{"id":11816,"date":"2012-05-11T11:16:06","date_gmt":"2012-05-11T15:16:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11816"},"modified":"2012-05-11T11:33:43","modified_gmt":"2012-05-11T15:33:43","slug":"soccer-returns-to-r-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=11816","title":{"rendered":"Soccer Returns to R.I."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

The Reds hosted preseason tryouts in Seekonk, Mass. with the hope of finding players hungry to contribute during the team's inaugural season. (Photo: Rhode Island Reds FC)<\/p><\/div>\n

After a three-year hiatus, semi-pro soccer officially returns to the Ocean State on Saturday when the expansion Rhode Island Reds FC\u00a0kick off their inaugural season against\u00a0the Brooklyn Italians at Cranston Stadium.<\/p>\n

The emergence of the NPSL newcomer is the\u00a0fruit of owner\/head coach\u00a0Kabba Joof’s labors. Joof, a native of Gambia who moved to R.I. in the 1990s,\u00a0envisioned the return of a locally-based side shortly after the Rhode Island Stingrays (PDL)\u00a0ceased operations in 2009. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And from that vision, came the Reds. While Joof remained fully invested in the game as a coach, referee and organizer, it was his belief that, despite the documented pitfalls of his squad’s predecessors, semi-pro soccer could thrive in the union’s smallest state.<\/p>\n

But it would take more than one man’s efforts to turn that dream into a reality. Joof recruited Jasa Charris,\u00a0Sheldon Townsend\u00a0and Alex Rozkov to assist him in finding, then molding, the talent necessary to build a team that would\u00a0deliver a winnerto R.I.<\/p>\n

So far, the team has succeeded in its objective to field a squad rich with local talent. Among the 22\u00a0players under Joof’s tutelage this season\u00a0is former Stingray Jefferson Rojas, Joaquim dePina (of LUSA side East Providence Sports), Sacred Heart University midfielder\u00a0Andrew Borts (Barrington, R.I.) and Bryant\u00a0defender Ryan Stone.<\/p>\n

Of course, organizing a\u00a0full roster\u00a0is one thing. Logistics is another. While previous R.I.-based sides called Providence, Pawtucket and\u00a0North Tiverton their homes, the Reds will play in centrally-located Cranston, which sits between two of the state’s largest cities (Providence and Warwick).<\/p>\n

The Reds will play a 14-game schedule inside the NPSL Northeast – Atlantic Conference that runs through July 15. With established opponents such as the Italians, New York Red Bulls, and Mass\u00a0United on the fixture list, one thing the Reds won’t have any shortage of\u00a0is\u00a0a number of challenges to overcome during the summer.<\/p>\n

Time will tell whether the Rhode Island’s newest franchise\u00a0will make an indelible mark in the state’s rich soccer history. But, you can\u00a0bank on\u00a0it that\u00a0Joof, along with his assistants and players, are anxious to make Year One a success.<\/p>\n

(Editor’s note: Special thanks to David Borts, who provided valuable insight on the Reds for this article.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Semi-pro soccer returns to Rhode Island on Saturday when the Reds kick off their inaugural NPSL season against the Brooklyn Italians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[100],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11816"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11846,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11816\/revisions\/11846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}