The Wash is David Falk’s take on the world of soccer in The WA.

Read previous columns here.

by David Falk

The WISL (Western Indoor Soccer League) is being launched in Washington State so that indoor soccer club owners, players and arena operators can have a regional elite league for locals, made by locals, run by locals. It’s powered by a certain Cascadia spirit that embraces soccer of several kinds and honors a club concept that nurtures community culture.

The Evergreen Premier League was started with similar goals. Now that outdoor circuit has gone through a complete season with eight clubs all around the state.

Indoor soccer is a different animal these days than outdoor is. Not as widely played, certainly not as popular in press or as a spectator sport. Still there are pockets of indoor soccer culture in Washington.

The WISL will be playing in most of those “pockets.”

For a few years now goalWA.net has reported on the drama involving the local amateur / semi-pro indoor soccer scene. At one point I even suggested the best path forward was for the PASL Premier to adjust its governing style and allow local clubs more say and power.

The last line of that piece was:

“If the PASL won’t budge, and clings to outdated operational modes where one or two people have most all of the say? Then Washington, it could be time to whistle.”

“Whistle” refers to how you pronounce “WISL.” And we see now that the time has indeed come.

The WISL won’t be perfect. It won’t be NBA slam and glam. It will be local talent in neighborhood indoor soccer centers with small clubs and devoted owners and fans. Most of all, it will be “us.” It will be local lovers of the indoor sport who are keeping this code of ‘football’ alive the best way they know how: forming clubs and playing in a league they have complete say and control over.

The time for more Cascadian independence has arrived.

Sure the WISL owners could have kept to themselves and endured another season in another league with out-of-state control by out-of-touch bigwigs. But where exactly was that taking this sport? How exactly was that helping to advance our indoor soccer culture?

The Tacoma Soccer Center is a tangible symbol of where indoor soccer is right now at the grass roots level in Washington. The busy place has multiple leagues over multiple age groups. It’s a relic that includes iconic remnants of when the Tacoma Stars were as big as any sports team in the region. Those days are great memories, but they are just that now, memories held dearly. Fondly treasured, but faded…like the now-closed off Tacoma Soccer Center entrance that used to greet the MISL Stars and their fans.

Still, the TSC has charm and sight lines that bigger arenas can’t match.This Fall and Winter the Stars will be one of a handful of clubs that kick-starts the WISL.

The WISL is another chance to show the rest of the country that since we are Cascadians, we are in control of our clubs, and how we will build our futures. We live out our dreams by making our own path, in a place where “As good as we can do” is literally as good as it gets.

http://www.WISLnews.com