Keeping up with the 4th tier of American soccer is difficult. Clubs form. Clubs disband. They change owners, personnel, stadiums, and even cities, with great frequency. All this happens under the guidance of a mostly part-time, or volunteer leadership that has about a million other things in their lives to accomplish. So it’s no surprise that the League’s structure often isn’t “official” until days before opening weekend. Still, we hard core fans Chattahooligans demand information in the off season (those tailgating menus, nylon flags, and Jacksonville travel accommodations aren’t gonna make themselves). And with the fall addition of five new teams to our region, no one seems to know exactly what the 2012 season or schedule will look like.

But piecing together the various rumors, Facebook photos, and quick mentions from other clubs, we have a fair idea of how our region’s structure should look. We’ve also been reading more about our new members and where they’re located (for those away game trips to exotic locations like Mercedes, TX and Fort Smith, AR). A working picture of these developments can be seen in this Google Map: NPSL Southeast Region Home Fields.

So, with three months until our April 28th home friendly vs USL newcomer, Chicago Inferno, we’re getting a better picture of what 2012 will look like.

Post by John Q. Chattanooga | Chattanooga FC, Local, National
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So Chattanooga FC is gearing up for the 2012 season: the first round of official tryouts was this past Saturday at Finley Stadium. Your favorite nosey scout from the Chattahooligan was there to scope out the scene. Here’s a few short notes:

It’s always tricky to know who’s going to be picked for the team and who’s going to come next summer at these first of 3 tryouts — as a good amount of the really talented players are given a bye by the coaches. They are allowed to show up at later tryouts, if at all. So we can’t really get a sense of how important this batch is… A few really talented guys standout, as do some really bad players, but the rest kind of blend together as pretty decent.

But new Head Coach Bill Elliott was there, along with Assistant Jimmy Weekley and GM Sean McDaniel.

Several three season CFC players attended: Russell Courtney, Moises Drumond and Ivan Heredia. A pleasant surprise was that former Dalton standout Irvin Espinal was back after walking away from the team early in the season last year. Perhaps he had issues with former Head Coach Crossman?

We weren’t able to identify all the talent there, but some current or former NCAA Div I players were there — a Clemson teammate of forward Michael Brooks and a younger brother of a Covenant kid who starts at the U of South Carolina. There was a good bit of local talent trying out too — kids from CCS, McCallie, UTC and Covenant, to name just a few…

The play looked good in general, and we’ll be excited to see how the team shapes up.

Other notes:

News on players from last season: Forward Mark Sherrod had an insane sophomore season at Memphis University — finishing as something like the second leading scorer in all of NCAA Div I! So while that looks good on CFC’s resumé for developing talent, it means that Mark is on the radar for some pro teams and looks like he’ll be heading elsewhere for the summer (we’ve heard rumor of Portland, not a bad place to go).

Another first season player (and Memphis teammate of Mark’s), midfielder Cody McCoy is rumored to be heading to NC to tryout with the USL Pro team Charlotte Eagles.

First season midfielder José Robles is also going to tryout at some sort of a pro combine, so he may not be able to return either.

All the best of luck to you fellas! Make Chattanooga proud!

The conference:

Apparently the Southeast Conference of the NPSL is being broken into 2 divisions: East and West, each compromised of 5 teams. All the teams in the same division will play each other twice, once at home, once away. They will also play some (maybe all?) of the teams in the other division once.

We think this is what we heard on the division break down:

EAST
Chattanooga FC
Knoxville Force
Jacksonville United FC
Myrtle Beach
Mississippi Storm

WEST
Atlanta Silverbacks
Georgia Revolution
FC Tulsa
Rocket City United
Galveston Pirate SC

Or something like that. If anyone knows more that we do, please correct us in a comment.

And the winners of each Division facing off in a playoff game to get to the national championships.

So it looks like our arch-rivals Atlanta and Rocket City won’t be playing us as often.

Post by John Q. Chattanooga | Chattanooga FC, Local
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CFC finally announced that they have named a new coach today, we’re posting what they had on their site below.

We don’t know much about him — does anyone? What do you all think?

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Chattanooga FC announced yesterday that Bill Elliott has agreed to take the Head Coach position for the team’s 2012 season.

“Bill’s great reputation along with his Chattanooga roots made him an easy choice for us. We felt his successful longevity at the collegiate level will be carried over to CFC and the upcoming season. We’re glad to have him and assistant coach Weekley in 2012,” said General Manager Sean McDaniel.

“I was born and raised in Chattanooga, I attended the University of Tennessee and I never thought I would leave East Tennessee,” said Elliott. “When the position was offered to me at the University of West Florida, it was a opportunity to make a career in my passion — coaching. Seventeen years later, I feel it was a good decision.”

