 The Women's Professional Soccer League (WPSL) continues to expand its footprint across Minnesota (forgive their placement of Mankato on the map. We promise we won't use it for way-finding). Last year, the Fire and Twin Stars had to travel as far as Chicago for a regular weekly match. Now, the big road trip for Minnesota teams will be up to Fargo for a battle with the Dakota Fusion with nearly all other games within about a hour-long drive. While team rosters are still being finalized, we thought we'd give you a snap shot profile of the new Central Region, Northern Conference. Our game plan for this WPSL season is to offer some spot coverage of top performing players throughout the summer and at least one road trip to each team - complete with live tweeting, pre and post game interviews, and a full game story. For what it's worth, the schedule for the season is out on the league website, but hasn't necessarily been rolled out by the teams. But if you want to do a quick scan, I put every conference match into a google sheet, by team. Tweet at us with your recommendation for which game we should attend for each team. Answers below are "printed" verbatim. Whatever the team put in, we are posting.  Team name: FIRE SC 98 Home field: Sea Foam Stadium, Concordia St. Paul Campus Coaching staff: Head Coach Mickey McNeill: Over 30 years of experience coaching high school, club and college. What different player pools (specific nearby colleges, nearby players returning from playing college ball elsewhere, etc) will you recruit from? Our team currently has players from the NSIC, Summit League, Missouri Valley, MIAC conference primarily. We are hoping to continue to have more players who have completed college and want to play at a high level for the summer months. We believe that having a team that provides the players something special is key to what this league should be about. How would you describe the style of play you you want the team to achieve? The goal for the team is to play a high pressure, attacking style. We want to encourage the players to get out of their comfort zone and really make huge improvements during the summer period. The team will attack with everyone and plans to play end to end all season long. Teams in the WPSL have financial models that vary widely. Some are able to provide housing and some pay for their players while many others require players to actually pay a fee to help support the club’s operation. Where does your team fall on that continuum? This year we will be housing 2-4 players again with host families and look to expand on that program in future years. The long term goal is for players to play on this team with no cost to them and earn some money for college through our camp program. This summer the player fee is $200 (down from $400) and we are asking players to spend some time volunteering to help the team. The conference for the Minnesota (and Fargo) clubs looks dramatically different from past seasons thanks to significant expansion locally. What are your goals in the conference for this season? Our goal is to lead the conference in our game day and player experience. We will be starting a summer camp program (http://www.fire98soccercamps.com/) this summer that will provide youth players a chance to train with our team and coaching staff. On the field we hope to compete for the league title and play attractive attacking soccer. Other than attending games in person, how can people follow the team (live streams, social media, etc)? Attend our KICK OFF Party May 16 @ Blackstack Brewery in St. Paul, and get a chance to meet us live and enjoy a fun evening. www.firesc98.com https://www.facebook.com/firesc98wpsl/ @Fire_98_SC_WPSL http://www.fire98soccercamps.com  Team name: Dakota Fusion FC Home field: Jim Gotta Stadium, Moorhead, MN Coaching staff: Head Coach, Marco Campoverde What different player pools (specific nearby colleges, nearby players returning from playing college ball elsewhere, etc) will you recruit from? We will recruit from NDSU, UND, Jamestown Univ., MN State Univ. Moorhead How would you describe the style of play you you want the team to achieve? We have a new coach so that question would be best answered by him. Teams in the WPSL have financial models that vary widely. Some are able to provide housing and some pay for their players while many others require players to actually pay a fee to help support the club’s operation. Where does your team fall on that continuum? We can provide some local host family housing; we cannot pay our players but we pay for transportation, meals and lodging on away matches; we will require a fee to play this year. The conference for the Minnesota (and Fargo) clubs looks dramatically different from past seasons thanks to significant expansion locally. What are your goals in the conference for this season? A question for the coach. Other than attending games in person, how can people follow the team (live streams, social media, etc)? We will live stream our matches  Team name: Mankato United WPSL Home field: Caswell North Soccer Complex Coaching staff: Head Coach - Tudor Flintham Asst Coach - Clay Merches What different player pools (specific nearby colleges, nearby players returning from playing college ball elsewhere, etc) will you recruit from? We plan on having a core of Mavericks (Minnesota State) as well as a few previous Mavs (All Americans), a few D1 players from the region, as well as other top players from select D2 and D3 programs.. How would you describe the style of play you you want the team to achieve? Our style of play will be predicated on attacking soccer. Our team and games will be anything but boring! Teams in the WPSL have financial models that vary widely. Some are able to provide housing and some pay for their players while many others require players to actually pay a fee to help support the club’s operation. Where does your team fall on that continuum? We have two major tenants for our WPSL team which are predicated on player and fan experience. While we will be charging a nominal fee this year, our goal in the future is to potentially eliminate the player fee all together. This will require our committee to seek the appropriate amount of sponsorships, as well as generating enough game day revenues to support this model. We think we are up to the challenge