Diablo Valley Wolves joining Women’s Premier Soccer League for 2021 season
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY—The area’s major competitive soccer club, Diablo Valley Wolves, will host the newest team in the west region of the Women’s Premier Soccer League starting this year.
“We are excited to join the WPSL. The league has provided a high level of excellence for so many top-level female soccer players in our country,” Diablo Valley Wolves general manager Zach Sullivan said. “The WPSL has allowed players to showcase their abilities to help them move on to the professional and national team levels.”
Early last year, Diablo FC merged with Heritage Soccer Club and the two entities collectively formed the Diablo Valley Wolves brand and then suffered through the shutdown of youth sports due to the coronavirus pandemic. Heritage SC was affiliated with Wolverhampton Wanderers of the English Premier League and Diablo Valley continues this association within the newly formed organization.
Fierce competition
The club is taking continuous strides to elevate the soccer community of Northern California once more by joining the WPSL. Diablo Valley promotes a fierce level of competition with a primary focus on player development in their region by providing opportunities that take rising athletes to the collegiate level. The club’s WPSL team will provide the continued opportunity for these top female players to pursue elite competition at the highest level.
“We have a large base of alumnae playing in top college programs along with a plethora of local talent to compete right away,” Sullivan said.
Diablo Valley Wolves youth teams play in National Premier and NorCal Premier leagues and is a Players First-licensed US Club Soccer club.
Long-time club board president Dan Pauline of Clayton says, “With everything our club has been through over the last year we are very happy to get some good news. We believe this is an excellent opportunity to give our players an avenue to continue playing at the next level when they age out of our youth teams.
“This will also help us attract high level players from across the entire Bay Area to our club. The WPSL players will run camps with our younger youth teams as well as some of our older youth teams having the opportunity to train with the WPSL team. It is all very exciting.”
Coaches
Scott Alexander, girls director for Diablo Valley Wolves, has been appointed head coach of the WPSL team. Alexander has been with the club for almost a decade and has additional coaching experience with women’s program at the collegiate level including Cal State Fullerton (assistant coach 2001-2009), Saint Mary’s College (associate head coach 2009-2013) and CSU Monterey Bay (assistant coach 2019-20). Sullivan will serve as assistant coach.
“We are excited to provide this experience for our female players and soccer community,” Alexander said.
The Diablo Valley Wolves team is slotted in the 10-team WPSL Pac North Conference along with California Storm, FC Bay Area, San Francisco Nighthawks, FC Davis, Lamorinda United, San Ramon FC, Marin FC Alliance, MVLA Wolves and Pleasanton Rage.
The WPSL is in its 23rd season and is the largest women’s soccer league in the world with more than 130 clubs from coast-to-coast in 35 states. The WPSL provides a three-month window from May through July for elite amateur athletes to showcase their talents. 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.
The league postponed the 2020 season due to the pandemic but typically the season is played from May through July.
For more information about Diablo Valley Wolves visit diablovalleywolves.com. For additional information on the WPSL visit wpslsoccer.com.