The Southern States Soccer Club has revealed the name for its minor league soccer team. The Southern States Stars, or the Stars, will be the team’s nickname when it takes the field in the National Premier Soccer League.
“We hope Southern States Star, or the Stars, will become a familiar name to sports fans all around us,” Director of Soccer Operations Nigel Boulton said. “The Hattiesburg metro area and the Pine Belt deserves a minor league soccer team. All sports fans deserve a minor league team they can support and cheer for.”
The team’s inaugural season will be in the summer of 2021.
Boulton went on to say, “We want to commit to everyone our attempt to establish something lasting and of unique value. We want to create a fan experience that is a partnership. We want to bring soccer supporters and families close up to the players and the club.
As fans wait for the start of the minor league season, Southern States’ U-19 NPSL reserve league team will begin its season play in September.
“We want to make a positive impact in the community,” Boulton said. “This project is not about making money its about providing opportunities for local youth players to watch up close a higher level of play and to aspire to those levels. It’s about providing role models and heroes. We want to add fuel to a smoldering fire that is youth soccer here. We want to set it ablaze.”
According to Boulton, the program is ready and excited to showcase its new facilities to the Hattiesburg area.
“We have built a tremendous training facility at The Oakes in Oak Grove,” Boulton said. “We have a fully lit all-weather turf field, a top class, professional grade Bermuda grass field with lights and there is currently construction focused on building the clubhouse, locker rooms, medical facilities, offices and more.
“We want to provide a different, unique, family-friendly, fan experience. While today the Stars are born, the future growth and success of this baby will lie in the arms of our partners, the fanbase, the supporters and our family that is Southern States Soccer. Together we will succeed. As we host and travel to teams all across the south, together we can show them our community is strong, robust and a home to be proud of, we can show everyone, we are super-Stars in the making.”
