Springfield: Meet your Demize

Our newest pro sports team doesn’t like to use its hands.

The United Soccer League is returning to Springfield, filling a void left last year when the Springfield Storm went under. This time, says general manager Chris Hanlon, pro soccer in Springfield is going to be done right, and that means sponsors.

But in a baseball and college basketball town, what’s going to bring families with young children—And isn’t that who really follows soccer?—out to Cooper Stadium? Hanlon hopes the quality of play in the USL’s Premier Development League (the level at which the Demize play) will excite fans; he says members of the league have been asked to try out for big-name pro clubs like England’s Chelsea and Major League Soccer teams here in the states. If that doesn’t work, maybe a number of local college players from Drury and Missouri State University, including the Bears’ Omar Shoucair, will. In the USL, college players can play professional-level soccer without affecting their NCAA eligibility because players are only paid if they fill other capacities, like coach or trainer. The Demize compete in an eight-team league against cities like St. Louis, Kansas City, Souix Falls, South Dakota and Des Moines, Iowa (most of them with equally intangible nicknames like “Chill,” “Spitfire” and “Menace.”)