We are excited to share with you the formation of a new era in club soccer in Michigan. One that will propel players on a path towards elite youth and beyond to college, semi-pro and professional levels of competition, yet still allowing for a club's community roots and all levels of soccer to remain in place. Two strong community clubs, Rochester Soccer Club’s “Michigan Lightning”, and Macomb County’s “Michigan Revolution F.C.” will be joining forces, to form the start of a new elite level “Michigan Stars Elite.” In doing so, they will create a more comprehensive competitive opportunity that can further advance the goals and overall experiences of our players and all other competitive youth players . Going forward, we will provide a greater player pathway to the top national levels of youth soccer, college opportunities, and professional competition.
This new structure still allows the Lightning and Revolution clubs to focus and function in their original community foundations and programs, but now adds a pathway to even higher levels for players from each organization. This new structure also creates a great opportunity for other community based clubs to join the program as other satellite partners. This will allow them to keep their community roots and to provide their players with the same pathway of playing opportunities, and further strengthen the new elite club.
The creation and uniting of our club's resources provides an expanded foundation and direction to get to the next levels, but we aren’t stopping there! To continue this expansion to that next level, we have also developed a partnership with the Michigan Stars FC: Michigan's premier professional soccer club.
In 2019, the Stars went through a rebirth as a club when team principal George Juncaj took over complete ownership of the club with pro aspirations in sight and goals of getting to the next levels. With this vision, in 2020 the Stars FC moved up to NISA (National Independent Soccer Association) where they will continue to play this year, and have plans to keep advancing their professional play. Part of George’s plan was to also create a permanent home for the team, which was recently accomplished with the purchase of Total Sports Complex (Washington Township) now known as the Michigan Stars Sports Center. With this property in hand, plans have already begun on the addition of a new 10,000 seat outdoor stadium as their permanent home field.
Now in 2021, together in our new partnership, we have added two semi-pro teams to the portfolio playing under the Stars brand in the Midwest Premier League (MWPL) for men's, and United Women’s Soccer (UWS) for women’s. Both of these playing experiences will add to the player pathway providing a semi-pro level of play for players over U17.
This exciting partnership with the Michigan Stars FC, establishing us as their youth development academy, allows our new club to now have a truly vertical pathway for player growth and development, ranging from recreation, to youth travel, to pro. It also allows us the advantage to have a dedicated home for MI Stars practices and games, and a planned stadium for the big games to go along with our other facilities.
The benefits of our three forces aligning provide many advantages to our families and players:
- More opportunities for our players amongst all levels
- Deeper player pools allowing for highly competitive teams
- Additional dedicated fields and indoor facilities
- Complete player pathway from Youth to Pro
- Highly licensed and experienced youth and professional coaches
- Proven training curriculum and playing philosophies
- Long term player development plans
- Retaining our focus and community roots
With this new formation and partnerships also comes a restructuring of our names and branding:
- Michigan Stars Elite (denotes the new Elite level created by joining forces)
- Michigan Stars Lightning (MI Lightning “club/community” travel teams)
- Michigan Stars Revolution (MI Revolution “club/community” travel teams)
The formation of the new MI Stars Elite level club will encompass the U11 to U19 age brackets with the creation of two teams in each gender and age level. Our community organizations for both Revolution, Lightning and other future satellite clubs will still offer U7- U19 travel teams and remaining levels and interests of youth recreation soccer.
While these combinations provide many benefits, it is important to know that we will always have, as our base, a community structure and that our individual focus, development, and dedication on our players and members will never change. We believe that every player matters, and everyone deserves personal attention and the best possible experience both on and off the field.
The new, stronger Michigan Stars Elite / Lightning / Revolution club has an exciting future. We will be able to focus more on all of our players, coaches, staff, facilities, and programming options. Our coaches and staff will also have additional and valuable development opportunities, which will continue to improve our player and team experiences.
We know you probably have many questions so please visit the new Elite website at www.michiganstarselite.com for more information and a Q&A section.
Thank you for your continued support. We hope you’re as excited as we are for our new, united club and our future together, where every player matters and opportunities exist.
While these combinations provide many benefits, it is important to know that we will always have, as our base, a community structure and that our individual focus, development, and dedication on our players and members will never change. We believe that every player matters, and everyone deserves personal attention and the best possible experience both on and off the field.
The new, stronger Michigan Stars Elite / Lightning / Revolution club has an exciting future. We will be able to focus more on all of our players, coaches, staff, facilities, and programming options. Our coaches and staff will also have additional and valuable development opportunities, which will continue to improve our player and team experiences.
We know you probably have many questions so please visit the new Elite website at www.michiganstarselite.com for more information and a Q&A section.
Thank you for your continued support. We hope you’re as excited as we are for our new, united club and our future together, where every player matters and opportunities exist.