The Wisconsin Primary Amateur Soccer League begins play this Sunday
Midwest Premier League announced that Wisconsin Primary Amateur Soccer League will be its first feeder league and the western Wisconsin league begins its 2022 season on May 15th, with the addition of Union Eau Claire as the league’s seventh team.
Last year’s title was won by fellow Eau Claire side Bateaux FC, defeating Hayward Wolfpack FC 2–1 after extra time in the WPASL Championship Game, to capture their second-straight WPASL title.
UECFC was founded by former Bateaux players Larry Mboga, Herbert Engop, Charlot Nacius and Sadith Osseni and the local paper Leader Telegram reports that the new side also has a few former Bateaux players on its roster.
As well as Union, Bateaux and Wolfpack, the league includes Barron Soccer Team, Poskin Jets (Barron, WI), Lobos FC (Merrill, WI), and Spartan FC (Sparta, WI)
This season will see a change in structure to a model where all clubs play each other home and away once and the team that finishes top of the table wins the 2022 title.
As is common at this level, the clubs feature players with a wide variety of “day jobs” playing for their love of the game, as well as athletes (either in football or otherwise) at high school and college. For instance, WPASL will feature a match up of a turkey store employee versus a women’s rugby coach.
Amongst the players with ties to other leagues in our area, Bateaux’s David Ripplinger played for Aris in their former life as a Eau Claire NPSL team, Hayward Wolfpack feature four products of the Duluth Amateur Soccer League-winning Duluth FC Academy in Cameron Ross, Finnegan Huffington, Dru Senich and Mason Oliver.
The opening round sees Union visit Spartan in La Crosse, and Barron’s Birch Street Soccer Field plays host to both Poskin Jets vs Hayward Wolfpack and Barron Soccer Team vs Bateaux. Lobos then make their season debut on May 22nd.
