Founded in 2018, the Western Washington Premier League has quickly become a well-known league in Washington and the Pacific Northwest. Going into last season, the league had announced plans to implement promotion and relegation in 2020, with the 2019 standings determining the placement for clubs.

Recently, the exact format has been decided with it being announced that one team from the top division will go down as one team from the Second division will go up. “This was always a vision,” says WWPL President and Founder Mitch James, “we want to add it to hold clubs accountable and [so the clubs] always strive to improve.” As of right now, each division will have six teams. The First Division will contain reigning, undefeated champion Snohomish County FC, Crossfire Redmond, Nido Aguila Seattle, Kirkland FC, Federal Way FC, and Grays Harbor Gulls. The Second Division currently has the ISC Gunners, Harbor Force, Lacey FC, and BeSea FC. The league is actively looking for more teams to join its second division.

Promotion and relegation is important to the league as it gives a way for teams to join and build their club up. “Having multiple leagues this creates a foundation for new clubs/teams to start and build their way up the pyramid without being thrown into the deep end straight away,” says James, “In some [leagues], including our own, it can be hard for new clubs to start and play versus already established teams due to competition, expectation, etc.” James also highlighted what he thinks the biggest advantage of the WWPL is: scheduling. For a statewide or regional league, you might need to take off a day or two from work to travel to and from matches. That’s not always possible for amateur players. It’s a design that is focused on college players in their off-season.

A league like the WWPL can be a great opportunity for slightly older players (late 20s or early 30s as James says) to get some game time and continue playing the game they love. As a current resident in the Seattle area, I am thrilled to see this league continue to grow as they go into their third season. The league is gaining traction amongst their lower league peers and promotion/relegation should be an awesome way to continue that traction. I hope to see it bring in more fans as teams fight to avoid relegation or to gain promotion into the upper tier. It’s a very exciting time to be a lower league fan, especially in the PNW.

- Aarik Long