Women's soccer returning to Delaware in 2019

DOVER - High-level women’s soccer is returning to Delaware.

The team doesn’t have a name, a coach or any players yet. But it has cleared two major hurdles – a sponsor and a venue.

On Monday, Coastal Atlantic Futbol Club unveiled Chevrolet of Dover as the jersey sponsor for the club’s new senior-level team, which plans to begin competing in the Women’s Premier Soccer League (WPSL) in 2019.

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It will be the first senior-level women’s team in the First State since the Delaware Genies played in the United Soccer League’s W-League from 1997-2000. Coastal Atlantic FC technical director Joe Brown was involved with the Genies, and the longtime Padua coach will be responsible for many of the details in getting the new team up and running.

“This will be your top collegiate players, whether it’s Division I, II or III,” Brown said. “It will also be players that are ex-pros and are in the area. So they’re going to be accomplished players.”

Brown said the team’s 14-game season will run from late May through July, with home games played on the stadium field at the DE Turf facility in Frederica. The team will be comprised mostly of current college players from schools in the region, but one or two of the very best Delaware high school players may be given a chance to crack the lineup.

“If there’s a kid that is 17 years old that can play, we’re going to push them up into this team,” Brown said. “Because they need to be playing at a higher level and having more stress than what they’re getting in a high school game or even in the club system they are in.”

The WPSL has 41 teams nationwide. Brown said in addition to putting together a coaching staff and signing players, one of his duties will be determining whether the new team should compete in the WPSL’s Northeast Region, against teams from the Philadelphia and New Jersey area; or in the Mid-Atlantic Region, against teams from the Washington, D.C., area.

Brown said the team will sell tickets and be marketed as family entertainment.

“I think they will see attractive soccer,” Brown said when asked what fans can expect. “I think they will see young ladies that are going to buy in to what we’re trying to do and get them prepared for that next level.”

One of the next steps will be to name the team.

“We will have a community contest over the next year to get a name,” Brown said. “So it will be Coastal FC … whatever fits the profile of this community.”

Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