Cascade
Surge Soccer
www.cascadesurge.com
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Contents: PDL Team
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UNITED SOCCER LEAGUES: WHERE HOMETOWN HEROES BECOME TOMORROW'S STARS
Founded in 1986, United Soccer Leagues -- with 132 teams in five leagues -- provides the starting point for players who aspire to play at the highest level. Top male players are able to follow a pipeline that eventually leads to Major League Soccer, playing for a foreign team abroad, or being called up to the national team. Top female players gain exposure through top-flight competition and many have been identified as future candidates for the national team. The slogan -- Where Hometown Heroes Become Tomorrow's Stars -- describes the United Soccer Leagues philosophy to its core, as the league provides an environment where young players can work their way to the top. To the typical hometown soccer fan, the role of the USL can be explained most easily in the shape of a pyramid, which symbolizes the entire sport in the United States. With Major League Soccer at the top, the support structure of the pyramid is the USL, the second largest organization of national sports leagues in the nation -- second only to the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues.
The Portland Timbers play in the A League. Look for the Surge to
host an exhibition game with the Timbers this Summer.
United Soccer Leagues also operates the W-League, the nation's only national soccer league for women; the I-League, an indoor men's league and, in 1999 will launch the Y-League, a national elite-level league for youth players. The Y-League began play in the Northwest in the Spring/Summer of 2001. The Cascade Surge will be fielding teams in this new league this summer. The USL first went outdoors in 1989, but indoor members still outnumbered the outdoor teams 18-17 in 1991. The number of outdoor teams first surpassed the indoor teams in 1992, when there were 21 outdoor clubs. A growth explosion followed, with 43 outdoor teams in 1993, 72 in 1994, 96 in 1995, when the league was split into professional and amateur divisions and the W-League for women. The league grew to 106 teams in 1996 (when there were three men's outdoor leagues) and 125 teams for 1997 and 135 teams in 1998. Umbro, the international soccer company, founded in 1924, is the proud sponsor and official supplier to all leagues within the USL system. Umbro was instrumental in bringing together the USL and the A-League for their successful merger between the 1996 and 1997 seasons. |
United
Soccer Leagues is the largest system of national soccer leagues in the United States. More
than a million persons attended USL games in each of the past four years (1.7 million in
1998), part of a growing legion of fans want to see the country's rising stars play
soccer. 
The A-League,
classified by U.S. Soccer (national governing body for the sport) as a Division II
professional league, includes 30 teams, two in Canada and 28 teams in various-sized
markets throughout the United States. 
The Premier
Development League (PDL), one level below the D3 Pro League, is the largest national
developmental league in the United States, featuring collegiate players. The PDL offers student athletes a unique opportunity to compete in a
high-level national league during the summer months, while still maintaining collegiate
eligibility. Current division of the Cascade Surge.