Category: Sidewinder Insider

The 2018 National Premier Soccer League season ended in August and won’t restart until May, 2019.

But anyone who follows the league knows it has stayed busy since Miami FC2 won the NPSL championship.

And anyone who follows Greenville Football Club CEO and President Marco Carrizales – well, they need to keep up.

Other than a brief break following GVLFC’s inaugural campaign, Carrizales has stayed in motion, working to build on the club’s foundation.

“It may seem like a long time, but the work never stopped,” Carrizales said. “We went on a brief vacation after the season ended but picked up right where we left off. I consider this my in-season and the actual season as my off-season, if that makes sense. This is when all the real work takes place. Finding new partners, acquiring new sponsorships, finding new ways that will position us better in the community as well as focus on things we can improve on.

“I’ve been busy and only expect that to increase as we inch closer and closer to season.”

Greenville finished 4-7-3 while competing in the Southeast Division of the South Region Conference last season, showing marked improvement as the campaign progressed.

Aside from showcasing quality amateur players (midfielder Jack Hoey was an all-region selection) the team also found the perfect fit in head coach Lee Squires.

Squires, whose primary job is head coach of the Lander University men’s soccer team, led the Bearcats to a 16-2-3 record in the fall and produced five all-region players.

“Lee reached out to me after another opportunity fell through,” Carrizales explained. “At the time we were talking to a couple different options, but Lee immediately stood out to me. His hunger to be better as a coach and his desire to perfect his craft were things that made me very comfortable. 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.”

GVLFC plays its home matches at Eugene Stone III Stadium on the campus of Furman University, and developed a strong following in its inaugural campaign.

The “prep and landing” was first-rate from the start, and Carrizales says one of the most gratifying aspects of year one was seeing the club grow from an idea to an actuality is such a short period of time.

“I think the biggest obstacle was pinpointing how we wanted to present this club to the community,” Carrizales said. “What do we want to be about, and how do we want to go about creating our image as a club? That was tough. You don’t get a second chance at launching a club so we really needed to be set on what we believed in and how we could build foundation we could further build upon. It’s a scary thing going into the ‘unknown,’ but we just had to embrace it and believe we were right.

“I think it panned out better than we ever could have imagined.”

Carrizales recently returned from the NPSL annual owners meeting in Minneapolis, and the big takeaway was the formation of a professional division sponsored by the league.

Starting with a Founders Cup competition in the fall, the new league will play a full schedule in 2020 with 11 charter members: ASC San Diego, Cal FC, California United Strikers FC, Chattanooga FC, Detroit City FC, FC Arizona, Miami FC, Miami United FC, Milwaukee Torrent, New York Cosmos, and Oakland Roots, with plenty of room for growth.

Otherwise, the NPSL will maintain amateur status with its other clubs spread across the country, including Greenville.

“We took a deep dive into (the owner meetings) and we learned a lot,” Carrizales said. “As far as Greenville FC is concerned, we are very happy where we currently are. The opportunity to remain sustainable is at an all-time high where we currently stand, and we are very comfortable with that. I will say, however, that our league is in a very good position and the executive staff as well as board of directors are the right individuals for the job. I left the (meetings) feeling very reassured in the direction and mission of the NPSL.

“I’m excited to see it grow.”

Of course GVLFC will have company in 2019 as Greenville Triumph SC joins the Upstate soccer scene.

The Triumph will play in League One of the United Soccer League and is part of the USL’s closed professional pyramid.

But the addition of a new franchise won’t change the mission of a second-year club that looks to deepen its roots next summer.

“I knew that if we presented this club in the right light and created something that wasn’t about the club but the community, then it would really take off,” Carrizales said. I think attendance numbers showed that we were right in our thinking. We get asked a lot about maintaining attendance, and I’ll say that we don’t look at it like that. We are only in competition with ourselves as marketers and club executives. We didn’t start this to mirror any other club or try to outdo any certain club. We set out to create something the community believes in and build the GVLFC community around that, day by day.”

As part of that commitment, Greenville FC and Copa Indoor Soccer are hosting a holiday camp on December 22 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Copa Indoor Soccer. Copa’s Anthony Esquivel and GVLFC staffers will offer instruction, but the event will also serve as a soccer cleat drive.
The GVLFC supporters group, the Mill Town Operatives, and Copa staff members will be on site accepting new and used soccer cleats during the camp hours.

The boots will be donated to those in need in the community.

“I can tell you that when making decisions as a club, we do that with our GVLFC community in mind and what we believe will outdo what we did yesterday or the day before,” Carrizales said. “I believe we’ve built something strong and something to stay.”

For someone who has followed Chattanooga FC for a while now, hearing on Thursday that the club has a new life in a new league was terrific news.

Same goes for Detroit City FC, another club built by supporters, for supporters.

