The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is proud to announce that Midland-Odessa FC (Midland, TX) has joined the league as an expansion team. The club will compete in the South Region’s South Central Conference.
“We are extremely honored to have a team like Midland-Odessa FC as part of our league,” NPSL Chairman Joe Barone commented. “They have experienced a great deal of success over the past eight years and we are looking forward to seeing them continue that tradition here in the NPSL. Our fans and supporters should be very excited about having this club as part of a dynamic conference like the South Central.”
Midland-Odessa FC is led by majority owner Miles Prentice and staff members Monty Hoppel, Jeff VonHolle, Ray Fieldhouse, and Jamie Richardson.
“We bring professionalism at an amateur level and a wealth of experience to the NPSL,” VonHolle, who serves as the club’s Assistant General Manager and Director of Soccer Operations, added. “We expect to give the soccer community in West Texas an amateur team of which to be proud and to continue to be one of the best soccer organizations in our region.”
The club also operates the Midland RockHounds Professional Baseball Club, which competes in the Texas League as a Double-A affiliate of the Oakland A’s. They operate both the baseball team and the amateur soccer team in a professional manner with regards to community relations, promotions, sales, and marketing.
The club had played in the PDL since 2009. They were always one of the PDL’s top clubs in terms of attendance, finishing in the top 10 in attendance nationwide every season. They have qualified for the playoffs a total of three times.
Last season, Midland-Odessa Sockers FC won the Southern Conference in the PDL and advanced to the PDL Semifinals. In 2017, the club will operate in the NPSL under the name of Midland-Odessa FC, but will return to the name of Midland-Odessa Sockers FC for the 2018 NPSL season.
Home matches will be played at Midland’s Grande Communications Stadium. Built in 2002, the facility has all of the amenities that the top stadiums require, including four locker rooms, a press box, suites, and a video board. It has seating for 15,000, but the east side of the stadium is closed for NPSL games.
“This was always one of the finest venues for amateur soccer while we were in the PDL, and I’m sure that it will also be one of the top stadiums in the NPSL as well,” VonHolle concluded. “We joined the NPSL because of the number of teams in and around Texas and the fact that the NPSL is growing so much in our area. We believe that the cooperative platform the NPSL offers makes it the best place for our success as a team moving forward.”
More information about the club can be found at www.sockersfc.org or by following the club on Facebook (www.facebook.com/West.Texas.Sockers) and Twitter (@SockersFC09).
