RevNet Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 Hello, CCSLC! You may know me as the guy that created the Alabama Soccer League, a 64-team league with teams all across the state of Alabama. That was last year. This year, however, I want to welcome you all to a pair of leagues that I have been working on for the better part of the late spring and early summer: These are the Texas Soccer Leagues. One league, the Texas Soccer League, will consist of 108 teams across a three-level pyramid in the three American states of Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. You can think of this league as a state/regional equivalent of the United Soccer League (USL). Due to the sheer number of teams being presented, I decided to showcase this league in 36 groups of three teams each, called associations. Each of these 36 associations will have: One TSL Championship team (top-level team) One TSL1 team (mid-level team) One TSL2 team (bottom-level team) Each of these associations also corresponds to (and, for the most part, is named after) geographical regions throughout the state of Texas and beyond. These associations are further divided into two conferences, Northern and Southern, which are also geographically-based. The conferences are listed below with the cities in which each association and TSL Championship team is located: Northern Conference Abilene Metro Texas Panhandle DFW Mid-Cities DFW Western Flank DFW Metro East Denton County DFW Metro South Borderplex DFW Metro West Bell County Longview Metro South Plains DFW Eastern Flank Petroplex Eastern Texoma Texarkana Metro Tyler Metro Wichita Falls Southern Conference Greater Austin Houston Metro East Golden Triangle Cameron County Aggieland Texas Coastal Bend Harris County Webb County Galveston County Hidalgo County Alamo Arch Concho Valley Bexar County Hays County Houston Metro West Houston Metro North Golden Crescent McLennan County When I did the dividing up into conferences, I had to even it out by giving two associations to the Southern Conference. If I can remember, I’ll let you know which ones when we get to them. For each team being presented within these associations, there will be at least two kits, a primary and a secondary. All of the TSL1 and TSL2 teams will have two kits. However, 28 of the 36 TSL Championship teams will have three kits, while the remaining eight teams in the TSL Championship will have the maximum number of four kits. This makes for a total of 300 kits being presented. Kits in the TSL pyramid will be made by the following twelve suppliers: Adidas Castore Di!Y Hummel Joma Kappa Lotto Macron New Balance Nike Puma Umbro Now, let’s move on to the other league I am presenting, the Texas Independent Soccer League, or the TISL, for short. You can think of this league as a state/regional equivalent of the National Independent Soccer Association (NISA). The TISL has 20 teams that are located throughout the states of Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Each of these TISL teams will only have two kits to present. These kits in the TISL are made by four suppliers that are different from the ones listed above. I’ll get into this league more when I am done presenting the 36 associations that make up the Texas Soccer League. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 20 Author Share Posted August 20 For each of these 36 associations being presented, I will showcase the following: The association logo and the team names The logos for the three teams within the association The kits, along with the liner notes for the teams Association 1 of 36: Abilene Metro Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits Abilene City SC Avengers SC Clyde SC Liner Notes Spoiler Abilene is a city located in north-central Texas with a population of ~125,000 and is the county seat of Taylor County. Sweetwater is located 40 miles west of Abilene, has a population of ~10,000, and is the county seat of Nolan County. Clyde is located 14 miles east of Abilene in northwestern Callahan County and has a population of ~4,100. The diamond shape seen throughout comes from part of the logo for the City of Abilene. The purple color for the "Royal Purples" of Abilene City SC comes from two of the city's three universities, Abilene Christian and Hardin-Simmons, sharing the same purple primary color. McMurry University, which provides the maroon color for the socks on the tertiary kit, is the other university in Abilene, if you must know. Speaking of the tertiary kit, the screened key shape on the shirt alludes to Abilene's nickname of "The Key City". The gold shorts color comes courtesy of the gold color from Hardin-Simmons University. The Avengers SC name stems from Sweetwater's Avenger Field, where in WWII, famed aviator Jacqueline Cochran trained women to become the first-ever women to fly American military aircraft. The logo and silver color for Avengers SC stem from the badge that these women wore as part of the short-lived Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) organization. The red and white colors for the Avengers' secondary kit stem from the city's flag and the Sweetwater High School Mustangs athletic teams. Clyde SC's black and gold colors stem from the Clyde High School Bulldogs athletic teams. The names on the back of the jerseys are: Abilene City SC: Singer and actress Jessica Simpson, who was born in Abilene Avengers SC: Former NFL player Joe Banyard, whose first of four jersey numbers was #23. He also attended Sweetwater High. Clyde SC: Clyde HS Principal Casey Hodges The sponsor for all three teams is First Financial Bank, a bank headquartered in Abilene. As always, C&C welcome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny the Sheeb Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 I like this idea! I've been working on a very similar concept series in roughly the same geographic area (Arkansas represent). I think there's a few things that you could change, mostly trying some other sock designs instead of just