Josh Hodges is a soccer-phile.

A lifelong lover of soccer, he’s built Legends FC into a massive club that has some 160 teams on over 2,000 high-level soccer players.

A Kansas transplant, Hodges, the director of Sports at SilverLakes, has taken his club to Norco, where the new 130-acre, state-of-the-art soccer complex is turning heads on nearby Interstate 15.

Tuesday night, Hodges, the Norco City Council and German soccer legend Jurgen Klinsmann were on hand as SilverLakes had it’s first seminal moment – an exhibition match between National Women’s Soccer League’s Seattle Reign and the host UCLA women’s team – to celebrate the latest, greatest soccer facility’s continued path to success.

“This is a dream come true,” said longtime Norco resident and city councilman Kevin Bash. “To go from a patch of weeds to what it is today is absolutely amazing, particularly for a town as small as ours.”

In a roughly 5,000-seat, temporary stadium, under the lights, a match that dazzled an excited sellout crowd, SilverLakes made a very public debut.

Not that it just opened. After all there have been operations at the facility for over a year. But, Tuesday the light shown bright for a complex that combines soccer and equestrian centers with an on-site restaurant (still under construction) called the Field House and The Back Yard, a outdoor live music venue.

“There are many parts to the puzzle and equestrian is a big part,” said Hodges, 39, who describes himself a hopeless lover of the “beautiful game” of soccer.

“And, there are different phases of it, we will be building a 5,000-seat stadium in phase 2.”

Hodges has soccer at SilverLakes off and running with a full slate youth and adult programs.

“When I came here it was a somewhat blank canvas,” said Hodges.

“They had secured the biggest youth soccer organization in California – Cal South – hosting all their State Cup events and regional league events here,” Hodges said.

SilverLakes also secured one of the biggest leagues in California, the SoCal Development Soccer League.

To that Hodges has added much more, including large tournaments from around the Southland.

Still, SilverLakes strives to be a high level Wimbledon-level experience.

“We hope to have a Disney Sports-type feeling experience for the families,” Hodges said. “We’re actually, as we get going, hoping to do less and less and only have few prestigious events here.”

But, for Hodges, a once-upon-a-time kid who scoffed at his former coach, when he asked him if he was married,

“…I would referee for him and one time…I said “are you married” because in his apartment it was all soccer balls and shoes everywhere.

“And he said to me, ‘Josh I made the decision a long time ago to marry soccer.'”

Hodges said he remembered thinking he hoped he’d never be like that.

“And here I am. Its my passion, everything I’ve ever done has been soccer and I love it.”