More Growth in South Florida for WPSL
CAPE CORAL, Florida – The Women’s Premier Soccer League sees more growth in south Florida with the newest expansion team in Cape Coral. The Cape Coral Cyclones’ inaugural season with the league will be played during the 2021 WPSL Season.
Founded in 1974, the Cape Coral Soccer Association (CCSA) has continued to provide immense opportunity for player development in the youth soccer community of southwest Florida.
“Cape Coral is thrilled to be accepted into the Women’s Premier Soccer League,” Eddie Carmean, Director of Coaching said.
With the addition of a WPSL team, the Cyclones have paved another way for their girls’ competitive program, allowing the WPSL to serve as the final destination of their player development pathway for women’s soccer in Cape Coral.
“We have all these girls that come through our program go on to play college soccer,” Carmean said. “It is wonderful to give them this level of play in Cape Coral while they are on college summer break and continue after their college careers are over – it is our hope that some will use this platform to be discovered for the NWSL or U.S. Women’s National Team.”
The WPSL saw 100 alumnae play at the professional level between the NWSL 2020 Challenge Cup and Fall Series and has former players playing in professional leagues abroad including Spain, England, and Denmark. There are also nine alumnae currently on the USWNT roster; two of which played in the last three WPSL seasons.
Home games for the 2021 WPSL season will be played at Tony McKenna Stadium at Mariner High School and ticket information will be confirmed at a later date.
Bajro Dizdarevic, who currently serves as coach for the U13 and U16 girls CCSA teams as well as head goalkeeper trainer, will become head coach for the WPSL squad. Dizdarevic played professionally for NK Krajisnik and NK Mladost in Bosnia for eight seasons and NK Djakoyo in Croatia for one season. Three of his goalkeepers with CCSA received NCAA Division I College Scholarships in the past two years.
CCSA is actively involved with community service on several fronts each year including serving as one of the largest TOPS (The Outreach Program of Soccer) programs in the state and the only one is southwest Florida. Through this program, CCSA offers ten week seasons each spring for over 125 special needs athletes with soccer skills training and camaraderie with players from the Cyclones program who serve as “buddies”.
In addition, each season, CCSA conducts a toy drive in conjunction with the Salvation Army’s Toy for Tots program and hold a food drive to benefit a local agency.
More information about Cape Coral Cyclones can be found at their website capecoralsoccer.com as well as their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter pages. For additional information on the WPSL visit wpslsoccer.com.
The WPSL is in its 23rd season and is the largest women’s soccer league in the world with more than 125 clubs from coast-to-coast in 35 states. 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.
