Tuesday, December 3, 2019 (Laredo, TX): The Laredo Heat Soccer Club is pleased to announce that it has joined the United Premier Soccer League (UPSL) for its upcoming 2020 Spring Season with its Under 19 Boys Team.

The team will compete in the UPSL under the name of the Heat 2.

The UPSL, based in Los Angeles, CA is a national soccer league that was formed in 2011 and currently has over 300 member teams throughout the Continental United States and Alaska. Each UPSL team is individually owned and operated. The Heat 2 will participate exclusively in the UPSL’s Central Conference Heart Division I which consist of teams from Central and South Texas.

UPSL National Director Matt Kahla said, “We are pleased to welcome the Laredo Heat SC to the UPSL, this is an organization that has thrived in a soccer-rich environment and with the dedicated leadership of its Board of Directors, the Heat is expanding operations and is looking to the UPSL as part of the plan. This is a tremendous vote of confidence for the UPSL and we are definitely looking forward to the Heat’s contributions moving forward”.

The Heat organization will continue to field its senior team in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) and will use the UPSL to help develop the local soccer talent pool, for players born in 2001 and after, from Laredo and Webb County for college or professional opportunities as well as the possibility to play with the senior team.

“We decided to join the UPSL to give our current U19 Boys stronger competition on a more consistent basis and the UPSL schedule work perfectly for our players that play high school soccer”, mentioned Heat President Shashi Vaswani.

“In addition, home games are a plus for our club and having teams and their fans visit also provides a positive economic impact to the City of Laredo from April to November, which is always in the forefront of any soccer investment with our organization”.

“The timing to join the UPSL now makes sense because many of our youth players are starting to get to a level that they need to compete at a higher level in order to be ready to possibly get an opportunity to play with our NPSL team during the summer”, concluded Vaswani.

The Heat 2 will be under the direction of Head Coach Fabian Arciga and guidance of Youth Director of Coaching Jose Guillermo “Memo” Sifuentes.

“We are excited to add another pathway for players in the Academy by becoming a part of the UPSL, the Academy player will be able to experience playing up in the UPSL with the Heat 2 and enjoy the opportunity to be scouted by our NPSL coaching staff for a potential call up to the Club’s first team”, said Director of Coaching Sifuentes.

“Coach Arciga will take the reigns of the UPSL team and we are enthused for the upcoming dates for the team. Fabian is a USSF C coaching license candidate and arrived in Laredo with over two decades of coaching experience developing players in West and South Texas through clubs in El Paso and through the Olympic Development Program within the South Texas Youth Soccer Association”

“It’s easy to see the positive impact Fabian has as a coach and role model when observing his interactions with players, parents and community, not to mention that his appointment as the Head Coach for the UPSL team represents the vision that the club has to develop players on and off the field”, concluded Sifuentes.

The Heat 2 will form part of the organizations Non-Profit Youth Program, About Soccer, Inc. which is fully committed to providing a professional, safe and positive environment to empower youth players through their development process of reaching their full potential through our vertical integration with the NSPL team and the Academy. The club will be announcing Open Tryouts on a later date to fill roster spots for the UPSL team.