And as a guy who still cheers for the New York Cosmos and used to live for the old “Soccer Bowls” and the original North American Soccer League – the launch of the National Premier Soccer League’s pro circuit resonates.

According to a NPSL news release, the clubs will compete in the first-ever NPSL Founders Cup competition that will run from August to November, 2019.

The exact format is still being worked out.

After that tournament-style debut, the circuit will play a full league schedule from spring to fall in 2020, falling in line with the American professional soccer calendar.

While the “traditional” NPSL plays a truncated summer schedule with amateur players, NPSL Pro (or however it ultimately brands itself) will be full-time with paid coaches, players and staff.

“We are very excited to bring a new brand of community-based soccer to the U.S. market,” NPSL Chairman Joe Barone said in a statement. “Beginning with the Founders Cup, fans will be able to enjoy watching authentic clubs compete with professional players and staff.  This new venture will build upon the success and experience of NPSL and its nationwide network of local soccer club members.”

Aside from Chattanooga, Detroit and New York, the 11 founding members are ASC San Diego, Cal FC, California United Strikers FC, FC Arizona, Miami FC, Miami United FC, Milwaukee Torrent, and Oakland Roots, with plenty of room for more clubs in the future.

(The Roots, by the way, have one of the best crests in the history of crests. Look it up).

If you want to view NPSL Pro as a “renegade league,” feel free … I doubt they mind.

It will exist outside of the United States Soccer Federation because instead of a franchise model, these clubs are sticking to their grassroots growth plan.

“Having been Chattanooga’s football club for 10 years, we are really excited about the future and moving up to the next level,” Sheldon Grizzle, Chattanooga FC general manager, said. “This has been in the works for several years and we are proud for our fans and supporters to see this come to fruition.”

Instead of the USSF’s blessing – which was neither sought nor expected – the new league is aligned with the United States Adult Soccer Association.

“We support our members’ growth and expansion of their leagues,” USASA President John Motta said. “This is another opportunity to develop players, coaches, administrators, and referees at the highest level of adult soccer. This is absolutely critical for player development, as it prepares players onto the next level and also for referee development, as this level of adult soccer is the best training ground for referees in this country.”

Growing up in the Deep South in the late 1960s, soccer to me was so rare it was damn near exotic. Now, though, it’s everywhere.

Aside from NPSL Pro, the National Independent Soccer Association is set to kick off its inaugural season in 2019 with eight teams.

USL League One, the United Soccer League’s newest circuit, also debuts in 2019 with 10 franchises.

They function as a “third division” in America’s mythical soccer pyramid, with Major League Soccer and USL Championship serving as the first and second divisions, respectively.

However, since NPSL Pro exists outside the USSF structure, it conceivably can grow into something more.

When you look at the vastness of the fourth-tier NPSL – more than 90 clubs are scattered across the country – the possibility of one day having a true pyramid with promotion and relegation exists.

Beyond that, though, I just like the fact that these 11 clubs want to chart their own course in “The Beautiful Game.”

Obviously I’m happy for all the teams involved, and glad the Cosmos have found a professional home again. But I’m especially pleased for Chattanooga and Detroit, two clubs that have refused to stray from their grassroots model.

If NPSL Pro is ultimately the future of American soccer, those two cities will always be remembered for being ahead of the curve – and helping lay the foundation.

Greenville Football Club proved to be my gateway drug to grassroots soccer in the United States.

Thanks to its 2018 debut season in the National Premier Soccer League, I’ve spent a good deal of time learning as much as I can about organic soccer all across the country.

I watched more live streams of lower division matches than I can count.

I became reacquainted with Atlanta Silverbacks FC, and even made a small donation to their fan ownership trust.

I sided with Chattanooga FC in its fight against a USL D3 insurgence, buying tickets for CFC’s 2019 opener as a way to #StandWithChatta.

Detroit City FC became one of my favorite clubs, despite the fact that this time a year ago, I had never heard of Le Rouge.

Basically, I looked across the country and tried to find people and communities who are serious about growing soccer from the ground up.

And now I’m looking at Alexandria, Virginia.

I’ve never been there. In fact, the closest I’ve come is Norfolk – which is almost 200 miles away.

Regardless, there’s a soccer team in Alexandria that I now follow – Motorik FC Alexandria – and they represent everything that’s right about the sport in America.

“The thing about American soccer is it seems that only one demographic has been able to take advantage of the system,” Motorik FC club president Kenneth Tebo says. “But because of our approach, we’ve created a roster that reflects the cultural diversity of this region. We have maybe 15 nationalities represented on our roster right now. You hear some people freaking out these days about the ‘changing face of America,’ but that’s the America I’ve known since the day I was born.

“I’m from Potomac, and I’ve always lived in culturally diverse neighborhoods, so for me this is the way it should be.”

