OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED IN MAY 2016, CLUB INDEPENDENT IS AN UMBRELLA ASSOCIATION FOR independent soccer teams throughout north Alabama. The club’s history actually dates back to 2014 when club president Matthew Morgan launched an independent team, the Monrovia Blast, and joined an existing umbrella organization which, soon after, dissipated into other directions. Morgan then formed Club Independent as a new umbrella giving independent teams to have the resources and coverage of a club while allowing them to retain their own individual character, coaching viewpoints, and playing styles. “They can manage their teams the way they want to manage them,” Morgan says. “They can wear their own uniforms, and if they’ve already branded their team name they can still come under our club. There’s a need or a want for an umbrella-type situation here.” After receiving the green light by the Alabama Soccer Association, Club Independent fielded 10 teams with close to 130 players for its first season in the fall of 2016. Since then, the club has grown quickly, having registered 19 teams with a player pool of close to 200 kids with more coming. Morgan says the interest in and around the club’s base of Decatur was unexpected. “We’re growing a lot faster than we thought,” Morgan says. “There are other teams that are interested that haven’t joined yet, so we don’t know what our numbers will exactly be for this fall.” Club Independent recently announced a partnership, for instance, with Westminster Christian Academy of Huntsville, and will serve as the school’s youth development program for its soccer players in kindergarten through middle school. The growth and interest the club has seen in its short history has led Morgan to shift his thinking on the club’s short-term and long-term future. “Based on the one-year growth I think in the next five years we’d like to hit 400 players. It’d be hard to double every year,” he says, half-joking. “I think long-range, 400 to 500 players is where is probably our goal. I wouldn’t have said that six months ago. “We don’t want just teams and players, however,” he adds, “but we want to develop elite players for Alabama and the Olympic Development Program.” Club Independent currently fields teams in Division I, II, and III from U9 through U17 under several team names, including the Monrovia Blast, Crossroads out of Hartselle and Decatur, Madison Arsenal, Madison Blaze, and Westminster Christian Academy.
MATTHEW MORGAN