Grand Rapids FC

Grand Rapids FC
Full name Grand Rapids Football Club
Nickname(s) The Blues, GRFC
Founded 2014
Ground Houseman Field
Grand Rapids, MI
Ground Capacity 8,000
Owners Matt Roberts, Chris Deiss
Manager George Moni
League National Premier Soccer League
Website Club home page

Grand Rapids FC is an American soccer club based in Grand Rapids, Michigan whose senior men's team plays in the National Premier Soccer League. The team was founded in 2014 and its first season is in 2015. It is funded by a group of supporters who purchase memberships to cover the operating expenses, as well as by local sponsors.[1]

History

Grand Rapids FC (GRFC) was started by a group of Grand Rapids residents as a community-funded project along the lines of Nashville FC.[2] Fundraising began on February 14, 2014 by word of mouth and was opened to the public a month later. The team applied to the National Premier Soccer League for the 2015 season but their application was denied.[3] Instead, GRFC and AFC Ann Arbor (also denied an NPSL bid in 2015), founded the Great Lakes Premier League.[4] The new league held its inaugural meeting on January 17, 2015 with six teams.

Following a successful 2015 season where GRFC finished the season in second place, averaging 4,509 fans per game, the team announced on September 25, 2015 that they would leave the Great Lakes Premier League to join the National Premier Soccer League.[5]

The 2016 season resulted in a first place position in the NPSL Great Lakes West conference and qualification for the playoffs by beating AFC Ann Arbor in a 3-1 victory in front of a club record 6,854 spectators. The club reached the final of the NPSL Midwest Regional playoffs and beat Indy Eleven NPSL in front of a record attendance of 6,912, qualifying the team for the 2017 US Open Cup. The following day GRFC lost against 2016 NPSL champions AFC Cleveland on penalties.

On November 1 2016, the club announced they would add a women's team under the same GRFC banner, which would begin play in 2017 in a new Midwest division of the United Women's Soccer league. [6] More details of the women's team, including their home field, are yet to be announced.

Stadium

Houseman Field

Houseman Field in the Midtown neighborhood of Grand Rapids is the club's home field.[7] Initially, only the south side of the stadium was opened for spectators, but on July 17, 2015 the latest record attendance forced the club to move some spectators at half-time. For the final home match on July 31, spectators were admitted to the north side right away to accommodate the expected record crowd.

Record Attendance

Current Roster

[8] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 United States GK Noah Fazekas
2 Ivory Coast MF Tarwo Konbloa
3 United States DF Peter Brown
4 England DF Tony Deakin
5 United States DF Jake VanderLaan
6 United States FW Tyler Fischer
7 Italy DF Mark Barone
8 Mexico MF Lito Esquivel
9 Bosnia and Herzegovina FW Elmedin Zukić
10 Italy FW Domenic Barone
11 New Zealand FW Scott Doney
12 United States MF Greg Timmer
13 Puerto Rico FW Gabe Mateo
14 United States MF Noble Sullivan
16 United States DF Joe Sweet
17 England MF Samuel Barnsley
18 United States MF TJ VanSlooten
19 Sierra Leone FW Ahmad Bah
No. Position Player
20 Italy FW Hunter Barone
21 United States MF Jared Timmer
United States FW Sean Conerty
22 United States MF Kosti Moni
23 United States MF Nick Abdoo
24 United States DF Sean Broekhuizen
25 Jamaica DF Stephen Herdsman
26 Canada MF Isky Van Doorne
27 United States MF Cam Sipple
28 United States MF Nate Hoover
29 United States DF Alex Ruddock
30 United States MF Stephan Hooker
31 United States DF Trent Vegter
32 United States FW Anthony Bowie
33 United States GK Kyle Taalman
34 United States GK Dary DeWalt
35 United States DF Nick Groenewold
77 United States FW Joe Broekhuizen

Head Coaches

Honors

Year-by-year

Year Tier League Regular Season Playoffs U.S. Open Cup Average
Attendance		 Average
League
Attendance
2015 5 GLPL 2nd of 5 (3-3-2) ―[A] Ineligible[B] 4,509 3,945
2016 4 NPSL 1st of 7, Midwest-Great Lakes West (7-1-4) Regional final Ineligible[B] 4,315 4,784
  1. ^ A No playoffs were held in the inaugural season of the Great Lakes Premier League.
  2. ^ B To enter the U.S. Open Cup, a team must have belonged to an affiliated league with at least 4 teams that played a schedule of at least 10 games.[9]

