In the south, football is king when it comes to sports, but futbol is still fighting for a place. For the last few years, Shreveport has had a semi-pro soccer team called the Blue Goose SC (Soccer Club). They played at Airline High School as part of the USL League Two, a semi-pro soccer league that is spread across the United States and Canada and headquartered in Tampa. The USL League Two is divided into four conferences and eighteen regional divisions, and the Blue Goose team played in the Mid-South Division. Well, last July, the Blue Goose team ended, but the idea didn’t. They are being rebranded with new ownership and a new team name but will still be playing their games at Airline High School as part of the Mid-South division beginning in May of this year.
While the new ownership is spread across several partners, Ryan Wheeler has been voted in as the new president and he and his wife Kelly (currently the head of P.E. at Providence Christian Academy) are the new president and directors of Red River FC. Officially called the “Red River Futbol Club” now, the “Raiders” are one part of the Red River FC, the semi-pro team of the club, which is essentially “all-star college” according to Ryan. There is also a youth development arm of the club. “Think the Mudbugs… translate that concept and model to soccer, it’s the same thing” he says. “17-24-yearold kids, trying to either make it into college or get scholarships, or they already are…and then make it up the pyramid. It’s a feeder into MLS. So, these are going to be guys from Europe, local guys, United States guys…they’re either in college now, looking to maintain, and stay playing high-level soccer in their college’s offseason.” These players are not paid (thus the “semi-pro” designation), because that would violate their NCAA eligibility if they collected a paycheck. “If the word gets out we’ve got good players, MLS scouts, or the next level up in the soccer pyramid come and will scout for them.” The next level up from USL2 is USL1, and then more until finally ending up in the MLS. The higher up in the levels players go, the bigger the markets get, and players start getting paid. On January 31st, USL2 officially announced the Red River FC as the newest club to the league on their website. Joel Nash, the Senior Vice President of Youth and Pre-Professional Properties at USL2 had this to say about Red River FC: “We’re incredibly excited to welcome such a passionate group to our league. Shreveport and Bossier City have a great soccer community, and we’re happy to welcome a club that prioritizes that community.” This is a meaningful organization to get an endorsement from because of the pathway to pro soccer it gives, which gives Red River FC the distinction of being “…the only path to pro soccer in northwest Louisiana. About 60-70% from what I understand that are in the MLS started out in USL2. So that’s where you start, and then you work your way up,” Ryan explains. While the USL2 consists of 100+ teams, (“and a lot more are coming” Ryan adds), the only other USL2 team in Louisiana is in Lafayette and is called the Louisiana Krewe FC. There are no USL1 teams in Louisiana.
When the Raiders play in the middle of summer, arena football (a brand-new venture at Hirsch Coliseum called the Shreveport Rouxgaroux whose season runs from February to the end of May) will be over, nor will the Mudbugs be playing. Meanwhile this team will be May-July. Tickets are likely to be in the $12-15 range and go on sale in March. There will be tryouts for the team, in case a would-be player is not in the pre-collegecollege- post-college pipeline but wants a chance at their soccer dreams. Tryouts will be on April 5th, with callbacks on April 6th, also at Airline High School’s football field. Potential walk-ons must be at least 17 years old. In total, Ryan is looking to recruit about 30 players. Games will be held at 7 p.m. at Airline to help mitigate the effect of the heat, while practices will be held at Tinsley Field (the sports complex on Shed Road in Bossier) from 9 a.m. to noon. The schedule will consist of 12 games total, which equates to about one a week (with playoffs extending into July) and will be released on the team’s website, but at the time of this writing, was not yet posted.
But Red River FC is looking to do more than just win games. “It’s not a moneymaker at all. But I think it’s a great opportunity to get high-level soccer out there again, build the community, grow soccer, another way to develop it…what the Mudbugs are doing, we plan to do the same kind of thing. Theme nights, family fun, it’s all about the kids, and it’s all about family fun and entertainment value. Soccer is of course the draw, but the kids and the families will come for ‘did we have a good time, was it safe, did my kids enjoy it?’ There’s a youth development arm of what we’re doing. We’re partnering with Airline Baptist and Cypress Baptist to help build youth development camps. We’re kind of focusing on soccer development for youth (at their sports complexes). Those are our respective churches, Airline for the Trewetts, and then we’re at Cypress Baptist. Just kind of…you bloom where you’re planted. We’re doing youth development there. We’re not building competitive teams…that might be something down the road, but it’s just every four months or something, do camps for kids, just kind of start building soccer communities so they can get more experience.” Ryan says these efforts are similar to what Cumbrealta in south Bossier and Cabosa does, which are soccer-oriented ministries in the area.
Raider’s Founders : Ryan Wheeler, Kelly Wheeler, Bryan Turner, Jennifer Trewett and Nick Trewett.
Blue Goose team, they cannot use Airline High School’s field free of charge as per a parish decision, so all are taking a leap of faith with their ownership stakes. “We hope we can offset that with tickets, merch, and partnerships, people that want to jump on board, donations and that kind of thing,” Ryan says. These partnerships he speaks of are multi-tiered; nine different packages are available, and each provides a progressively higher level of benefits with the package. Some packages have limited availability while others are unlimited. The toptier partnership, a “Platinum” partner, is only available to one partner and costs $15k. After that, there is “Gold” partner for $10k, “Silver” partner for $8k and “Bronze” partner for $6k. All these only have one available for purchase. A “Copper” partnership is available to up to 10 partners for $3k. “Support” partners are the only unlimited partners, and those are $1,500 a piece. “Food” partners are $750 and have 6 available, while “Ultimate Fan” partners, with six available, and “Youth Camp” partners with 16 available, round out the partnership offerings at $500 a piece. The partnerships are limited because the benefits include things with limited space or availability, like placement of a logo on jerseys (there is front and center as well as lower back and upper back), gameday programs, the team’s website, or field stadium signage being placed in high-visibility areas. Other benefits include things like in-game announcements, access to coaches and players, social media posts, complimentary tickets or a logo on the electronic marquee.
Red River FC is currently awaiting approval for 501(c)(3) status as a non-profit, with no expected issues in the approval process. As the Mudbugs do, the Raiders will be looking for host families for players considering they could come from anywhere and everywhere. Since the players are not paid, they often do need places to stay for free, and this gives a family hosting a player a tax write off for the room and board they provide them as a charitable contribution. Donations to the club will also be considered tax write offs as if a charitable contribution. Information regarding the team will soon be available on the team’s own website which is currently in the development process.
But Ryan and his friends and fellow owners have taken the first plunge with this team. They clearly believe in the project and the sport and see the big picture beyond what happens on the field. Soccer is something of an upstart in America, but this team feels like part of an upstart city and region. It is clearly a great opportunity for young people who want to play in the sport, as one is not limited to the traditional high schoolcollege- pro trajectory. If you’re a local whose dream is to play professional soccer regardless of what path you have or have not taken previously, you could one day walk onto Airline’s field with a dream, and the next onto an MLS field. That’s the path to a dream this team brings…not bad for Shreveport-Bossier.
