Boca Raton, FL — Boca Raton Football Club is delighted to announce that the club has joined the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) as league members and will begin play in the 2019 Spring Season.
The club will play in the UPSL’s Southeast Conference Florida South Division, and will host its UPSL home games at Atlantic Community High School (2455 W. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach, FL 33445) and South County Regional Park (South County Regional Park, Boca Raton, FL 33498) in compliance with UPSL’s Minimum Standards.
“We are excited to welcome Boca Raton FC to Florida South Division. Boca Raton FC has proven itself on the field and is looking for a better way to showcase its talented players,” said UPSL Southeast Conference Florida Division Manager Christian Vallejos. “Club President Douglas Heizer is committed to developing players and that’s the bedrock of our league. We think Boca Raton FC will be an excellent addition to UPSL Florida and wish them the best of success moving forward.”
Since 2015, Boca Raton FC has found tremendous success.
In its inaugural season in 2015, Boca Raton FC steamrolled through the American Premier Soccer League en route to the club’s first title. The team won the APSL’s 2015 Fall Tournament as well. In 2016, Boca Raton FC repeated as both Spring and Fall Champions. Boca Raton FC is the only APSL team to have gone to eight straight APSL Championship semifinals between Spring and Fall seasons.
“We are thrilled to join UPSL,” said club president, Douglas Heizer. “We have players that are ready to play, and the UPSL will give us the right platform for our players because the main goal of our club is to develop and move players on to real professional clubs and for colleges. The UPSL is the right competition for our players to showcase themselves. We will not be putting our academy team, these are going to be our best players because we’re going out there to win this competition, and our ultimate goal is to compete and return to the Lamar Hant U.S. Open Cup in 2020.”
Jim Rooney will lead Boca Raton FC, Rooney led Boca Raton FC to a 10-10-2 record across all competitions in 2018, taking Boca Raton FC to their fourth straight APSL Semifinals and growing a young team from scratch to recreate a winning culture within the organization. As a player, Rooney captained Major League Soccer’s (MLS) Miami Fusion from 1999 to 2001, leading the Fusion to the Supporters Shield crown in 2001 and the US Open Cup Final in 2000. Rooney was an MLS All-Star in 2001 and in total scored 21 times and notched 22 assists in an MLS career that spanned six seasons and playing for the MetroStars, Miami Fusion, and the New England Revolution.
Boca Raton FC participated in the 2016 and 2017 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tournaments and has routinely broken attendance records for soccer in Palm Beach County (Fla.) and were the 6th ranked in attendance in NPSL during the 2018 season according to the website, kenn.com (http://www.kenn.com/the_blog/?p=9979).
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