Tormenta FC hires first head coach in new USL W League
Earlier this month, Tormenta FC announced that they will be starting a women’s team, that will help start the USL women’s league. On Thursday, the club became the first in that new league to announce a head coach has been hired.
STATESBORO, Ga. (WTOC) - Earlier this month, Tormenta FC announced that they will be starting a women’s team, that will help start the USL women’s league. On Thursday, the club became the first in that new league to announce a head coach has been hired.
Jim Robbins will serve as the new USL W League Head Coach and Tormenta FC Academy’s new girls director.
He has more than 29 years of coaching experience, including NCAA division one, USL league two and has even worked with the Olympic Development program.
“I’ve been told that there’s going to be thirty teams that could populate this league when it starts in 2022. You know, that’s a tremendous opportunity and I think that number is going to continue to expand,” Robbins said. “Hopefully that leads to the NWSL [National Women’s Soccer League] expanding, you know, the number of teams that they’re offering the women to play in, but like I said, the opportunity is just fantastic for these girls now.”
He said he is looking forward to helping grow the women’s game in South Georgia.
“I’ve been involved in the women’s game and in the girls game for a long time, you know, for the bulk of my career over the course of the last 30 years, and I’m a big supporter, a big proponent. I just want them to have the opportunity that the men have had for the better part of, I don’t know, forty, fifty, sixty years in this country, and to really be there from the beginning when I first started in 1992 and seeing the enforcement of Title IX, and see the growth and opportunities that they’ve had, I think this is just next step.”
Robbins says this announcement coming in an Olympic year is great, because the success of the U.S. Women’s National Team always helps create a boom in interest.
“I think every time that they [USWNT] go play and they’re successful, which seems to be every time they play, at least in the last 15-20 years, I think it, you know, just young girls and young women have that aspiration that, ‘Hey, I can do that too. I have the ability to play at that level. Look at the opportunities that are afforded me in our sport,’ You know, it hasn’t always been that way,” Robbins said. “The work for the women’s game has gone through the roof the last 20 or 30 years and it continues to do that, so I expect that to continue. Hopefully, you know, the women’s team does well again this year and can get in the gold medal game, and take the gold medal again, but even if they don’t, just watching those athletes on TV and getting prime-time television, which are things they haven’t had in the past, I think it’s a win-win for everyone involved in the women’s game.”
The club wants to hear from fans to get their suggestions on a team name, you can submit your idea here.
You can read Coach Robbins’ full bio here.
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