Elliott is very excited to be back in Chattanooga for the summer season. He says he is glad to have his wife Chrissy, his three and a half year old daughter Peyton and his eighteen month old son Trey around his extended family that lives in and around the Chattanooga area.

Elliott has kept up with Chattanooga FC even while he’s been in Pensacola. “I think the CFC organization has done a fantastic job in the past three seasons. They have set a standard in the league and in the southeast and I am honored to be a part of that.” He also had great things to say about former head coach Brian Crossman. “I’ve known Brian Crossman for years, and I believe he did an outstanding job establishing a great foundation for the team. I hope to continue to build on that.”

Assistant Coach Jimmy Weekley echoed that sentiment. “Bill and I are former teammates (with the Chattanooga Railroaders in the ’90’s) and have been friends since college. Bill brings a wealth of knowledge to us. I am very excited to have the opportunity to work along with him in furthering the success of CFC.”

Bill Elliott is one of the top coaches in the NCAA Division II. In his years of coaching he has compiled an overall career record of 307-144-29, including a 248-101-28 mark at the University of West Florida (Pensacola). He is among the top NCAA Division II coaches in the top 30 in career winning percentage(.630) and career wins(150).

From 1995 -2001, Elliott served as head coach for both the men’s and women’s team. He is the only coach in conference history to lead both men’s and women’s programs to the conference tournament, and the only coach to have won both men’s and women’s titles. In his time serving as the head coach for the women’s team he led his team to the GSC tournament every year, winning three titles in seven years. Elliott has also won three men’s and three women’s GSC Coach of the Year awards.

Elliott came to West Florida from Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, Tennessee. He spent two successful seasons with the Bulldogs, leading both men’s and women’s teams to the playoffs in each season. Elliott’s 1993 women’s team captured the NAIA District 24 title, and he was named the district coach of the year. Overall, his women’s teams compiled a 17-18 mark and his men’s teams were 17-14-1.

Elliott’s coaching career began in 1992 at Division III Maryville College in Maryville, Tenn. as an assistant under Pepe Fernandez. In his year at Maryville, the women finished 15-3 and ranked 20th in the NCAA Division III. The men finished 10-8.

Elliott played high school soccer at Hixson High School in Chattanooga, where he led his team to a second place finish in the state as a senior captain.

Elliott also played Division III professional soccer in the United States Interregional Soccer League as a member of the Chattanooga Express. He helped lead the Express to a runner-up finish at the 1993-94 Indoor Soccer National Championships. In 1997, he was hired in mid-season as a player and head coach of the U.S.I.S.L. D-III Mobile Revellers with whom he had started the season as a player. In 1998, he was a player and assistant coach for the Pensacola Barracudas.

Elliott earned a bachelor of science in business administration in 1991 and a master’s of science in recreation and sports management in 1993 from the University of Tennessee. He also played played NCAA Division I varsity soccer for the Volunteers. Elliott holds the NSCAA Advanced National Diploma and a USSF A License.

Post by John Q. Chattanooga | Chattanooga FC, Local
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Okay, the news is out: Chattanooga FC has not renewed its ‘contract’ with three season Head Coach Brian Crossman for the 2012 season. You can read the Times Free Press article here, but it seems a bit vague and innocuous… Who knows a bit more about the whole change up?

We here at the Chattahooligan suspect that the failure to win the conference (with three opportunities to do so), the three straight losses to end the season (our longest losing streak ever) and the departure of three good players during the season (Irvin Espinal, Mark Beattie and John Calderwood) may have been mitigating factors in the decision. Hey, those things all came in three’s, weird…

Questions:

Does this include the whole coaching staff or just the head coach (the only one mentioned in the articles)? Who are the other coaches “nationwide” that CFC will be considering? Who should they be considering (since Jurgen Klinsmen is now engaged)?

What do you think about the change readers? Is it good or bad to let Crossman go? He did have a winning record every season, and he did take us to the National Championship last year.

Should CFC have kept Coach Crossman?

Post by John Q. Chattanooga | Chattanooga FC
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Speaking of all star performances this season (see the comments on our last post, Post Season Doldrums), who do you think should be nominated this season’s Most Valuable Player and why? It looks like Mike Rabil will not be nominating anyone from the midfield besides Fynn Glover…

We here at the blog are partial to Chris Ochieng, but Thomas Hunter did do a bang up job throughout the whole season…but what do the rest of you Chattahooligans think?

Post by John Q. Chattanooga | Chattanooga FC
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