TACOMA, Wash. – The Evergreen Premier League is excited to announce that Tacoma Narrows FC will join the league for the 2020 season, becoming the EPLWA’s 11th club. Narrows FC will bring elite amateur men’s soccer to the heart of the City of Tacoma, playing their home games at Wilson High School. They will join the league’s Rainier Conference and will immediately forge local rivalries against conference mates Washington Premier and the Oly-Pen Force and will also compete against the Spokane Shadow, Vancouver Victory and PacNW SC for the conference title.
Tacoma Narrows FC began life as a Sunday league club with big ambitions and has grown organically, joining the Greater Seattle Soccer League before moving to the Western Washington Premier League last season. Looking to take their operations to the next level, team owner Preston McDonald added an indoor side for the 2018-2019 season to compete in the Western Indoor Soccer League and will take on a new challenge by taking their outdoor side to the statewide EPLWA.
“It is extremely important to us that we have paved our own way to the EPLWA,” commented McDonald. “It has been a two year plan to grow from the GSSL, to the WWPL, and now to the EPLWA. To see it come to fruition is very exciting!”
Narrows FC first came onto the EPLWA’s radar in 2018 at the Eddie Cragg Memorial Evergreen Cup, playing as All-Star Moving FC, falling to the Tri-Cities Alliance in the final. Rebranding as Tacoma Narrows FC, the club made a splash when they adopted the black and yellow and introduced the infamous Narrows octopus on their new crest. They won four games and qualified for the playoffs in their first WISL season and then won six games in their first WWPL season.
“Congratulations to Tacoma Narrows Football Club and their owner Preston McDonald,” said Tim Busch, President of the EPLWA and Washington State Adult Soccer Association. “In the two years I have known Preston he has successfully converted a club team in a house league to a men’s side that is now set to compete in the EPLWA in 2020. Best of luck to you and your club!”
Narrows’ focus now turns to the 2019-2020 WISL season with training in full swing and one preseason game against the Tacoma Stars already under their belt. They will continue with their goal of expanding their player pool and building relationships to step up their outdoor side to compete in the EPLWA right away. The club expects to field a team of their club veterans as well as adding young players from Tacoma Community College, Pacific Lutheran and the University of Puget Sound, among others.
“We expect to learn, grow, get better and most of all be competitive,” said McDonald. “We are excited for statewide travel and the high level of play and we couldn’t be more thankful to compete in the EPLWA.”
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About the Evergreen Premier League:
The Evergreen Premier League is an elite adult men’s amateur soccer league for college and post-college age players to feature their skills on hometown clubs throughout the state of Washington. The league’s mission is to cultivate “football club” culture while providing opportunities for coaches, owners, supporters, players and towns to enjoy the sport and all of the community-building it can bring.
The Evergreen Premier League of Washington (EPLWA, pronounced E-P-L Wah) was founded in 2013 and began play in 2014. The league is a national “Elite League” under an association with United States Adult Soccer that also connects the league to US Soccer and FIFA. Elite Leagues are considered 4th division USA in the unofficial “pyramid.” The EPLWA begins its 7th season of play in May 2020.
The 11 clubs of the EPLWA are: Bellingham United, Olympic Force, Oly Town Artesians, Pacific Northwest Soccer Club, Seattle Stars, Spokane Shadow, Tacoma Narrows FC, Tri-Cities Alliance, Vancouver Victory, Washington Premier FC and Yakima United.
