Skip to main content

Wilmington Hammerheads PDL News

by Marissa Blackman

At the end of the 2016 USL season, the future of professional soccer in Wilmington was very uncertain. There were reports that the Hammerheads would not continue as a USL club, and nothing had been confirmed. Months later, USL PDL welcomed the Wilmington Hammerheads as one of the league's newest clubs. Tonight, the club held a press conference releasing further details about the PDL club. 

Wilmington Hammerheads FC is now completely owned and operated by Wilmington Hammerheads Youth FC (WHYFC), the nonprofit youth soccer association affiliated with the club. Decisions for the new PDL club will be made by the WHYFC board of directors. 

The team's Head Coach is Kevin Johnson, who currently serves as Director of Soccer Operations for WHYFC. Sean Guderian, a UNCW graduate andWilmington-native who has played at several levels of the local soccer scene, will act as the PDL club's General Manager. 

Matches will be played at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) soccer facilities, and players will train at Cape Fear Soccer Park, which is owned by WHYFC. The club is currently discussing the possibility of housing players on the UNCW campus. 

PDL is a U-23 league where college players continue developing their skills over the summer months, and this makes Wilmington a prime location for a club. In addition to being a desirable city to spend the summer in, Wilmington lies in close proximity to several colleges with respected soccer programs. The team already has commitments from players representing UNCW, NC State, and UNC, and the club is in talks with an Ivy League athlete. Between two and four senior members WHYFC members will be given the opportunity to play for the PDL team.

Carson Porter, WHYFC Executive Director and former Wilmington Hammerheads FC Head Coach, stressed that the PDL club will aim to continue the high level of fan involvement that the USL club had. He mentioned that the club is choosing players that, among other skills, seem to be able to maintain the close-knit bond that has grown over the years between Hammerheads players and fans. 

The team is set to begin making player announcements in the coming weeks, leading up to the season's start in May. 

Please follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. We're always looking for more writers. If you'd like to be one, e-mail sidelineshindig@gmail.com

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

DIFERENÇAS ENTRE O FUTEBOL EUROPEU E O FUTEBOL BRASILEIRO

por Hugo Haacke Começando na Europa e se espalhando pelo mundo, hoje, o futebol é o esporte coletivo mais praticado em todo o mundo. Tendo objetivos e regras iguais, o futebol se diferencia de lugar para lugar na sua forma de jogar, torcer e gerenciar. Entre a Europa e a América Latina, onde o futebol é mais popular, há significantes diferenças, tendo como principal referência nesse continente, o Brasil, o país do futebol. A primeira diferença e mais perceptível é a tática e a forma de jogar. No futebol europeu, a velocidade durante a partida inteira é algo natural. Há também características gerais como o costume de manter a linha de quatro no meio de campo e, a estratégia de recomposição do time inteiro, o jogo mais centrado, objetivo e calculado. Já o futebol brasileiro, conforme o tempo passa, os técnicos vêm aproximando a tática de seus times ao futebol europeu – principalmente depois da copa de 1982. Mas em sua essência, o futebol brasileiro sempre se caracterizou por lance

"Not Everyone Is Messi"

By Marissa Blackman Brace yourselves because I'm about to go on a little rant! I can't be the only one who notices these things. I like to get my soccer content from a wide variety of sources. I scroll along the meme-based, click bait ridden accounts just much as I prowl through the latest writings from more reputable sources of "news." For the past several weeks, I've been seeing posts showing Cavani and Neymar debating over who will take a kick. They all have captions along the lines of "not everyone is Messi." I get what they're saying. Messi would let Neymar take the kick, but Cavani isn't going for that. Ok. Fine. But...there is something so grammatically terrible about that phrase. It must make sense to somebody, but it racks my brain. There's an even bigger problem with these incessant posts. Neymar has been trying to take a kick for weeks. Cavani has been telling him no for weeks. Cavani has ultimately taken most, if not all, of

USL Eastern Conference Progress Report

by Marissa Blackman In writing about USL, I’ve had two reoccurring questions about almost every team. From the beginning of the season, I’ve been thinking about the playoffs.  Although every team in the eastern conference has completed 9-12 matches, it’s still a little early to say for sure which clubs will or will not make it above that red line. Nevertheless, I’d like to make a few predictions. Too often, I find myself thinking of clubs in terms that simply are not solid enough, so I set out to find a basis, beyond my opinions, to view teams in respects to each other and to predict where they will be at the end of the season. I made two charts to compare each team and their prospects side by side. The chart below shows where each team stands currently and includes conference averages. In both charts, teams appear in order of their current USL standings Team Current Points Percentage of Games Won Maximum Points Possible Rochester Rhinos 25