PEORIA MAGAZINE June 2022

S P O T L I G H T

PRO SOCCER ARRIVES IN RIVER CITY Peoria City is kicking it on the local sports scene

BY NICK VLAHOS PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

A soccer team that debuts this spring i n Peor i a has an owner from Canada, a coach from New England and players from around the country and beyond. Still, the roots for potential success and staying power are local – off the field in particular. Peoria City began its inaugural, 12-game season

recounting the discussions. “’This is where I live. I’ve raised my family here. I work at Bradley University.’ Everything that we do here, we’re going to make sure that’s at the forefront. “This has to be a sense of community. It has to be a sense of family. Peoria’s a great place, where people combine family and adult fun with kid fun.” MacLean shou ld be

“We want to show that this is a solvent, relevant space in our community that builds for the next year and the next year,” said Jim DeRose, who oversees Peoria City operations. “We’re trying to be in this for the long haul.” DeRose and Peoria City General Manager TimRegan know of what they speak in that community-appeal regard. For 26 years, DeRose has been the men’s soccer coach at Bradley. Regan is DeRose’s top assistant and a former standout Bradley player who spent six years in the MLS. When Peoria City owners Barry MacLean and John Dorn approached DeRose about their plan for a local soccer franchise, they emphasized the need for an organic organization. “’Guys, I just want you to keep in mind this is my home,’” DeRose said in

May 14. The final game is scheduled for July 16. Home field is Shea Stadium, where the Bradley University soccer team also plays. The nascent team consists of unpaid current college soccer players and recent graduates. It plays in USL League Two, an amateur developmental circuit of more than 100North American teams. Peoria City’s USL2 division includes teams in Des Moines, Iowa; the Minneapolis-St. Paul area; and the Canadian cities of Thunder Bay, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba. Not exactly Major League Soccer or the English Premier League, perhaps, but at $5 a ticket for almost all seats, Peoria City can provide six affordable nights of entertainment for families as well as for soccer aficionados, said the club’s local leaders.

familiar with all that. In the early 1980s, he came fromCanada toMacomb, about 75 miles west of Peoria, to play soccer at Western Illinois University. In his native land, MacLean has been a professional-soccer agent and college coach. Dorn has been involved in player development for the MLS’ Chicago Fire. Local developer/philanthropist Kim Blickenstaff also was instrumental in helping to establish the Peoria franchise. The owners maintained their commitment despite a delay in play, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Plans for a Peoria team first were announced in January 2020, just before COVID-19 changed the calculus. “We had a schedule. Everything was ready to go,” Regan said. “You lost all the energy you had, so you had to start it from nothing.”

56 JUNE 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE