As Texas’s soccer culture grows exponentially, adding 28 soccer clubs across six leagues forming throughout the state since 2015, San Marcos has decided to join the trend.
For the first time in the city’s history, San Marcos will enter the new decade with a semiprofessional team of its own—River City SC.
San Marcos will be home to River City Soccer Club of the United Premier Soccer League, a semi-professional league located on the fourth level of the United States soccer pyramid, below Major League Soccer (Level 1), USL Championship (Level 2), and USL League 1 (Level 3).
According to Cade Summers, co-owner and general manager for River City SC, San Marcos’s location and culture made the city the perfect place for building a soccer team. Summers, a former collegiate soccer player, owns the team alongside his father, Brad Summers.
“San Marcos has a big Hispanic culture and also a big Irish culture,” Summers said. “Those are probably the two biggest soccer communities in America right now, and Texas State is right down the road, so having college students (too)… we are going to have a great team.”
Summers said that he wanted to bring a team to San Marcos to bring in community camaraderie and a new attraction other than Texas State’s campus.
“I really wanted to bring the community together,” Summers said. “ We need something to root for here in San Marcos because San Marcos hasn’t had anything to root for. The city needs something to bring them together that isn’t just Texas State because a lot of people feel left out with Texas State being just college students.”
River City SC is not just about bringing San Marcos together. The team also seeks to give soccer players all across the Hill Country the ability to further their career, something that can possibly continue further with San Antonio FC. Summers said he hopes to build a mutually beneficial relationship with the team, which is part of the Level 2 USL Championship.
“We are trying our absolute best to hopefully get something going with San Antonio FC,” Summers said. “San Antonio FC is a great club and we really want to get involved with them and hopefully do a little farm system and get with them so they can help us out and we can help them out.”
If a farm system can be put in place, it could open the doors to many soccer players in the Hill Country, Summers said.
“Since the growth of soccer is happening all around us, San Marcos needs to be able to keep up with them,” Summers said. “With San Marcos, New Braunfels, Kyle, Buda, Wimberley and Martindale… all of their high schools have soccer teams but there is nowhere (the players) can play in the local area. They have to go to San Antonio or Austin.”
Athletes coming out of these schools might not have college as an option, and local universities like Texas State don’t have men’s soccer teams of their own regardless. This team could become a stepping stone as they pursue their goals toward professional leagues, Summers said.
“These kids that are coming out might not have the funds to go to college,” Summers said. “We want them to get to the next level, and we are trying to work as a buffer to get to the next level for them and trying to get them to San Antonio FC, to Oklahoma Energy FC, to Austin FC, to Houston Dynamo.”
River City SC will join over 300 teams throughout the country in the UPSL and compete within the Central Conference. The Central Conference is currently split up into three different regions, with the Heart Region being located in Central Texas, the North Region in North Texas and the South Region being in the Houston area. River City will compete in the Heart Region alongside Bell County FC in Belton, Coyotes FC in Temple, Capital City FC in Austin and three San Antonio teams, the San Antonio Corinthians, San Antonio Runners and Alamo City SC.
Roster and scheduling news for the spring 2020 season will be released shortly after the conclusion of the UPSL fall season, with playoffs finishing on Sunday. The team will play at San Marcos High School’s soccer stadium.
For more information on scheduling, tryouts and the league, visit https://www.upsl.com/ and River City’s own website, http://rivercitysc.com/home.