South Georgia Tormenta FC is an American

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

organization based in

Statesboro, Georgia Statesboro is the largest city and county seat of Bulloch County, Georgia, Bulloch County, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States, located in the southeastern part of the state. Statesboro is home to the flagship campus of Georgia Southern ...

, United States. Founded in 2015, the club fields a professional team in

USL League One USL League One (USL1) is a professional men's soccer league in the United States that had its inaugural season in 2019. The Division III league is operated by United Soccer League, the same group that operates the Division II USL Championshi ...

, the third tier of the

American Soccer Pyramid The United States soccer league system is a series of professional and amateur soccer leagues based, in whole or in part, in the United States. Sometimes called the American soccer pyramid, teams and leagues are not linked by the system of prom ...

, as well as a pre-professional team in

USL League Two USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

called

Tormenta FC 2 South Georgia Tormenta FC 2, officially known as Tormenta FC 2, is an American soccer team based in Statesboro, Georgia, United States. Founded in 2019, the club fields a pre-professional team in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American So ...

and a pre-professional team in USL W-League. The team colors are midnight navy, sky blue, silver, and magenta. The team's crest shows an ibis.

History

South Georgia Tormenta FC was founded in 2015 making it Statesboro's first pro team in any sport in 60 years, since the

Statesboro Pilots The Statesboro Pilots were a minor league baseball team based in Statesboro, Georgia Statesboro is the largest city and county seat of Bulloch County, Georgia, United States, located in the southeastern part of the state. Statesboro is home to ...

of baseball's

Georgia State League The Georgia State League was an American Class D minor league in professional baseball that existed in 1906, 1914, 1920–1921 and 1948–1956. During its last incarnation, it existed alongside two nearby Class D circuits, the Georgia–Florida Le ...

folded in 1955. Owned by Tormenta FC LLC, the operations of the franchise are steered by Darin Van Tassell and Netra Van Tassell. The word "tormenta" means "storm" in Spanish.

2016

On May 21, 2016, Tormenta FC hosted its inaugural home match against the

Carolina Dynamo North Carolina Fusion U-23, formerly known as Carolina Dynamo, is an American soccer team based in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1993, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The ...

in front of 3,105 fans. Tormenta FC won their first match in club history on June 16, 2016 against the

Charlotte Eagles The Charlotte Eagles are an American professional soccer team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1991, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The team plays its home games at ...

in a 2–0 decision. The club then followed up that victory with a second consecutive win on June 18, 2016 by defeating the

1–0. On June 23, 2016, Tormenta FC not only scored their first ever home goal, but the team managed to win their first home match as well; a 1–0 victory over Southern West Virginia King's Warriors. Tormenta had a five-game win streak snapped in a 2–1 defeat against the King's Warriors on July 2, 2016. The club finished 6th out of 8 in the South Atlantic Division.

2018

On January 25, 2018, South Georgia Tormenta FC was announced as the first founding member of

for 2019. The team had an undefeated regular season in 2018, clinching the Deep South Division championship. Tormenta FC hosted the conference playoffs in Statesboro, Georgia.

2019

On March 29, 2019, Tormenta FC hosted the inaugural match of

, winning 1–0 against the Greenville Triumph and setting a new attendance record of 3,519. After a successful start to the season that saw the team in second place, a second-half downturn with 2 wins in their last 16 matches brought them down to 6th place and out of a playoff spot.

2020

On September 16, 2020, Tormenta announced that it had promoted John Miglarese to Technical Director, and promote previous assistant coach and head coach of Tormenta 2, Ian Cameron, to head coach of the first team.

2021

On June 8, 2021, Tormenta announced they will be fielding a women's side to compete in the new

USL W League The USL W League (USLW) is a pre-professional women's soccer league in the United States which began play in May 2022. It was announced on June 8, 2021 by the United Soccer League with eight founding clubs. It follows the USL W-League, a simi ...

beginning in 2022.

2022

In the off season, the club signed former

Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as Tottenham () or Spurs, is a professional football club based in Tottenham, London, England. It competes in the Premier League, the top flight of English football. The team has playe ...

and English youth international player

Kazaiah Sterling Kazaiah Roy Barrett Sterling (born 9 November 1998) is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for USL League One side South Georgia Tormenta. Career Born in Enfield and of Jamaican descent, Sterling attended Winchmore School ...

. The club finished the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

in third place, qualifying for the first round of the USL League One playoffs. In the club's first ever playoff appearance, they defeated sixth seeded

Charlotte Independence Charlotte Independence is an American soccer team based in Charlotte, North Carolina that plays in the USL League One, the third tier of the American soccer pyramid. The Independence currently play their home games at American Legion Memorial ...

and then second seeded Greenville Triumph before winning the final match against

Chattanooga Red Wolves SC Chattanooga Red Wolves Soccer Club is an American professional soccer club based in East Ridge, Tennessee. They are a founding member of USL League One, the third division of American soccer. The club was announced as a member of League One on A ...

by the score of 2-1.

Stadium

Tormenta FC currently plays at Optim Sports Medicine Field, a 5,300-seat

soccer-specific stadium Soccer-specific stadium is a term used mainly in the United States and Canada to refer to a sports stadium either purpose-built or fundamentally redesigned for soccer and whose primary function is to host soccer matches, as opposed to a multi-pu ...

in Statesboro. They previously played at Eagle Field at Erk Russell Park on the campus of

Georgia Southern University Georgia Southern University (GS or Georgia Southern) is a public research university in the U.S. state of Georgia. The flagship campus is in Statesboro, and other locations include the Armstrong Campus in Savannah and the Liberty Campus in Hine ...

from 2016 to most of the 2022 season.

Sponsorship

Record

Year-by-year

1. Top Scorer includes statistics from league matches only.

Head coaches

* Includes Regular Season, Playoffs & U.S. Open Cup. Excludes friendlies.

Players and staff

Current roster

Technical staff

* Ian Cameron – ''Head Coach'' * Jorge Gonzalez – ''Assistant Coach'' * Jordan Melia – ''Assistant Coach'' * Tom Morris – ''Assistant Coach''

Front office

* Aaron Cranford – ''Senior Director, Business Operations'' * Bryce Judy - ''Senior Director, Soccer Operations'' * Brian Evans - ''Assistant Director, Digital Media'' * Edwin Pintor - ''Assistant Director, Communications'' * Bernadette O'Donnell – ''Director of Communications and Public Relations'' * Jenn Morriss - ''Director of Ticketing'' * Todd Bergstrom - ''Director of Corporate Partnerships''

Tormenta FC 2

In January 2019, the team announced that it would continue to field a team in

while also playing professionally in USL League One. The team, Tormenta FC 2, continues to play in the Deep South Division and has won the conference once in 2019. During its inaugural season, the team won the Southern Conference for the first time in organization history. The 2 team has also qualified for two U.S. Open Cup tournaments in

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

, with the latter being cancelled and the tournament spot being transferred to

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Honors

;

:Playoffs ::Winners:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

;

:Deep South Division Champion:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Player honors

References

External links

Official website
{{Georgia Sports Association football clubs established in 2015 USL League Two teams Soccer clubs in Georgia (U.S. state) 2015 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) USL League One teams Bulloch County, Georgia