Not all of the clubs we have the pleasure of putting in the Spotlight on Protagonist Soccer.com are already playing their soccer—for newly-minted President and Club Director of Bell County FC, Chris Glynn, this is an opportunity to introduce our soccer community to their brand-new side hailing from Belton, Texas. Even a warm thank you to him for answering our Spotlight questions was treated with kind words and praise… I think we’re all going to like this new club!

Thanks for the opportunity to raise awareness of your club--we genuinely appreciate being able to chat about soccer with people from all over the country.

Thank you for the opportunity! Protagonist Soccer is one of the leaders in stories and communicating so much about lower league soccer as well as giving us small market clubs a voice to the rest of the country. Absolute massive honor and brilliant we get to be in the spotlight!

Bell County FC made their announcement on twitter, as well as other social media platforms and have made it easy to follow their path toward the 2019 Fall Season.

Looks like your slated to begin play in Fall 2019--are you a brand-new club, or an existing club who's taking it up a level?

Bell County Football Club (or BellCo FC, Bell County FC, and BCFC for short) is a brand-new club beginning play this Fall in the UPSL. We will begin with our inaugural first team of semi-professionals, which have a lot of exciting talent coming in after finishing our tryouts. Our ages in the first team range from 16 to 38, so we have players from all walks and ages in the community! We will also begin this fall with our first youth academy team in the U16 age group with players ages 13 to 16. The goal is to gives these young players a pathway to the next level.

There's really no right or wrong answer, but why did you choose UPSL? For aspiring clubs who may be trying to decide which league to join, what was a deciding factor for your organization?

The UPSL was the obvious choice! That is the short answer, but really the UPSL for aspiring clubs that want a Pro Development league and want the Promotion/Relegation as the model, look no further! The amount of growth the UPSL has shown has been staggering, especially in Texas. I was fortunate enough to help found and bring in another team as one of the founding members of the Central Conference in Texas. Texas started with 10 teams and now has over 60 teams! To now bring in a club that needed a club of this level in the area and to Belton, Texas was the easy to choose. Plus, to be one of the first in the Heart Division of this conference to start with a fight for Promotion, I mean who wouldn’t like that opportunity and that feeling of saying, “We are going up, we are going up!”? For those aspiring clubs not sure, JOIN! The league is growing and is providing further opportunities in a country where Pro/Rel Model and getting small market clubs a platform and voice is more important than ever.

Some thought and care went into this badge, Its original and well-executed.

Are you linked to a youth club? Some clubs grow their own players and bring them through a system, some clubs draw strictly on local talent, while others draw from local colleges. How are you building your team?

As mentioned above, we have had experience with other youth clubs through playing and coaching. This is the first time, however that we will venture into the youth side of things with our first UPSL Youth Academy U16 Team. This will serve as a pathway to our first team as well as give players a better chance of playing ball with a known pathway as well as knowing the journey does not have to stop. So many players dropout of the sport between the ages of 13-15. I am a middle school teacher and coach, so I see this happen so often and needs a better outcome and opportunity for the youth in this area that we serve. It is also personal, as I grew up in this area both as a player and coach.

For a lot of teams, facilities costs are a huge factor - where will you be playing, is it the same grounds where you'll be training?

Currently, we are training at Chisholm Trail Park in Belton, Texas. We are currently weighing our options within community about our game facilities, but for now we are really doing wonderful things in the community. In addition, we have also become a member of the Belton Area Chamber of Commerce, we have participated in Belton Market Days, helped Eldred’s Nursery Foundation in Belton, and so many other events. We even have other events coming up! Our goal is to give back on and off the pitch, so while we are continuing to build, we know it’s important to grow in all areas.

Bell County FC are friend and supporters of local soccer themselves – they attend Austin Bold matches together.

Your badge is unique and looks sharp, was there a designer involved? Do you have your kits sorted out for fall?

Our uniform kits are being finalized, so be on the lookout for another big announcement. I feel like I post and share “BIG” announcements so often in the last month or so we have had this club started. It’s Crazy! But at the club we think everything is HUGE and so be on the lookout for that and so many other new things coming up! Our badge is rather unique and pays homage to our local community and important landmarks in the area. It’s funny, we weren’t sure how to go about the badge and our friend Bernie Koelsch offered. Bernie, who is the head coach of the All-Army Soccer Team, we met when we played them on another team and we just loved the conversation and friendly both on and off the pitch. So, one day, we get a message and the offer to have his business make our badge via his world-class design business called Drawfection brought one of the biggest contributions we could ask for. Could not have asked for a better person and business to this! I’ve got nothing but fantastic review on his work and have been in love with that badge ever since!

Do you have a mission statement? What's your short term and long-term goals?

Our vision and goals are to promote high-level soccer while also bringing a winning and competitive team to the scene. Just like the UPSL, we also promote and are huge advocate of Pro-Development to help our young athletes to pathways and opportunities to college, professional, and other high-level forms of soccer in a league that promote our advocacy for promotion and relegation for fair and competitive play. From a club standpoint, our short-term goals are to bring joy and the beautiful game to this area for all ages with continuing to build and cement ourselves in the local community. The long-term goals are just to be a contender and gain promotion with club culture know not just in the community, not just in Texas, but throughout the country. Overall, we want to give back and prove small market clubs can be just as fantastic as the clubs several divisions and tiers above us on the pitch and off the pitch.

I only want to add and thank all our supporters, players, coaches, and staff for all their hard work so far. I want to thank all our current partners and sponsors Drawfection, K Designs, Nutmeg-Consulting.com, and Belton Area Chamber of Commerce! They have been awesome getting us started and we hope more support, partners, and sponsors will consider Bell County Football Club. GO BENGALS!

- Josh Duder

We’re as excited to see them play as they are to get out there and to their thing—good luck this fall to Bell County FC!

For more information about Bell County FC, visit their website: http://www.bellcofc.com/

To stay up to date, follow them on twitter… we do! https://twitter.com/bellcofc