having text down each one. I also don't understand the shorts template, is it a side view? Or is it a front view with both legs pressed together? If you can, I'd suggest reorienting your template so that the jersey fronts and backs are next to each other with the shorts and socks below, much like how you'd see them on an actual human being. Interested to see where this series goes. 1 Quote "The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 20 Author Share Posted August 20 2 minutes ago, Danny the Sheeb said: I like this idea! I've been working on a very similar concept series in roughly the same geographic area (Arkansas represent). I think there's a few things that you could change, mostly trying some other sock designs instead of just having text down each one. I also don't understand the shorts template, is it a side view? Or is it a front view with both legs pressed together? If you can, I'd suggest reorienting your template so that the jersey fronts and backs are next to each other with the shorts and socks below, much like how you'd see them on an actual human being. Interested to see where this series goes. In a word, yes. In a few more: It's a way to present both sides of the shorts in one view. The line that divides the short is a separating line and, for the most part, is not part of the design. If you'll look at my Alabama Soccer League thread, it's basically the same template as presented here. On the text down the socks, I'm afraid you'll probably dislike some of the designs I'm presenting then. But I do change it up in other designs. Thanks so much for your feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 21 Author Share Posted August 21 Association 2 of 36: Aggieland Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits Texas Twins SC Texas Blues SC Robertson County SC Liner Notes Spoiler First of all, the "Aggieland" name stems from the Texas A&M University Aggies athletics teams. “Aggieland” primarily refers to the twin cities of College Station and Bryan, both of which are in Brazos County in east central Texas. You can think of these cities as Texas’ own version of the twin cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, albeit on a smaller scale. While the larger College Station (pop. ~120,000) in the south and east of the county is home to the main Texas A&M campus, Bryan (pop. ~84,000), to its north and west, is the county seat for Brazos County. The Gemini symbol (made up of two letter Ts for “Texas Twins”) for the Twins team logo and the “CS” and “B” monograms on the socks on the secondary kit reflect the twin cities mentioned above. The maroon and white colors for the primary and secondary kits give a nod to Texas A&M and the high school that shares its colors, A&M Consolidated High School (Tigers, not Aggies, is the mascot for the high school). The dark gradient tertiary kit gives a nod to other high schools of the Bryan-College Station area (purple for College Station HS, blue for both Bryan HS and Bryan Collegiate HS, and green for Rudder HS in Bryan). Navasota is 22 miles southeast of College Station primarily in southwestern Grimes County. With a population of ~7,600, Navasota is the largest city in the county. In 2005, the Texas Legislature designated Navasota as “The Blues Capital of Texas” to honor the late Mance Lipscomb, the blues musician who was a Navasota native. The music note logo for the team reflects this. Whereas maroon and white are the main colors for the Twins, blue and white are the main colors for the Navasota High School Rattlers and Texas Blues SC. Hearne (pronounced hearn) is 20 miles northwest of Bryan in southwestern Robertson County. With a population of ~4,500, Hearne is the largest city in the county. The kits for this team mirror those of its parent team of Texas Twins, only with “RC” and “RobCo” insignia. The names on the back of the jerseys are: NBA player Alex Caruso, who was born in College Station and is currently #9 for the Oklahoma City Thunder Former MLB pitcher Clay Condrey, who played baseball at Navasota High and was #55 on the 2008 World Series-winning Philadelphia Phillies Former American football punter Steve O’Neal, who was born in Hearne and was #20 when he punted a record 98 yards for the AFL’s New York Jets in 1969 The sponsor for all three teams is Seed Sumo, a company that helps startup businesses headquartered in the Bryan-College Station area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnrafael Posted August 22 Share Posted August 22 I see potential in this series, however... This template clearly doesn't help. Sorry, but it doesn't even look like soccer. Not even close. It's almost like it's the "visual construction" of a uniform from another, fictional sport. It's always a plain shirt with a V collar. Uninspired, vague, boring. Those socks, eww. Nonsensical to say the least. The idea is interesting, but the execution is lacking. Also, your presentation could be cleaner, more discreet. You could take inspiration from the visuals of guys like PascalHugo, right here on this forum. His stuff is pretty cool. Some cool sites to follow are Colours of Football, Footy Headlines, and if you want to see shirts in detail, with the seams, fabric cuts and everything else (your shirts are pretty plain, to be honest), Switch Image Project is the best place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 22 Author Share Posted August 22 Association 3 of 36: Alamo Arch Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits FC Neu-Braunfels Seguin Rangers FC Comal County Rangers FC Liner Notes Spoiler The Alamo Arch name takes a bit to explain, but basically, these are the teams located in cities within the San Antonio metro area, but are not in Bexar County. The locations of these teams do form a sort-of arch if you draw a line connecting them together. New Braunfels is ~30-35 miles northeast of San Antonio in Comal County, for which it is the county seat and the largest city with an population of ~111,000. The city was