'Why not now?': Semi-pro Tallahassee Soccer Club created

In 1941, the former Dale Mabry Airfield became a World War II-era U.S. Army base.

On the location of what is now Tallahassee Community College, the next four years saw a surplus of land and air military vehicles live at the location, as well as facilitate the involvement of over 5,000 people ranging from military officers to enlisted men and women to civilians.

That point in history was on the mind of Chris Petley and his motley crue of soccer aficionados in Florida’s capital city.

On Wednesday during a gathering at Happy Motoring, Petley led a group that announced the creation of a semi-professional team – Tallahassee Soccer Club – and its mascot, the Battle Lion.

“Wanted to stay away from the capitol and the history of the Seminoles, and we kept coming back to Dale Mabry Airfield,” Tallahassee SC president Petley said. “Prior to that, Tallahassee was a sleepy little town. After that, it changed the college to coed. We had 173,000 people move in during the next three years and it really changed the course of where we are.

“We’ve played on that with the term ‘battalion’ and came up with Battle Lion as our spirit animal. And that’s what you see on our logo.”

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Petley, who is the communications director for Leon County Schools, hopes the same evolution that existed 75 years ago will happen now with the grassroots movement to launch a semi-pro team in Tallahassee, which heard rumblings for several years about fielding a minor league baseball team.

Tallahassee SC will fall under Elite Amateur in the U.S. Soccer structure. Players aren’t paid, so they can retain amateur status. That means Florida State University club players will be able to play and not lose their NCAA eligibility.

The men’s adult amateur club will kick off in spring 2019 – either in March or May depending upon which of two leagues it chooses to join. Tallahassee SC, which is made up of a volunteer board and is member-funded, is eyeing two options.

One, the Gulf Coast Premier League, runs Interstate-10 into Texas and involves teams from Pensacola, Mobile and Montgomery, Ala., and Jackson, Miss. The other is the United Premier Soccer League, which spans the country and would form a North Florida conference to involve Tallahassee, Gainesville, and Jacksonville. There are 21 teams in the UPSL from Orlando south.

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“Around the country, teams are starting up in cities a lot smaller than ours,” Petley said. “They’re having massive success with lower-division soccer.

“In our community where we embrace everything local, that’s our message – we’re supporting local. It’s a local team run by a volunteer board of local people in our community that love this city and love soccer.”

Tallahassee SC is in the process of interviewing coaches and hopes to make that announcement over the summer prior to organizing fall open tryouts.

The Battle Lion will play at FSU’s intramural fields in College Town and rent 500-seat bleachers from Leon County Schools as they build a fan-friendly experience.

“We want to make sure we provide an atmosphere and a culture,” Petley said. “That’s why that location is vital to our success. People can go get some beers beforehand, families can go get food nearby, and a do a ‘march to the match’ down Madison Street – everything you associate with soccer in our country right now.”

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Soccer has long been proclaimed as the world’s sport. Major League Soccer was started in the U.S. in 1993 and now has 23 teams.

But Petley pointed to 400 adults over the age of 18 that play soccer every Sunday as part of Tallahassee Soccer Association, as well as an upswing of youth participation within clubs Warner Soccer and Tallahassee Tottenham to prove there is a fan base to support such a venture.

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“We have success coming from Maclay and its state championship, and Lincoln, Chiles, Leon at the high school level,” Petley said. “You have the legacy of Andy Warner and everything he has built. And then you obviously have the FSU women’s program.

“I don’t want to say we’ve been slept on, but the community exists.”

Tallahassee SC’s executive board has its goals, first of which is to build a quality product that people will want to watch.

Board member Kenny Nwoko, who played in high school for Godby from 1997-2000 and then for FSU’s men’s club team, thinks fielding high-level talent won’t be an issue.

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“Anybody who played at the same time I did would tell you we had the talent, we just didn’t have the backings, the supporters,” said Nwoko, also the coach of St. John Paul II Catholic’s boys and girls teams.

“It was only a matter of time. Why not now?”

Said Petley: “We have collegiate sports, we have high school sports, it’s time to have something to unite around without our high school and college allegiances.”

Eventually, Petley hopes success with Tallahassee SC leads to fielding a women’s team as well. There’s also the down-the-road lure of a player growing up in the youth ranks with an aspiration to sign with the Battle Lions.

And a long-term goal would be to play in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, a 100-year tournament that spans semi-pro and MLS teams. Petley would like to see a Tallahassee team make history and play in it.

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But beyond that, he wants a quality local experience that the whole family can enjoy. Others seem to want that too.

“It’s just going to grow Tallahassee soccer in general,” said Manuel Rico, a 2006 Leon grad who is now the head boys soccer coach at Florida High. “The kids that grow up playing soccer, they have something they can shoot for and someone to cheer on. It will just make Tallahassee soccer even better.”