ISSAQUAH, Wash.— Issaquah SC of the Women’s Premier Soccer League will become the official reserve team of the Seattle Reign FC of the NWSL, the clubs announced today. Issaquah competed in the national WPSL playoffs in its first season in 2012. The team was branded in honor of the youth club, and wore custom kits last year. Now the team will change names and colors to show the relationship with the Reign.
Here’s the release:
Seattle Reign FC and Issaquah Soccer Club have partnered to create a reserve club – Seattle Reign FC Reserves presented by Issaquah SC – that will play in the WPSL beginning in May of this year.
The WPSL season runs from May 1 to August 1. The Northwest Division is comprised of teams throughout Washington and Oregon.
Reign FC Reserves will serve as the exclusive feeder team to the Reign FC senior squad. They will wear the official Reign FC kit, although the jersey will feature an Issaquah SC patch on the sleeve, rather than the NWSL logo.
Reign FC Reserves will be independently owned and operated by Issaquah FC, but will closely collaborate with Seattle Reign FC on a wide range of business, marketing and technical initiatives. Reign FC head coach Laura Harvey and her staff will observe reserve team training sessions and matches on a regular basis, determining which players are ready to be called up to the senior team.
“Having a reserve team is an important step forward for our club,” said Harvey. “Given that we have a number of players on the senior squad that may get called away for national team duty from time-to-time, it is critical that we have quick access to quality players who can help us when our roster is depleted by injuries or national team duty.”
“Our goal is to build Reign FC Reserves into a championship WPSL side and the undisputed #2 women’s team in the Seattle market,” said Erin Redwine, head coach of Seattle Reign FC Reserves. “Reign FC Reserves will offer the top players in Western Washington a unique opportunity—a path to playing professional soccer with Seattle Reign FC.”
“We view the partnership with Issaquah SC as the first of many important relationships we expect to build with clubs across Western Washington,” said Amy Carnell general manager of Seattle Reign FC. “Our broader mandate includes helping improve all aspects of women’s soccer in the Northwest, which will require a collaborative, inclusive approach to working with clubs across the State. We hope this partnership will prove to be a huge step in that direction.”
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Reign FC has the right idea to have a reserve team, though frankly speaking as far as level of play is concern, (at least according to this https://goalwa.wordpress.com/2013/01/12/state-of-soccer-the-womens-game-in-washington/) W-League Sounders Women’s should really be a feeder into WNSL (Div. 1) Reign FC while the two WPSL clubs (Div. 3), Issaquah FC and Emerald City FC should feed into W-Sounders (Div. 2). Understandably due to the relationship between Seattle’s top two women’s sides being a bit icy, Reign FC skipped W-League and went down a level to WPSL, which is too bad really. I wonder if W-Sounders would do well to collaborate with ECFC now and make that club its feeder.
In the end, it probably doesn’t matter a whole lot since the level of play and talent differences between W-League and WPSL are most likely not too significant. Some would even argue that they are both the top leagues behind WPS back then, and WNSL now. The fact that Casey Berrier (ECFC 2012) is now with WNSL Kansas City FC (https://goalwa.wordpress.com/2013/02/08/emerald-city-fcs-casey-barrier-drafted-into-nwsl/) probably gives a lot of weight to that argument, admittedly.