Current Season

2016 NPSL Great Lakes West Conference Standings

Pos Team Pld W L T GF GA GD Pts Qualification
1 Grand Rapids FC (C, Q) 12 7 1 4 21 11 +10 25 2016 NPSL Midwest Region playoffs
2 AFC Ann Arbor (Q) 12 6 3 3 19 16 +3 21
3 Michigan Stars FC 12 5 3 4 17 13 +4 19
4 Lansing United 12 4 4 4 16 14 +2 16
5 Detroit City FC 12 4 4 4 24 21 +3 16
6 Kalamazoo FC 12 4 6 2 12 15 −3 14
7 Dayton Dynamo 12 1 10 1 8 27 −19 4
Updated to match(es) played on July 15, 2016. Source: NPSL standings
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head to head; 3) goal differential in head to head results; 4) wins; 5) total goal differential; 6) fewest losses; 7) coin toss
(C) Champion; (Q) Qualified to the phase indicated.

Historic Record vs Opponents

Legend
0-0-0 Win-Loss-Draw
0-0 Win-Loss
* No games played
Opponent League Playoffs U.S. Open Played Total GF GA GD Win %
Michigan AFC Ann Arbor 2-1-1 * * 4 2-1-1 9 5 +4 .625
Ohio AFC Cleveland * 0-0-1 (0-1 PKs) * 1 0-0-1 0 0 0 .500
Wisconsin Croatian Eagles 1-0-1 * * 2 1-0-1 3 1 +2 .750
Ohio Dayton Dynamo 2-0-0 * * 2 2-0-0 2 0 +2 1.00
Michigan Detroit City FC 1-0-1 * * 2 1-0-1 5 2 +3 .750
Indiana Indy Eleven NPSL * 1-0 * 1 1-0-0 1 0 +1 1.00
Michigan Kalamazoo FC 1-0-1 * * 2 1-0-1 4 2 +2 .750
Michigan Lansing United 1-0-1 * * 2 1-0-1 4 2 +2 .750
Michigan Michigan Stars FC 1-0-1 * * 2 1-0-1 2 1 +1 .750
Michigan Oakland United 1-1-0 * * 2 1-1-0 4 2 +2 .500
Illinois RWB Adria 0-2-0 * * 2 0-2-0 2 6 −4 .000
Total 10-4-6 1-0-1 (0-1 PKs) * 22 11-4-7 36 21 +15 .659

Player Records

Goals

Rank Player Goals Years
1 United States Noble Sullivan 6 2015-2016
2 New Zealand Scott Doney 4 2016
United States Tyler Fischer 2015-2016
4 Italy Domenic Barone 3 2015-2016
United States Joe Broekhuizen 2016
Bosnia and Herzegovina Elmedin Zukic 2015-2016
7 United States Nick Abdoo 2 2015-2016
United States Peter Brown 2016
Mexico Lito Esquivel 2015-2016
United States Jared Timmer 2016

Appearances

Rank Player Apps Years
1 United States Tyler Fischer 22 2015-2016
United States Nick Abdoo 2015-2016
3 United States Noble Sullivan 19 2015-2016
England Tony Deakin 2015-2016
5 Mexico Lito Esquivel 17 2015-2016
6 United States Noah Fazekas 14 2016
7 Italy Mark Barone 13 2015-2016
United States Greg Timmer 2016
United States Joe Sweet 2015-2016
10 New Zealand Scott Doney 12 2016

Updated to end of 2016 season.
Note: These statistics are for competitive matches and do not include friendlies.
Reference: [10]

Club Culture

The south side of Houseman Field, with members of the Grand Army supporters group in the foreground. Attendance 3,843.

Supporters

The Grand Army is the supporters group for Grand Rapids FC. Starting in 2015, all pre-game festivities were held at Bob's Bar and a march led through the Midtown neighborhood. In June 2015 a fanzine entitled "What if it Rains" started publication. The name of the magazine referred to one of the reasons the NPSL originally declined the club's application and celebrated the club's massive support.

References

  1. ↑ "A Soccer Club in Grand Rapids?". Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  2. ↑ http://www.grbj.com/articles/79703-many-pitch-in-for-hometown-soccer-franchise
  3. ↑ http://sports.yahoo.com/news/meet-grand-rapids-fc-americas-134029221--mls.html
  4. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/sports/ann-arbor/index.ssf/2014/12/npsl_denies_ann_arbor_semi-pro.html#incart_related_stories
  5. ↑ http://grandrapidsfc.com/grand-rapids-football-club-joins-the-npsl/
  6. ↑ "Grand Rapids FC launches women's team for 2017 season".
  7. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/sports/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/07/houseman_field_agrees_to_becom.html
  8. ↑ http://grandrapidsfc.com/team/grand-rapids-fc/
  9. ↑ "How do you enter the 2016 US Open Cup?".
  10. ↑ What If It Rains - All Time Stats

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/3/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.