Stars Are Born
The Oakes Training Center, Oak Grove, Miss. –
“Southern States Soccer Club is pleased to reveal the nickname for our National Premier Soccer League teams.
We hope SOUTHERN STATES STARS, or the STARS will become a familiar name to sports fans all around us” Nigel Boulton (General Manager).
Southern States Soccer believes the Hattiesburg metro area and the Pine Belt deserves a minor league soccer team. All sports fans deserve a minor league team they can support and cheer for” Boulton asserted.
He went on to say, “We want to commit to everyone, our attempt to establish something lasting and of unique value in the area. We want to create a fan experience that is a partnership. We want to bring soccer supporters and families close up to the players and the club.
We want to make a positive impact in the community. This project is not about making money it’s about providing opportunities for local youth players to see up close, a higher level of play, and for them to aspire to those levels. It is about providing role models and heroes.
We are setting out on this next part of our journey at a difficult time. But the commitment remains just as strong as when we started and will remain so. While the 2021 minor league season in the NPSL is yet sometime away, our U19 NPSL reserve league team already has its schedule and will begin play in September.
We want to add fuel to the smoldering fire that is youth soccer around the city. We want to set it ablaze. We began this project almost five years ago trying to do something unique and different. We were not prepared to be just a part of the pack. As lone wolves, we have established ourselves.
We have built a tremendous training facility at The Oakes. Our Academy and youth teams are blessed. Each year we have added more facilities. We have a fully lit all-weather turf field, a top-class, professional-grade Bermuda grass field with lights and there is currently construction focused on building the clubhouse, locker rooms, medical facilities, offices and more.
There will be a groundbreaking ceremony on Tuesday the 25th of August. Our motto is Partum Infuturum, Creating the Future. While we can go ahead alone with these plans, the one thing we would like more than anything is the support of the local community.
Together, we can deliver something so different, something special. We want to provide a valuable, unique, family-friendly, fan experience. While today the Stars are born, the future growth and success of this baby will lie in the arms of our wider family, the fanbase, the supporters, and our close family, the members of Southern States Soccer itself.
Together we will succeed. As we host and travel to teams all across the south, together we can show them our community is strong, robust and a home to be proud of. We can show everyone, we are super-Stars in the making.