Soccer has long carried a devoted following along the Alabama Gulf Coast, with area high schools like Bayside, Fairhope, McGill-Toolen, St. Paul’s, Spanish Fort and UMS-Wright regularly producing state championship contenders and local college programs building loyal followings of their own. Now a new club is hoping to give that enthusiasm a home of its own at the adult level.
AFC Mobile, a new minor league Association Football Club, is preparing to open its first season on May 14 with a home match against the Gulf Coast Texans at the Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb Athletic Complex on Michael Boulevard, a venue known locally simply as The Lip.
The club’s president, Abram Chamberlain, said the idea for a Mobile-based team grew out of a trip to watch a match in Pensacola a few years ago. Chamberlain grew up playing soccer in Massachusetts and continued with a club team while attending Tuskegee University, and the Pensacola trip got him thinking about what a similar club could look like back home.
“I joked and said, we could do this in Mobile,” Chamberlain said of that early conversation. “We took that idea and said, let’s see what happens. It kept growing from there.”
Before fielding its own senior squad, AFC Mobile built its foundation by supporting a youth team in the city league and by backing the Mobile American Outlaws, one of the oldest fan clubs in Alabama devoted to the men’s and women’s U.S. National Soccer Teams. That grassroots groundwork helped lay the base for the larger club that would follow.
Mitchell Kahalley, the team’s director of communications, said his own introduction to the sport came while watching the 2008 European Championships during a family trip to Italy. He explained that the league AFC Mobile is joining, the Gulf Coast Premier League, sits several tiers below the professional ranks.
“The GCPL is what would be considered a fourth-tier level,” Kahalley said. “Major League Soccer is the top tier. If you compared it to baseball, the GCPL would be Single A.”
The league expanded into Mobile, Pensacola and Baton Rouge in January, and organizers say the effort to build a competitive club in Mobile has been gaining momentum ever since. Chamberlain said the founders of the Birmingham Hammers, a National Premier Soccer League club, offered guidance on building a franchise from the ground up, and clubs in New Orleans and Biloxi shared advice as well.
To help fund equipment and travel, the grassroots organization launched a Go Fund Me campaign that has already surpassed $3,000. Haint Blue Brewing Co. has signed on as the club’s primary sponsor, a partnership Kahalley said reflects a shared entrepreneurial spirit.
“We could not do this without them,” Kahalley said of the brewery’s support. “By raising money through the internet to start brewing in Mobile, they are doing with beer what we are doing with soccer.”
With sponsorship in place, the club turned its attention to the sideline, landing Nate Nicholas as head coach. Nicholas currently coaches at McGill-Toolen and previously led UMS-Wright to two state championships, giving AFC Mobile an experienced hand with deep local coaching roots.
“Our regular season and playoffs run from May through July, so it will not interfere with the high school teams,” Chamberlain said, noting the scheduling was designed deliberately so Nicholas and other coaches involved with the club could continue their high school responsibilities without conflict.
Finding a home field proved to be another key decision, and the club settled on the Lipscomb Athletic Complex after evaluating its options. Chamberlain praised the cooperation of McGill-Toolen and the Archdiocese of Mobile in making the facility available.
“It was the best facility for what we wanted to do,” Chamberlain said. “McGill-Toolen and the Archdiocese have been fantastic. I believe we’ll have a really great atmosphere there.”
Tryouts for the inaugural roster were held April 1 at Sage Park, with a preliminary roster released April 15. The final roster will include 22 players, with another four or five joining a practice squad. Chamberlain said the league is built for players who are done with high school eligibility but not yet ready to give up competitive soccer.
“Players must be at least 18 years old and be done with high school eligibility,” Chamberlain said. “A lot of the guys are home from college, who want to play during the summer. Others have played some professional ball. There is no pay, since many still have NCAA eligibility. This league is for those guys who love the game and want the exposure. We hope to play in front of some decent-size crowds. This league will help to not let their skills diminish over the summer.”
All home matches are scheduled to kick off at 7 p.m. Following the May 14 opener against the Gulf Coast Texans, AFC Mobile’s home slate includes Biloxi City FC on June 10, Louisiana Fire SC on June 24, Gaffa FC on July 1 and CD Motagua of New Orleans on July 7. Admission is $5 for fans 13 and older, and season tickets are available for $20.
Kahalley said the club’s broader goal is to unify soccer fans across the region who have traditionally cheered for rival high schools and colleges rather than a shared hometown team.
“We really want to give the people of Mobile a place to play and a place to be seen,” Kahalley said. “In this area, we have three colleges and a lot of high schools that play soccer. In the past, we have been on different sides cheering against each other. Now we can give them a team they can all rally behind.”
Fans looking for more information on tickets, the schedule or the roster can visit www.afcmobile.net, call 251-272-9507 or follow the team’s Facebook page, AFCMobile.
In other area sports news, the Mobile Bay Tornados made a deep run at the ABA national basketball playoffs in Baltimore, Maryland, entering as the No. 5 seed after winning the Gulf Coast Division and Southeast Regional en route to a 15-2 record. The Tornados opened the national tournament with an upset over the fourth-seeded Austin Bats, winning 122-102, before falling to defending champion Jacksonville in a tight 109-107 semifinal. Jacksonville went on to rout the Windy City Groove 120-102 in the title game. Tornados guard Erick Thrash was named an ABA all-star after averaging 30 points, 10 assists and 3 rebounds per game during the season.
Mobile is also set to welcome a wave of young gymnasts this weekend, as the 2017 USA Gymnastics Region 8 Championships for Levels 6, 7 and 8 take place Friday through Sunday, April 21-23, at the Mobile Convention Center. More than 1,000 athletes from roughly 250 gyms across the Southeast are expected to compete in beam, bars, floor and vault. The meet is presented by the Mobile Sports Authority alongside Mobile-based Planet Gymnastics and Visit Mobile. Daily admission is $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and children age 5 and under, who get in free; a two-day pass runs $25 for adults and $20 for seniors and children; and a three-day pass is $35 for adults and $30 for seniors and children, with children defined as ages 6-18 and seniors as 62 and older. More information is available at www.usagym.org and www.region8gymnastics.org.