Big Week for San Antonio Scorpions
Scorpions kick off inaugural season with first practice, groundbreaking ceremony for stadium and a scrimmage against the U.S. U-23 Olympic team.
It was a big day for the NASL San Antonio Scorpions on Saturday as the team kicked off with their first-ever training session. Heavy rain forced the event indoors in the morning as the team worked on stretching and indoor equipment. The afternoon session was played at an indoor soccer field with the team looking to move outside on Sunday. With a scrimmage against the U.S. U-23 team this coming Friday, head coach Tim Hankinson will need to kick the team into high gear this week.
“Since I got here in September, it’s been every day in the office all day behind a computer, talking to agents, talking to players, trying to create contracts that put a team on paper,” Hankinson said. “You go about it thinking it looks good on paper. To actually have them show up here ready to work and get on with the season, it means I’m out of the office instead of in the office. It’s a brilliant change.”
There were 22 players at Saturday’s first practice with 16 who are now under contract with the club. According to the San Antonio Express-News, two more Brazilian players will be arriving later this month after securing visas. Pablo Campos, who was second in the NASL in goals scored last season, is the other Brazilian on the team.
As previously noted, the Scorpions will travel to Frisco, Texas on Friday, Feb. 24, for a 7:30 p.m. scrimmage at the FC Dallas Stadium Complex against the U-23 U.S Men’s National Team, who prepare for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying which will kick off in March. The scrimmage will be open for the public to attend.
On Wednesday the 29th, the Scorpions will have a groundbreaking ceremony at the stadium construction site. Team owner Gordon Hartman released images of his planned stadium and explained a phased program of expanding the stadium in early January. But very few details have yet been revealed about the stadium construction. Some of those details should be revealed at the groundbreaking on February 29.
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this is great news and a positive for D2. Between the riverhounds and scorpions the future is looking pretty good and hopefully this helps leads to more stability in NASL and USL-Pro.
This is all looking really good. Hopefully this encourages other owners to pursue something similar in other cities. How great would it be if Austin had an NASL team. Texas would be rocking with great soccer in 4 markets.
Seems all of the NASL teams are in the east. There needs to be some Western teams and more Midwestern teams as well.
PK, perhaps what you meant to say is it seems “most” of the teams are in the east. 3 of the 8 teams are west of the Mississippi. So “all” is very inaccurate. Approx. 33% are from the west.
Being from the “West” is very subjective. I look at “West” as west of the Rockies. Between the Rockies and the Mississippi is “Mid-West”. Anything east of the Mississippi is from the “East”.
I would say that NASL has no teams in the west, with 33% being in the mid-west.
One USSF mandate that they need to ensure is that they have teams in multiple time zones, and that they do.
Yes, Edmonton is quite a bit more west than I thought and I probably would consider San Antonio west as well. Minnesota is for sure midwest. Possible midwest markets that might be good are Omaha, Des Moines, Milwaukee or Green Bay. Not much for non-MLS markets out west possibly San Diego, Phoenix, Palm Springs, Sacramento, Albequerque.
Yes, nitpicking here but Edmonton is about on the same longitude as Phoenix. In my opinion that is hardly midwest. I would have to say the same about San Antonio. Traditionally the old Mississipp. has been the traditional dividing line of east and west in this country. While I certainly agree Minnesota is in the midwest, what do they call St. Louis? Gateway to the what?
Speaking of St. Louis, I’m moving there this summer. Any Luck on them getting a team anytime soon. lol
BQ, how common is it for the u23 national team to scrimmage or play second/third division teams?
This came up in a bar discussion in Rochester last summer and I couldn’t then recall any instances. Even though it’s just a scrimmage, I’d like to see more competitive matches like this if the scheduling works out for both sides.
I have no idea really. MLS teams scrimmage D2 and D3 teams so why not a U-23? I think like everything this comes down to relationships. In this case I would guess it would be Michael Hitchcock and his relationship with FC Dallas as former GM. They are playing in Frisco which is where the U-23 team in training so I’m guessing that is where this all came from.
Folks have to remember, the terms “mid west”, “west” and “east” were all generated during the mid-1800′s, a time when transportation was a lot different and when our country was not fully developed. There has been no real update to these terms since then, so they kind of stuck.
Also, Edmonton is a lot like being in Barrow, Alaska.. most people know where it is, but nobody really cares.
It’s a nice touch for the Scorpions to get a scrimmage with the U-23 team….the Scorpions will get some national attention in the U.S. soccer world before playing their first league game.
@Danwolf….No news on a pro team in St. Louis, but we do have a solid PDL team in the St. Louis Lions that have a fine reputation in the community. I imagine that potential soccer investors, no matter where they are located, are probably waiting to see if the NASL and USLPRO can put together a string of stable seasons before investing, and also waiting to see how MLS will interact with those two entities in the next few years.