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New Dayton pro soccer team finds a home

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By Kyle Nagel, Staff Writer Updated 1:30 AM Wednesday, February 3, 2010

BELLBROOK — The new professional soccer team that will debut in the area this spring will play its home games at Bellbrook High School, including a home scrimmage against the Columbus Crew in April, the owners announced today, Feb. 2.

The Dayton Dutch Lions, a first-year team in the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League, will play eight league games and two scrimmages at the school’s Miami Valley South Stadium, said Mike Mossel, who, along with fellow Holland resident Erik Tammer, owns the team.

A May scrimmage against Global United will follow the Crew scrimmage in April, and the Dutch Lions will play their USL schedule from May to July.

The Dutch Lions will join the Premier Development League’s Great Lakes Division, which already includes teams from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, Toronto, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Pontiac, Mich., and London, Ontario.

“The condition of the facility is very good, and the people there are very willing to work with us,” Mossel said before traveling back to Holland following a visit to the Dayton area to hold a tryout and set up a home stadium, office space and living quarters where the owners will live during the season.

Tom Bean, the Bellbrook athletic director, said the owners signed their contract with the school on Tuesday for the stadium’s use.

The Bellbrook stadium will again host the Ohio Valley Warriors, a semi-pro football team and member of the Heartland Football League, this summer. The Warriors are scheduled to play five home games and a scrimmage at the stadium from May through July, Bean said.

The school finished a stadium renovation in the fall of 2008 that added or upgraded the home stands, visitor stands, track, lights, press box and synthetic playing turf. Bean said the stadium seats about 4,000.

“It benefits not only us, but the community and the local businesses,” Bean said of the stadium’s summertime tenants. “It also benefits us to raise funds to pay off the stadium debt, because we’re not using taxpayer money.”

The Dutch Lions have hired former Carroll High School and Wilmington College soccer star Derek Van der sluijs as manager for the area office, which Mossel said the team will set up in Kettering. The office staff will likely include up to nine employees, Mossel said.

Mossel said he expects the team to offer contracts to up to seven players who participated in a tryout at the Athletics in Action sports complex on Saturday. The team is expected to include the maximum of eight allowed non-American players, and seven Dutch players have already been signed, he said.

“We did everything we set out to do,” Mossel said of the management’s trip to the Miami Valley. “Now we’ll keep moving forward.”

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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