State of the Support is a reoccurring series on American professional soccer written from a fan perspective. This series will follow the ups and downs of Soccer Support in Rochester, NY and the surrounding region in one of its most trying times in decades.

It was a little over a year ago I last wrote about the Rochester Rhinos specific eye for local Youth development in their strategy for returning to the field as a professional squad. In August 2019 we lived in a different world but for Rhinos fans it was not too different than where we are today. No official word on the future of the organization had emerged in almost a year and big structural questions about the future were being asked. Just like a year ago we are suddenly treated to a welcomed update.

Just like a year ago we learn the future of the Rhinos will grow from a Youth Academy basis with an eye for the local in developing talent for the First Team.

Empire United and the Rochester Rhinos will team up in a partnership for developing local soccer talent in a Path-to-Pro system. Empire United is a local youth soccer development academy that came about in 2007 upon the merger of Buffalo United Soccer Club, Syracuse Football Academy and the Rochester Junior Rhinos. The group is a 501c3 not-for-profit containing several different age cohorts of youth teams ranging from 7 years of age all the way up to 19. Empire United Soccer Academy is a member of the US Soccer Federation backed Development Academy system.

The one thing that is plainly apparent in this news is that the Rhinos organization is putting its money where its mouth is and making a big tangible step toward making local talent development a priority. For Empire this is giving their most gifted graduates a clear gateway into the professional ranks once the Rhinos return to the field. For the Rhinos organization it means access to Empire United’s John Street facility in Henrietta, NY which contains many development amenities that would bring the Rhinos on par with other development-minded Pro Clubs in the USL ecosystem. This does however lead us to where it gets a bit more complicated.

The Empire United press release identifies the partnership as beginning in 2021-2022 where it directly links the development academy with the “First Team”. The announcement states that facility will host the first team at some point. Contrary to what you may believe that does not necessarily mean the John Street facility is the future home field of the professional team. Yes, rumor has it Empire United has been desirous of building more outdoor fields on their property so it then follows that one of those could be a stadium if the Rhinos move there. The operative word there is rumor. So I reached out to Rochester Rhinos Chief Soccer Officer and President Pat Ercoli for further clarification on this new relationship. He responded to each of my six questions in kind. I thought I would let this exchange speak for itself below. My questions are in black while Pat Ercoli’s responses are in red. Ercoli’s responses have not been edited in any way.

Q1: Is the aforementioned outdoor field next door to the [Empire United facility] building the future outdoor venue for Rhinos games?

Ercoli: We have not yet decided where the Rhinos will play.

Q2: Does the Rhinos Front Office including yourself, Mr. Stanton, and the Dworkins plan on moving into the office space at this location?

Ercoli: We are not intending to move our offices there.

Q3: Does this new location signal a potential partnership of any kind with the nearby Rochester Institute of Technology?

Ercoli: The strategic alliance with the Empire does not signal any subsequent partnership outside of Empire at this time.

Q4: Is this confirmation that the First Team [Rochester Rhinos] will return to play in 2022 in USL League One?

Ercoli: It is not.

Q5: Given Empire United’s development model should we expect the majority of Rochester Rhinos players to be locals brought through the Empire United system come 2022?

Ercoli: It does not mean the majority of players will be local but it does absolutely mean that local players will have enhanced opportunities to train and tryout for the First Team.

Q6: Is there a more specific timeline for the “…future announcements in the coming months” regarding the professional first team in USL1?

Ercoli: Not at this time. I know its not much but we are a work in progress.

Ercoli’s comments bring clarity to the Rhinos actual organizational stance at the moment. This partnership is clearly a promise to the greater Rochester region. That is to say when the professional side does return it will do so for the explicit benefit of talent from this region. That is more or less all it means at this point. However, and this is the lowkey headline in this news: it does mean that the Rochester Rhinos, in their current administration, will indeed return to the field for professional play at some point barring unforeseen circumstances.

In other words: the light at the end of the hiatus tunnel may not be visible yet but we now know that there is an end of the tunnel. This is something we have not been able to say with even this much certainty since 2017. There is no hard date for a return for the professional side in this news, but it does allow us to be as sure as we can be that the club that brought pro soccer back to Rochester in 1996 will continue to exist. The Rhinos will play again one day.

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This past week saw the first matchup of the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA)’s Battle of New York. The New York Cosmos versus the brand new NYC club in New Amsterdam FC is the league’s response to Major League Soccer (MLS)’s NYCFC versus New York Red Bulls. If a positively feral show is how they hoped to start this rivalry they very much succeeded. The 3-1 Cosmos win last Friday featured everything from an owner subbing in as goalie to a red card infraction that merited the upstart league issuing its first season-long suspension of a player.

Emmanuele Sembroni was assessed a red card in the 57th minute of the match after he apparently stomped on the head and shoulders of NAFC player Danny Vincente he had just fallen to the turf with. The penalty was noticed immediately by fans and became a rallying cry against Sembroni calling for his suspension beyond the red card mandated next match. While fans called for a lifetime ban the NISA League Office ended up simply suspending him through the remainder of the Fall Season. The Cosmos did not appeal the decision and condemned the unsportsmanlike conduct. The Cosmos released Sembroni through they struck a hopeful tone in their statement.

To say that wasn’t even the craziest thing to happen in this match might go to show how NISA has quickly become the wild west of professional American soccer. New Amsterdam’s owner Laurence Girard came into his team’s net after halftime and the reasoning is a bit difficult to discern. What isn’t hard to discern is USMNT legend Eric Wynalda. He was hired as Head Coach the week prior but did not attend this game due to strep throat. A precautionary COVID-19 test came back negative.

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As of the posting of this article Major League Soccer is the only American Soccer organization to postpone games as a result of players boycotting for racial justice. The protest that originated with the WNBA and NBA yesterday spread to MLS who postponed yesterday’s games. USL, NISA as well as the country’s numerous amateur leagues have not made any similar stance as of yet. It is the opinion of this blogger that Black Lives Matter and player protests of this sort are powerful forces for awareness and activism in public life.

I’m always open to thoughts and insights @Pastagut on Twitter and right here at uttarosports.tumblr.com. It would seem that soccer in most of this country has found something of a comfort zone playing during these unprecedented times. I will be posting again as more information comes out on the Rhinos new partnership with Empire United and soccer in general in our part of the country. In the meantime, please stay safe.

Thanks for Reading.