While trying to fill the void of a sports-free spring and summer one of the items that keeps finding its way onto my feeds are European maps with US soccer teams overlayed. These maps serve as a striking reminder of how much distance soccer in the US must cover. From this was born the idea: What if North Carolina was its own soccer system?
Where to start?
The first step of this project was to narrow down the towns that would be represented. To kick off the I started by listing all of the clubs on my friend, and co-host of TriSocPod, Zack Leischner’s handy US soccer club map. From there we get:
- Asheville City SC — Asheville
- Atletico Olanchano FC — Rose Hill
- Broncos United NC — Stanly County
- Charlotte Eagles — Matthews
- Charlotte Independence — Matthews
- FC Cardinals — Winston-Salem
- Goldsboro Strike Eagles FC — Goldsboro
- Greensboro International FC — Greensboro
- Lazers SC — Garner
- Levi United FC — Greenville
- Moros FC — Raleigh
- North Carolina FC — Cary
- North Carolina Fusion — Greensboro
- Raleigh International FC — Raleigh
- San Lee FC — Sanford
- SOSA FC — Wendell
- Stumptown Athletic — Charlotte
- Tobacco Road FC — Durham
- Union FC — Monroe
- Wake FC — Holly Springs
These 20 clubs will be the launching point of of us reaching 100 clubs.
For the rest of the 100 cities we will head over to our good friend Wikipedia to grab the 100 most populated towns and cities across North Carolina.
- Charlotte
- Raleigh
- Greensboro
- Durham
- Winston-Salem
- Fayetteville
- Cary
- Wilmington
- High Point
- Concord
- Greenville
- Asheville
- Gastonia
- Jacksonville
- Chapel Hill
- Huntersville
- Rocky Mount
- Apex
- Burlington
- Kannapolis
- Wilson
- Wake Forest
- Hickory
- Indian Trail
- Mooresville
- Holly Springs
- Monroe
- Goldsboro
- Salisbury
- Matthews
- Garner
- New Bern
- Sanford
- Cornelius
- Fuquay-Varina
- Morrisville
- Mint Hill
- Statesville
- Thomasville
- Asheboro
- Kernersville
- Clayton
- Leland
- Carrboro
- Lumberton
- Clemmons
- Havelock
- Kinston
- Shelby
- Boone
- Lexington
- Lenoir
- Elizabeth City
- Knightdale
- Morganton
- Pinehurst
- Waxhaw
- Mount Holly
- Albemarle
- Harrisburg
- Stallings
- Hope Mills
- Mebane
- Graham
- Laurinburg
- Henderson
- Eden
- Roanoke Rapids
- Southern Pines
- Hendersonville
- Reidsville
- Lewisville
- Newton
- Davidson
- Smithfield
- Belmont
- Spring Lake
- Elon
- Archdale
- Summerfield
- Weddington
- Lincolnton
- Kings Mountain
- Tarboro
- Mount Airy
- Waynesville
- Winterville
- Dunn
- Morehead City
- Washington
- Pineville
- Wesley Chapel
- Oxford
- Rockingham
- Clinton
- Conover
- Fletcher
- Roxboro
- Siler City
- Black Mountain
Now that there is a baseline to work off I can start creating a design board for each city or town, digging into their history and quirks to pull from. For each locale I will be creating a name, crest, and jersey mock-up. I will potentially be moving clubs that already exist to other towns in their metro and making changes to the name or logo.
Zack has also created a map to easily track the badges created in this series.
About me
First and foremost I am an amateur graphic designer with no formal training. I was born and raised in Middlesex, North Carolina and have spent most of my adult life living in Raleigh. I am a fan of the beautiful game who wants to see it grow at the grassroots level.
