History of the Augusta Premier Soccer League formerly know as the Augusta Amateur Soccer League
The Augusta Amateur Soccer League, LLC was founded in the Fall of 2007 by Ricky Sanders. With the help of Jeremy Walton, Ben Davall, Steve Fryant, Richard Richards, and CCRD Ricky's goal of bringing back Adult competitive soccer to Augusta, GA became a reality. In its inaugural season the AASL was comprised of only four teams...Shooters FC, PFS, FC Columbia, and Augusta United. That first season saw the 3rd seed FC Columbia defeat the 1st seed Shooters FC in the first ever AASL Final.
Since then, the AASL has gone through several changes, and continued to evolve to provide the CSRA with the best competitive adult soccer in the area. In the Spring of 09 we crowned our first ever Coed champions - Anarchy!! Along with the rapid growth of the Men's and Coed leagues the AASL decided to start crowning a Regular Season Champion as well as a Cup Champion in the Spring of 2010. The first ever Men's Cup followed a World Cup format where we saw Augusta FC defeat PFS Augusta in the Cup final. That same season the Regular Season Champions for Coed - Jarrett Rifles defeated XXXY United to earn the double!!
With continued interest in the league the AASL has continued to expand. In the Fall of 2010, we added an Over 35 Men's League. That season we saw Old Skool FC earn the double, defeating Tuff Gong FC in the Cup Final. In the Spring of 2011, we added a Women's League, with the push and dedication of many of our Coed women. That season we had four teams register and saw the Landsharks take the Regular Season Championship, while the Crush won the first ever Women's Cup. In the Fall of 2011, we named the Men's Cup the Tisdale Cup in memory of Johnathan Tisdale, a friend and longtime staple of Augusta soccer who lost his battle against cancer on June 29th, 2011. Armour Metals FC were crowned the first ever Tisdale Cup Champions when they defeated Hooters FC 4-2 in the Final.
In 2014 we decided we wanted to do more for our community other than just offer a Soccer League for adults. We saw the comradery that the League created, and we wanted to extend that beyond the pitch, so we hosted our first ever Scavengerfest benefiting the Boys and Girls Club of the CSRA. Scavengerfest is a Scavenger Hunt that takes place in Downtown Augusta where friends, family, and spouses can enjoy a unique night out on the town while giving back to our local community. Since our 1st Annual Scavengerfest we have donated a total of $25,515 to our local Boys and Girls Club and we are super proud of the continued support we are seeing from our participants and sponsors.
Due to the success of our first charitable event Scavengerfest we decided to host our 1st Annual Toys vs. Tots All-Star Game in 2015. The brainchild of Ben Davall, our Toys vs. Tots All-Star Game was an 11v11 format that has participants donate a toy in exchange for their jersey to help our local Toys for Tots Organization. Each year we have continued to see this event grow, with more and more Toys being donated as well as monetary donations. It is a great event to recognize the talent we have in our League, and to provide our players with an opportunity to play with their opponents and against their teammates.
With the continued support and growth of the AASL we decided we wanted to see how our talent faired against teams from other states by sending a team to the Beer City Cup in Asheville, NC in 2017. Although we walked away winless in our first year, we had such a blast we have continued the tradition of sponsoring a team and sending them back each year. Special Thanks to Mussab Aljarrah for Captaining our squad for the first two years and getting the Augusta Rebel Lion FC our first Beer City victory in 2018. In 2019, Jonathan Shackleford took over Captaining duties and led our team all the way to the Men's Open Semifinals, losing in a close 1-0 match. We are excited to see what the future holds for our players at this wonderful event.
Since we started sponsoring teams in the league to go and play in tournaments in Asheville, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Hilton Head we decided it was time for Augusta to start hosting their own tournaments. So, in the Summer of 2019 we hosted our 1st Annual Soul City Shootout 6v6 Coed Tournament. We had 6 teams register for the event and saw 100 FC defeat Rebel's United in the final 5-4. Their Captain Ethan La Pan also captured the Golden Boot for the tournament adding to his ever-growing collection of Silverware from the AASL.
In 2020 we were set to host our first ever 11v11 Tournament, the Garden City Cup in February, but unfortunately, we had to cancel due to weather and poor field conditions. Then Covid-19 hit, and we had to cancel our upcoming Spring Season. However, due to a terrible start to the year we were able to give our soccer community a chance to get back out on the pitch during the Summer with our 11v11 Kick Covid-19 Cup. Six teams registered for the Tournament, with United FC captained by Jonathan Shackleford defeating Inter United in the final to lift the Cup. Later that year we had to cancel our Fall Seasons due to Covid, however we hosted our 2nd Annual Soul City Shootout. SoulGood FC defeated Benched United in the final 5-2 which gave Ethan La Pan his second Soul City Championship and gave Jonathan Shackleford his second tournament Championship for the year.
Sitting at 23 teams in all leagues, our goal is to continue to provide the CSRA with the best competitive adult soccer experience possible. Our future plans are to expand upon our competitive leagues as well as bring back our Women's League, host more Tournaments, and hopefully one day have our own facility.
