{"id":13087,"date":"2022-05-02T14:49:16","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T18:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/?p=13087"},"modified":"2022-05-11T14:42:51","modified_gmt":"2022-05-11T18:42:51","slug":"soccer-alliance-of-arizona-announces-six-founding-member-clubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/soccer-alliance-of-arizona-announces-six-founding-member-clubs\/","title":{"rendered":"Soccer Alliance of Arizona announces six founding member clubs"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Soccer Alliance of Arizona announces six founding member clubs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>CHARLESTON, S.C. (May 2, 2022) \u2013<\/strong> Six leading soccer clubs in Arizona have been announced as the founding members of the newly formed <a href=\"http:\/\/soccerallianceaz.com\/\"><strong>Soccer Alliance of Arizona<\/strong> (SAAZ)<\/a>, which will elevate youth standards\u00a0in the state by ensuring a more professional experience for families, players, and coaches.<\/p>\n<p>The six founding clubs are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Arizona Arsenal SC<\/li>\n<li>Arizona SC<\/li>\n<li>FC Tucson Youth<\/li>\n<li>Phoenix Premier FC<\/li>\n<li>Phoenix Rising FC<\/li>\n<li>RSL Arizona<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Leadership from these clubs will form the technical committee, which will oversee all\u00a0technical aspects of the game.\u00a0This aligns with US Club Soccer\u2019s guiding principles that soccer people should make soccer decisions, local decisions should be made locally, and the sport deserves professional management.<\/p>\n<p>Beginning in the fall, the SAAZ will offer multiple divisions of league play to accompany all levels of play.<\/p>\n<p><u>National Premier Leagues (NPL)<br \/>\n<\/u>The top competitive level is an <a href=\"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/npl\/\">NPL<\/a> division with U-13 through U-19 boys and girls teams across three divisions: NPL, NPL 1, and NPL 2. Winners qualify for US Club Soccer\u2019s NPL postseason, where they\u2019ll compete for National Premier Leagues championships.<\/p>\n<p><u>Arizona Development League (AZDL)<br \/>\n<\/u>The AZDL\u2019s U-11 through U-19 boys and girls teams focus on competitive play for players or teams that are still looking to develop. Higher divisions for each age group will utilize a hybrid model of centralized field locations to provide an event that is more than just a single game. Lower divisions for each age group will focus on more of a geographical\/regional alignment to reduce travel expectations for families. The promotion and relegation process allows teams to move up and down for additional competition.<\/p>\n<p><u>Youth Academy<\/u><br \/>\nFor U-10 players and younger, a series of home and away jamboree-like events will take place in coordination with member clubs.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to league-based opportunities, SAAZ members have access to US Club Soccer\u2019s cup-based national pathways, player identification and development offerings, and coaching education courses.<\/p>\n<p>New member clubs will be announced soon. Clubs seeking to join the SAAZ may <a href=\"http:\/\/soccerallianceaz.com\/application\">fill out a form here<\/a>. There are two more rounds of acceptance deadlines and member announcements: May 15 and June 1. For questions, please email <a href=\"mailto:info@soccerallianceaz.com\">info@soccerallianceaz.com<\/a>. The league is also hiring an Operations Director; interested applicants should <a href=\"https:\/\/www.teamworkonline.com\/olympic-jobs\/usngbjobs\/us-club-soccer\/operations-director-2010264\">review the announcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>(UPDATE &#8211; May 9: SAAZ has announced <a href=\"http:\/\/soccerallianceaz.com\/soccer-alliance-of-arizona-announces-new-member-clubs\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the addition of two new clubs<\/a> to the league: Phoenix Rush SC and Paris Saint-Germain Academy Phoenix.)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soccer Alliance of Arizona announces six founding member clubs CHARLESTON, S.C. (May 2, 2022) \u2013 Six leading soccer clubs in Arizona have been announced as the founding members of the newly formed Soccer Alliance of Arizona (SAAZ), which will elevate<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-primary\" href=\"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/soccer-alliance-of-arizona-announces-six-founding-member-clubs\/\"> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":13088,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[31,32,77,19],"tags":[],"table_tags":[],"class_list":["post-13087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","category-npl","category-spotlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13087"},{"taxonomy":"table_tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usclubsoccer.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/table_tags?post=13087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}