Interview with Babajide Saba: President of the Maryland Bobcats Football Club

By Sebastian Johnson Babajide Saba is the president of the Maryland Bobcats Football Club. He also is a member of a growing number of front office executives who have taken non-traditional paths. He is a man forged by his experiences; a man who has grown to allow his unique past to inform not just his own future, but the futures of every life he has the power to affect. It’s easy to ...

Read More

Level Up: An Independent Cup Amateur Club Spotlight Series

Space United FC By Alexa Doebler Next up in our series is Space United FC Founder and CEO, Camilo Tobacia. Tobacia's own story is so deeply intertwined with the development and identity of the club that to know about Space United FC, you really need to start with Tobacia's story. "Soccer runs deep. All the way back. Since I could walk, really. I was born in South America in Bogota, Colombia and I ...

Read More

Level Up: An Independent Cup Amateur Club Spotlight Series

Allentown United FC By Alexa Doebler This week, we dive into Allentown United FC as we hear from Founder and President of the Club Emmanuel Ntow-Mensah. Ntow-Mensah tells us of the origins of Allentown United FC, or as it is often referred to, ‘The People’s Club’. Ntow-Mensah moved to Pennsylvania for a wealth management operations job and noticed the soccer scene in the area felt lacking.  As a former college player, while finance ...

Read More

Level Up: An Independent Cup Amateur Club Spotlight Series

Atletico Atlanta By: Alexa Doebler As we head into the Independent Cup, a tournament that brings together both pro and amateur clubs, NISA wanted to highlight some of these amateur clubs that you'll see taking the pitch over the next month. This week we chat with Joao Garcia of Atletico Atlanta, a club whose first match is a big one, taking on NISA Pro Club Chattanooga FC. As Garcia put it, "We ...

Read More

Difference Makers in the Game of Soccer: An Interview with Stumptown AC Head Coach Rod Underwood

By Alexa Doebler Heading into Week 4 of our 2021 Spring Season, our Game of the Week comes to you from Matthews Sportsplex, the stadium of NISA’s newest team, Stumptown AC. They will be lacing up to take on Cal United Strikers FC this Saturday, May 22nd. And while this club is young- 7 games and about 2 months since initial tryouts- they are taking to the pitch in an impressive showing ...

Read More

Interview with . . . NISA VP of Expansion Josh Prutch

Leading the expansion process for NISA, Josh Prutch is in discussions every day with clubs and investors all over the country looking to join the independent soccer movement.  In the short time frame since taking over the role, Josh has had conversations with investors representing communities of all sizes - some with populations under 25,000 and some in the biggest cities in the country - welcoming multiple clubs in both ...

Read More

Targeting the Number Nine, Episode 3

Targeting the Number Nine: Episode 3 with Kartik Krishnaiyer (Miami FC) The No.9 in soccer traditionally has a job to do. Score goals and change the game.  For NISA Nation’s first interview series, we will focus on the Number Nine – the game changers ahead of NISA’s debut.  These are the game changers who have helped NISA to get up on its feet and made it possible for the players to ...

Read More

Interview With . . . Brian Costin

In NISA Nation’s first post Ten Reasons NISA will be different, the first reason we mention is: "Any Community Can Have Pro Soccer".  Sure, it’s a little early in the history of this blog to be quoting ourselves but here we go: In the United States, only one top tier (“Big Five”) professional sports team is based outside of the largest 50 metropolitan areas. About 160 million people live outside of ...

Read More

You Want Answers – August 28, 2019

You Want Answers (August 28th, 2019) By NISA Nation Staff Every week NISA Nation will aim to select a question posed to the twitter handle @TheNISANation and answer a question you may have.  This week’s question comes from Brian Mutterspaugh and is a question on tactical analysis and possibly a question on NISA Nation’s coverage as well. This week’s question: Are you guys planning to do this [discussion of tactics] as part of your ...

Read More

Chatting with . . . Galen Riley

Chatting with . . . Galen Riley By NISA Nation Staff Source: https://twitter.com/chattahooligan   On Thursday, August 15, NISA announced the league’s acceptance of Chattanooga FC, Detroit City FC, and the Oakland Roots into the Association. With each club comes a unique identity and culture. To learn a little more about the ethos of one of those clubs, NISA Nation staff connected with Galen Riley, a member of the Chattahooligans social media team. For ...

Read More