potentially as soon as our 2nd year. In regards to home stays or billet families, we fully support and offer this as a option for our players. We also are working with local employers to help find job shadows, internships, or summer employment based on player interest. The conference for the Minnesota (and Fargo) clubs looks dramatically different from past seasons thanks to significant expansion locally. What are your goals in the conference for this season? We are excited that the winner of the Northern Conference will have the opportunity to host the Regional tournament. Our goal for the season is to finish in the top third of the conference and with any luck - win the conference! Other than attending games in person, how can people follow the team (live streams, social media, etc)? Twitter - @ MankatoWPSL Web Site - www.mankatosoccer.org/WPSL Facebook - www.facebook.com/mankatounited.org/WPSL Steaming - will have streaming available. More than likely through mycujoo - but haven’t made the final decision yet  Team name: MapleBrook Fury Home field: Maple Grove HS Stadium Coaching staff: Head Coach: Jean-Yves Viardin Assistant : Martin Browne Assistant : Stuart Trench GK Coach : Cat Parkhill Strength Coach : Deventri Jordan - Game Face What different player pools (specific nearby colleges, nearby players returning from playing college ball elsewhere, etc) will you recruit from? Team will be made up of mainly u19 players already in the club with college commitments to: U of Minnesota Florida Atlantic Madison Creighton U of St Thomas U of MN Duluth (UMD) SDSU Eau Claire ST. Cloud State How would you describe the style of play you you want the team to achieve? We are a possession based team with significant counter attacking ability Teams in the WPSL have financial models that vary widely. Some are able to provide housing and some pay for their players while many others require players to actually pay a fee to help support the club’s operation. Where does your team fall on that continuum? Our players all local as of now so no housing required. Finances come from sponsors, youth club and minimally from players. The conference for the Minnesota (and Fargo) clubs looks dramatically different from past seasons thanks to significant expansion locally. What are your goals in the conference for this season? We should be fairly competitive but will be juggling some USYS events such as state cup, regionals ( maybe ) and Nationals ( already qualified ). So looking to have a good first year but not extend into playoffs due to conflict in schedules and freshman reporting early to colleges Other than attending games in person, how can people follow the team (live streams, social media, etc)? We will be up and running through our club twitter and instagram along with FB and club webpage. Twitter: @MPBSoccerClubMN Instagram: @mpbsoccer Facebook: Maplebrook Soccer Club Web: www.Maplebrooksoccer.com  Team name: Rochester United FC Home field: RCTC , Mayo High School, Century High School, John Marshall High School Coaching staff: Christine Bright, Yonas Hailes, Lucas What different player pools (specific nearby colleges, nearby players returning from playing college ball elsewhere, etc) will you recruit from? Women’s Soccer teams of the following colleges: RCTC Rochester, Winona State, Northern Iowa Community College, Upper Iowa Community College, Will be updated later How would you describe the style of play you you want the team to achieve? Teams in the WPSL have financial models that vary widely. Some are able to provide housing and some pay for their players while many others require players to actually pay a fee to help support the club’s operation. Where does your team fall on that continuum? The conference for the Minnesota (and Fargo) clubs looks dramatically different from past seasons thanks to significant expansion locally. What are your goals in the conference for this season? Other than attending games in person, how can people follow the team (live streams, social media, etc)?  Team name: Salvo SC Women Home field: Reynolds Field, 3003 Snelling Ave North, Roseville, MN Coaching staff: Head Coach Greg Wheaton, Assistant Coach Peter Rivard, Assistant Coach Jarryd Phillips, Video Analyst Delaney Marier, Athletic Trainer David Bloomquist What different player pools (specific nearby colleges, nearby players returning from playing college ball elsewhere, etc) will you recruit from? We will draw players from the Big 12 Conference, Big East Conference, Missouri Valley Conference, Horizon League, and the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Players will join us from University of Minnesota, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska, Creighton, South Dakota State University, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and St. Thomas University. How would you describe the style of play you you want the team to achieve? Salvo SC Women will look to quickly get into the other team’s half under control to play and probe in the attacking half. Salvo SC players will have the technical ability and tactical awareness to solve problems to impact the game. Teams in the WPSL have financial models that vary widely. Some are able to provide housing and some pay for their players while many others require players to actually pay a fee to help support the club’s operation. Where does your team fall on that continuum? In year one we will fall on the pay to play model with support from private donors to supplement the overall cost. The conference for the Minnesota (and Fargo) clubs looks dramatically different from past seasons thanks to significant expansion locally. What are your goals in the conference for this season? We are a new team and we understand that the Fire are the experienced organization. With that said respectfully our goal is to win the league. We have high expectations for our team but why not otherwise we should not have joined the league. Other than attending games in person, how can people follow the team (live streams, social media, etc)? We will stream our games live through https://mycujoo.tv/ We will have live updates via our social media platforms as well Have any tips or ideas for things we could cover? You can email us at [email protected] or send us a direct message on Twitter.
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