Motorik FC, which begins play in the Maryland Major Soccer League next month, held its first tryouts last November.

But the idea of this club grew from Tebo’s passion – and has been growing for a while.

“Soccer has been a part of my life since very early on,” he explains. “Potomac is kind of an international community and soccer is king there. My youth club would go to (Washington) Diplomats games back in the old North American Soccer League days. And then I became a supporter of (Major League Soccer) DC United in 1996 when they came long.

“But then I started discovering the local lower division clubs like Real Maryland FC up in Rockville and Northern Virginia FC Royals, and I supported them for a while. And then discovering more about the scene across the country, the Chattanoogas and Detroits and those clubs, got me more interested.”

At first, Tebo wanted to form a league populated by grassroots clubs that shared his vision. He learned, however, that none actually existed – at least not in his neck of the woods.

“I kept seeing all these exciting developments around the country,” he said. “Here in D.C. you have a very cosmopolitan demographic, and it seems like it would be a perfect incubator for lower division clubs, but nothing was ever going on. So finally I decided last year that I was going to take a stab at creating the kind of club that I’d want to support, and that was Motorik FC.”

Tebo admits that initially he had “delusions of grandeur” about Motorik, seeing it as a transformative club that started off with a bang. Once he got down to the business of making it a reality, though, he knew he had to “adapt to the circumstances at hand.”

“I’m not really like a soccer insider – I’m not part of the ‘soccernati’ of D.C. – so I’m coming in as a total outsider because I’ve never done anything like this before,” Tebo said. “It started out as building the identity of the club, and then the presentation and aesthetic of the club, and then around November, it started to get real.”

Motorik managed to put together a 15-match summer exhibition schedule as a fledgling independent, a slate that included matchups with NPSL and Premier Develop League teams.

After a slow start the club became quite competitive, and even managed to play Atlantic City FC – an NPSL side – to a draw back in July.

“A lot of those early matches were tough, but we’ve increased the talent on our roster significantly,” Tebo said. “The highlight of our exhibition season was our trip to Atlantic City. It was a good bonding experience for our guys and we were playing a club that had a roster that had ex-MLS and ex-USL guys and a lot of college prospects, and we were throwing our ragtag squad at them and we came away with a 1-1 draw.

“That was a pretty proud moment.”

While all of those clashes mattered none of them “counted,” so Tebo knew his club had to hitch its wagon to an actual organization going forward.

The Washington Premier League seemed like a logical landing spot due to geography, but in the end, the MMSL proved to be the best fit.

“Obviously, their biggest selling point is they have (Baltimore-based) Christos FC, who were like (U.S. Open Cup) Cinderellas last year and had their big match against DC United,” Tebo said. “My intention was always to join the WPL. That seemed more inevitable because basically all of (WPL) matches take place in northern Virginia. But over time I was able to assess both leagues.

“Originally, I thought traveling would be too much in the Maryland Majors because our guys are working class guys, and they have jobs they depend on and that need them to be accountable to as well.”

However, conversations with league commissioner Bill George helped ease Tebo’s mind about the logistics.

“I started having a lot of discussions with Bill, who gave me a lot of tips and insights on how to secure players and how to make things work,” Tebo said. “It endeared me more to the Maryland Majors, and then it became apparent they were making efforts to expand more southward toward the Beltway, and that gave me an in to convince my players to get on board and join the league.”

The MMSL features promotion/relegation, and Motorik will begin their affiliation as members of the Second Division South, which has six clubs.

The Second Division North is made up of seven clubs, and six play in the First Division.

And while Motorik now has a league, it will still have its unique identity.

“What separates us, and what I’ve been most proud of in building our roster, is that we’re not really tapping into the NCAA player pool,” Tebo said. “Our focus is more on finding the guys who either through circumstances of social economics or immigration, they’ve sort of been outside of the academy system. We’re taking these guys and seeing what they can do if they get real focused training and if they actually see that their hard work will get them to an advanced level of competition, and so far it’s been successful.

“We’ve found a lot of rough diamonds. Once we put them in a team environment and put certain expectations on them, they’ve risen to the occasion.”

Obviously there’s more to the story of Motorik FC Alexandria, and a new chapter will be written this fall.

They’ll enter a new league as underdogs, but that’s fine with Tebo.

Like amateur soccer clubs in communities all across the nation, all they want is a chance.

And they’re determined to make the most of it.

“I don’t think we’re necessarily doing anything noble,” Tebo said. “We just put up a flare and attracted the players that were in the area and inevitably that’s going to reflect the demographic and culture of the area.

“When we had our first tryouts and when I first saw these guys come out and want to represent the badge, that’s when I felt like this is something cool.”

For more information about the club and league, go to motorikfc.com and marylandmajorsoccer.com.

Follow Motorik on Twitter @MotorikFC