and staff and will run concurrently with regular season NPSL play.

And Squires hopes those who come to Stone Stadium for the first time this summer for Greenville FC’s second season will get a taste of what community soccer is all about.

“They can expect a family friendly atmosphere, lots of entertainment, a connection to the players and staff, and an exciting brand of soccer that’ll deliver more memorable moments,” he said.

Chattanooga Football Club has been the Scenic City’s soccer team since 2009.

As of January 17, 2019, it can be your team, too.

CFC’s world got a whole lot bigger – and American soccer got a whole lot better – when the club introduced supporter ownership on Thursday. Eight thousand shares will be sold, giving a turbo boost to the team’s evolution from elite amateurs to a founding member of the National Premier Soccer League’s professional division.

“The American sports landscape is dominated by a relatively small group of very wealthy owners,” club co-founder and chairman Tim Kelly said during the announcement. “We feel this could be a real game-changer to connect communities across the country with teams they love in a deep and meaningful way. Teams leave cities because their objective is not to serve the community, but to maximize profit. By offering our fans ownership and re-organizing as a public benefit corporation, we are permanently committing ourselves to Chattanooga.

“We love this city and will never leave it.”

If you believe in grassroots soccer – if you want to see what it can become – you have to believe this is the best possible move. Instead of an ownership group parachuting into town with a franchise hoping you’ll buy into their vision, a group of people can, quite literally, buy into a club.

Fortunately for football fanatics in Chattanooga and beyond, that club was already there, one that has drawn more than 350,000 supporters since its inception.

This marks the first time an American sports team has “gone public” since the securities reform laws were passed in 2016, allowing these types of investments.

But perhaps even more importantly it lays the foundation for other clubs to do the same.

Instead of big box soccer franchises run by wealthy owners or ownership groups, now there exists a legitimate opportunity for communities to invest in soccer and make it as big as they want it to be.

“This is a great example of (Chattanooga’s) way of coming together and creating a new style of football club,” Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said. “This is another way for us to democratize something that people think of as something for only super wealthy people, to own a sports team. You look at the people who own an NFL team or an NBA team, I’m not talking about if they’re great or terrible people but to do that, you have to be super wealthy.

“This is a chance for us to show a different path for ownership.”

Thursday’s bombshell is not only huge news for Chattanooga, but gives a nice boost to the NPSL as well. Once the “traditional” league season ends late this summer, the NPSL Founders Cup competition – featuring the organization’s fledgling pro squads – will run from August to November, 2019.

The 11 founding members are ASC San Diego, Cal FC, California United Strikers FC, Chattanooga FC, FC Arizona, Detroit City FC, Miami FC, Miami United FC, Milwaukee Torrent, New York Cosmos and Oakland Roots, and I truly hope as many clubs as possible will follow CFC’s lead.

In fact, I hope January 17, 2019, will one day be remembered as the date that forever changed the landscape of American soccer – making it bolder and brighter.

If that’s the case, I guess it makes sense that a club in the Scenic City was at the forefront of the movement.

Investment opportunities can be found at wefunder.com/chattanoogafc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you keeping score, I wrote a salute to Atlanta Silverbacks FC back in March, 2018.

The club was a couple of months away from competing in the National Premier Soccer League, and I was happy the ol’ gorillas were still alive and grunting.

You know the story … the team started as the Atlanta Ruckus in 1995, morphed into the Silverbacks in 1998, and competed in the A-League, USL First Division and “new” North American Soccer league before its reserve team wound up in the NPSL and retained the identity.

But while the last time I wrote about the Silverbacks was 10 months ago, today might be the last time I write about the Silverbacks, period.

They are no more – renamed Atlanta SC because Boris Jerkunica (who owned the NASL Silverbacks) and the team are officially divorced. Jerkunica still owns the “brand” as well as Silverback Park, so he got custody of the name.

Atlanta SC will have to play somewhere else starting in May.

“After three years of running the Silverbacks as owner, general manager, and head coach, we have had some success and challenges on and off the field,” Atlanta SC owner and President Phoday Dolleh said in a statement released by the NPSL on January 4. “Both the Silverbacks Park ownership and myself have come to an agreement to move in a separate direction. The park will keep the name, giving us no choice but to rebrand. We want to continue to be a key player in the development of soccer in (the) best soccer city in the U.S.”

On the plus side, this is a club that finished 7-4-3 a year ago. In terms of coaches and prospects, it should certainly be a key player in the Southeast Conference Division of the NPSL South Region.

But there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of positive energy behind the new/old team at the moment – at least none that’s apparent to me.

Westside 109, the original supporters group for the Silverbacks, are in wait-and-see mode, which is understandable.

I get the impression they want to continue to wave the flag, so to speak, but want to see how and where they fit in.

The Atlanta Ultras, an independent supporters group, released a statement via Twitter on Tuesday announcing they won’t support Atlanta SC. The gist of the statement is that the evolution of the club “doesn’t reflect our ideas at all,” and, “… a club without any connections to the Silverbacks, besides the GM, is nothing we can and will follow as an Ultra crew.”

And what about the Silverbacks Trust?

Its goal was to raise $100,000 to contribute to the club’s operating expenses, which would lead to partial ownership.

I assume “Silverbacks” is now taboo in relation to the team, so the trust will have to change its identity if not its focus.

Look – I’m not an insider. All I know is what I’m hearing from some of the team’s supporters, who seem glad the club is no longer in the hands of Jerkunica but extremely upset at what they see as a case of identity theft.

I get it.

Even though the current iteration of New York Cosmos shares only a name with the original NASL Cosmos, that name – that identity – has kept me a fan.

They are far removed from Pele, Chinaglia and Beckenbauer in both years and star power, but to me they’re still the Cosmos and they remain my favorite American soccer team.

If they changed ownership and became the New York Whatevers, things wouldn’t be the same.

That might sound silly, but it’s the truth.

And that’s the challenge facing a hardcore group of people who love the Silverbacks.

The new team’s colors are peach and green and feature what is – to me – an uninspired logo.

And even though the players on the field this summer will look familiar, they might as well be in disguise to anyone hoping for a Silverbacks callback.

By all accounts, moving on from the old regime is the best path forward for the club.

Moving away from Silverbacks, however, is sad – especially since those with skin in the game had no choice in the matter.