Tormenta FC made a big splash by making Statesboro a professional sports city and has been a part of the Statesboro community now for three years.

The just three-year old successful amateur club recently made a big upgrade—they’re officially pro now. Beginning March of 2019, Tormenta will be playing in the new USL Division 3 professional league. Their old mission statement of “Pros start here” will have to make a little adjustment to say, “Pros are here”.

So, who would have thought to start a professional league of play in little Statesboro? Darin Van Tassell had the brilliant idea once he was introduced to the world of soccer.

“As my son started playing youth soccer, it gave me a really big window to the most popular sport in the world and the fastest growing sport of the United States,” Van Tassell said. “I thought Statesboro was ready to be a professional city.”

{{tncms-inline account=”Tormenta FC” html=”<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Nothing but. . . <a href="https://t.co/FWGHXzWQwl">pic.twitter.com/FWGHXzWQwl</a></p>— Tormenta FC (@Tormenta_FC) <a href="https://twitter.com/Tormenta_FC/status/1015260733603569665?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 6, 2018</a></blockquote>” id=”https://twitter.com/Tormenta_FC/status/1015260733603569665″ type=”twitter”}}

One might wonder what kind of crowd a business like this attracts.

“[Game turnouts] are terrific,” Van Tassell said. “We average about 2100 fans a game.”

Keep in mind that’s while they only played during the summer, so big things are expected coming with this step up to the next level.

The Tormenta team and players themselves are quite diverse- with players from as many as 14 different countries lining the roster. Along with those players, a few of them are former and current Georgia Southern athletes—Nick Wells, Reid Norton, and Justin Little to name a few.

“The players that played at Georgia Southern who’ve played for us have been some of our best,” Van Tassell said.

The team atmosphere is an interesting and tight bond. The players live together, play together train together, and more.

“It’s pretty unique,” Van Tassell said. “Axis Student Living is where all our players live. The players eat all their meals here at the clubhouse together. They train here on our soccer complex.”

Tormenta will start professional play in March of 2019, but they’ve got even bigger things on the way. By January 2020, the club plans to have their own stadium to play their professional games in.

“We’re going to break ground later this year, and it’ll be open in January 2020,” Van Tassell said. “The 2020 Tormenta season and the 2020 Georgia Southern men’s and women’s fall season we’ll be here.”

With the season approaching, Van Tassell is very excited.

“It’ll be a great environment,” Van Tassell said.

Be sure to be on the lookout for ticket prices and release for this upcoming March 2019 season as those prices are still being decided.

Kaitlin Sells, The George-Anne Assistant Sports Editor, gasports@georgiasouthern.edu