A generation of girls soccer players were launched the moment Brandi Chastain ripped off her jersey after sealing the victory for the United States Women’s National Team at the 1999 World Cup. In the 24 years since that moment, the USWNT has dominated international women’s soccer, going on to win two additional World Cups plus three Olympic gold medals.
With the 2024 women’s World Cup kicking off this week, Thursday July 20th to be exact, we are about to witness another passing of the torch from one generation to the next.
From Mia Hamm to Abby Wambach to Carli Lloyd to Alex Morgan, the torch has been burning bright for 24 years straight, but now it is time for the next American superstar to step up and launch the next generation of girls youth soccer players.
We know the Women’s World Cup will boost interest and enrollment in girls youth soccer in the Merrimack Valley. What you may not know is that much of that growth is taking place right here, in Greater Lowell.
The Tyngsboro Sports Center on Potash Hill Road has become the “Mecca” for local youth soccer. Darryl Wickens and his family own and operate the facility. Darryl earned the respect of many local sports parents when he bravely (and I’ll argue, correctly) pushed back against the rules imposed during the Covid years of 2020-2021.
Throughout the years, their fields have become the home or partial training grounds for nearly all the local soccer clubs.
Among them, Abbey Villa of Greater Lowell trains in Tyngsboro. The Chelmsford-based Green Lions academy play in Tyngsboro.
The Green Lions have a great reputation for training young players, and when the soccer season ends, they move inside and morph into the Safira Futsal Academy, nationally recognized as one of the better clubs in the country.
There are other regional clubs using those fields for practice, but if you have spent any time inside or outside of the Tyngsboro Sports Center, you know there is one club that has seen an explosion in growth over the last few years; Aztec.
Aztec North Coach and Girls Director Ryan Gwinnell, a native of High Wycombe, England, started the Merrimack Valley chapter during the 2019-2020 season. Combined with the boys, there were 10 teams total. Since then, the club has more than doubled, now consisting of 21 teams and continuing to grow quickly.
The Aztec kids are hard to miss when driving down Potash Hill Road, not only because of their bright orange practice jerseys, but because of the sheer number of them.
So who are they and where did they come from?
The Aztec soccer club was originally located in the North Shore, in the Danvers/Topsfield area. The original club also experienced tremendous growth on the girls side, and that growth turned into success on the field.
Last year, two age groups won national championships in their respective leagues. The girls 2008 Impact team has now won back-to-back Super Division National Cup championships and last year the 2007 Impact team won the NPL finals. The Aztec North girls teams have yet to win a national title but their top teams are starting to knock on the door of national success.
For parents new to soccer in Greater Lowell, the current tier system for girls club soccer can be outright confusing. The federal government is the undisputed king of acronyms, but youth soccer is starting to give them a run for their money.
The ECNL, GA, ECRL, Impact, DPL and NECSL; What exactly does this alphabet soup spell?
These are all the leagues that girls will be playing in as they start their soccer journey.
The ECNL and Girls Academy are clearly the top two leagues in New England, but the commute to and from practices during the week and the yearly cost of flights and hotels makes it almost impossible for a working-class family to pull off logistically or be able to afford.
The goal of the DPL and Impact leagues is to provide a quality soccer product without having to spend north of $10,000 yearly traveling around the country.
The Tyngsboro based Aztec North club places their top teams in the Impact League and they also field teams in the NECSL, along with the New Hampshire Soccer League, and they believe that they have found the right balance between high level soccer, success and affordability.
At the rate they’re growing, it appears they might be onto something.
