Spokane SC Shadow joins WPSL as Expansion Club

Thursday, January 24, 2019

Spokane SC Shadow has joined the Women’s Premier Soccer League as an expansion club, adding one of the region’s top programs in women’s soccer development into the league fold beginning in 2019.

The team will be the peak of a pyramid for the Spokane Sounders and Shadow youth program, which has produced numerous collegiate award winners, including many recent Division I All-League and MVP selections. An affiliate of Seattle Sounders FC, the club’s dedicated, longtime coaching staff continues to produce an elite class of players annually that are leaders in Washington Youth Soccer competition as well as regional and national USYS play, in which its 2001 side recently ranked seventh in the national GotSoccer.com rankings. The club’s players – comprised of players throughout eastern Washington and north Idaho – have also been a force in local high school competition, regularly competing for state titles with 11 recently earning All-State honors in Washington.

“We are excited to be accepted into the WPSL,” said club technical director Abbas Faridnia. “The ability for soccer fans and players in our community to be a part of the women’s game at the highest possible level is now available.

“We look forward to having a competitive, exciting, hard-working and attacking brand of soccer that will be a leader in women’s sports entertainment for the Spokane community.”

The club is no stranger to success at this level. The Shadow’s WPSL club will join its established National Premier Soccer League men’s side, which won the Northwest Conference title during its second season in the league in 2018. In addition, the Shadow women’s side previously played two seasons in the local Northwest Premier League, winning the inaugural league championship in 2016 and tied for the regular season title the following year with a combined record of 20-2 over both seasons, 19 goals allowed and a staggering differential of +81.

The Shadow’s 2019 WPSL opponents will be revealed at this weekend’s league AGM in Las Vegas.

The WPSL is in its 22nd season and is the largest women’s soccer league in the world with more than 100 clubs from coast-to-coast. WPSL rosters feature elite collegiate, post-collegiate, international and standout prep student-athletes. Many of the United States’ most accomplished women’s players have played in the WPSL, including household names such as Alex Morgan, Abby Wambach, Megan Rapinoe, Julie Foudy and Brandi Chastain.

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