{"id":26633,"date":"2014-07-10T17:30:28","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T21:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=26633"},"modified":"2014-07-14T11:01:45","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T15:01:45","slug":"pioneers-back-in-pros-join-asl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=26633","title":{"rendered":"Pioneers Back in Pros, Join ASL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo credit: David Henry\/www.sweetdogphotos.com<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n

Five years after it played its last game in the now-defunct\u00a0USL-2, the Western Mass Pioneers announced on\u00a0Wednesday that it will return to the pro ranks by fielding a side in the newly-formed American Soccer League (ASL).<\/p>\n

The Ludlow (Mass.)-based side, who\u00a0claimed the 1999 USL-2 championship,\u00a0have fielded a team\u00a0in the Premier Development League (PDL)\u00a0 since self-relegating from USL-2 due to costs after the 2009 season.\u00a0 According to Steve Scott, the Pioneers executive director of soccer operations, the move\u00a0was made in order to\u00a0raise the bar for its\u00a0development teams.<\/p>\n

“Keeping our development team is vital to our vision of the organization,”\u00a0\u00a0Scott told\u00a0MassLive.com on Thursday. “We can have youngsters play for Western United, move up and play for our development team when they are in college, and then play for our professional team right here at Lusitano Stadium.”<\/p>\n

The club will kick off its 10-game fall\u00a0season schedule on Aug. 30 vs. fellow Commonwealth club Mass United. The opener also coincides with one of the region’s largest Portuguese feasts,\u00a0which is\u00a0hosted by Our Lady of Fatima parish every Labor Day weekend.<\/p>\n

The Pioneers\u00a0organization currently\u00a0boasts one of the biggest footprints in the region, with teams in the PDL and the Connecticut Soccer League. The organization also backs a number of youth teams, including Western United.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Pioneers’ home grounds –\u00a0Lusitano Stadium – is\u00a0believed to be the only soccer-specific stadium in the region, and the Pioneers\u00a0have regularly led\u00a0the PDL Northeast division in attendance since joining in\u00a02010.<\/p>\n

Federico Molinari, who currently coaches the club’s PDL team, will take on the coaching reins for the ASL side once the PDL season concludes.<\/p>\n

“We are excited to be re-forming our pro team,” Pioneers president Celso Correia told MassLive.com on Thursday. “It was important for us to get more soccer games here. More games in the spring and fall will give our fans what they want, to come here and cheer on their Pioneers.”<\/p>\n

ASL president Matthew Driver, who was in attendance for the announcement, specifically cited the stadium as one of the reasons why he believes the Pioneers will be a good fit for the league.<\/p>\n

“We are so pleased to have the Pioneers on board,” Driver told MassLive.com on Thursday. “They are a great organization and have beautiful facilities here. We can’t wait for the season to start.”<\/p>\n

In addition to the Pioneers, the ASL will also field two other New England-based teams: Mass United FC, and an unnamed club from Rhode Island that is believed to be called the Oceaneers.<\/p>\n

PIONEERS PRO SCHEDULE<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Home games at Lusitano Stadium, Ludlow, Mass.)<\/p>\n

Aug. 30 – Mass. United, 7 p.m.
\nSept. 6 – at Newark (TBA)
\nSept. 13 – at Rhode Island (TBA)
\nSept. 20 – Atlantic City, 7 p.m.
\nSept. 27 – Rhode Island, 7 p.m.
\nOct. 4 – at Philadelphia (TBA)
\nOct. 11 – Newark, 7 p.m.
\nOct. 18 – at Evergreen (TBA)
\nOct. 25 – Icon FC, 7 p.m.
\nNov. 1 at Mass United (TBA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Western Mass Pioneers will return to pro soccer after joining the newly-formed ASL on Wednesday. <\/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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[1],"tags":[624,625,1294],"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\/26633"}],"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=26633"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26675,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26633\/revisions\/26675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}