established in 1845 by Prince Carl of Solms-Braunfels, a German military officer who was also the Commissioner General of the Mainzer Adelsverein (Nobleman’s Society), a society that protected the German immigrants that were settling in Texas back then. To this day, New Braunfels is still known for its German Texan heritage, which is reflected in FC Neu-Braunfels’ team name (which is intentionally spelled “Neu” instead of “New”) and its translated nickname of “The German-Texan Soccer Team”. The logo design for FC Neu-Braunfels is mainly based on the city seal and the society that founded the city. The primary kit design somewhat mirrors this recent primary kit of the German team of Hertha BSC and also carries the colors of the New Braunfels High School Unicorns athletic teams (which is one of only nine teams at the high school level in the country to have Unicorns as their nickname). The maroon and gold secondary kit uses the colors from the center of the logo design. The magenta-blue-and-yellow tertiary kit is a tribute to TaskUs, a New Braunfels-based outsourcing company that sponsors FC Neu-Braunfels. Seguin (pop. ~36,000) is 15 miles southeast of New Braunfels in Guadalupe County, for which it is the county seat. The gold and black team colors come from the Seguin High School Matadors athletic teams. The Canyon Lake CDP (pop. ~31,000) is ~20 miles northwest of New Braunfels in Comal County. The green and gold colors come from the Canyon Lake High School Hawks athletic teams. The logos for both of these teams stem from the Texas Ranger Division logo. The names on the back of the jerseys are: Former MLB player and coach Ray Katt, who was born in New Braunfels and was #8 on the 1954 World Series-winning New York Giants American football player P.J. Hall, who was born in Seguin and is currently #92 for the UFL’s Memphis Showboats Canadian Football Hall of Famer Herb Gray, who after playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers retired to the Canyon Lake area. The only number I could find on him was #53. The sponsor for Seguin Rangers FC and Comal County Rangers FC is Alamo Group, a conglomerate of over 40 brands that specialize in manufacturing industrial and vegetation management equipment which is headquartered in Seguin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny the Sheeb Posted August 22 Share Posted August 22 20 hours ago, johnrafael said: I see potential in this series, however... This template clearly doesn't help. Sorry, but it doesn't even look like soccer. Not even close. It's almost like it's the "visual construction" of a uniform from another, fictional sport. It's always a plain shirt with a V collar. Uninspired, vague, boring. Those socks, eww. Nonsensical to say the least. The idea is interesting, but the execution is lacking. Yeah, this is basically all the stuff I was too polite to say in my first post. I don't want to force you to go back and remake 108 teams in a different template, but it would help majorly. On a different note, every team so far except Avengers has used some form of Futura. If this is meant to be like the G League or MiLB, where the lower conference teams are farm teams that have similarities to their parent club's identity, I could understand it, but right now it just looks like a lack of variety. The plainness of the designs doesn't help, the vast majority of the jerseys so far are one-color. I don't want this to sound like I'm being overly harsh and stomping all over your hard work, because I still think this idea is very cool. But I do think that these concepts, as they exist right now, aren't very polished or unique. Hopefully this comes across as constructive criticism, not destructive criticism. Quote "The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 23 Author Share Posted August 23 @Danny the Sheeb and @johnrafael, I have had a good long think about my template. I'm still a little bit nervous about typing this post. First, your and everyone's critiques of anything I do in this subforum are much appreciated, and this will always be the case, no matter how things go in this thread. With all of that said, however, I will not be changing my template, because (1) it's my creation, (2) it worked for me last year when I did my Alabama Soccer League thread, and (3) I am too deep in my creating to suddenly go back. If this news is not to your satisfaction, I am deeply and humbly sorry to have disappointed both of you just now. However, should you want it, I have created a blank guide of my template and I offer it to you both now. You can think of it as my way of saying thanks for sharing your critiques. Once again, I apologize for disappointing you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 23 Author Share Posted August 23 Association 4 of 36: Bell County Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits Arsenal of Killeen Tanglefoot SC Bell County SC Liner Notes Spoiler For the first time in this thread, all three of these teams are located in one county in central Texas, Bell County. The main thing you need to know about Bell County is that thanks to Fort Cavazos (formerly known as Fort Hood), the U.S. military has quite the presence in the county. This is even more the case in its largest city of Killeen (pop. ~153,000), which Fort Cavazos lies just outside of in the west of the county and where the TSLC team of Arsenal of Killeen makes its home. If any team is going to best represent the military in the TSLC, just like Depot SC in the Alabama Soccer League thread, it is “The Texas Gunners” of Arsenal of Killeen. First, the heptagonal Arsenal of Killeen logo is mostly based off of the insignia for the U.S. Army Garrison Fort Cavazos, with the addition of the 12-pointed star at the bottom of the heptagon which comes from the 13th Sustainment Command Unit (also at Cavazos). The Army green primary kit and the camo-colored secondary kit then stem from that. The blue, white, and red colors on the tertiary kit stem from the city’s two colleges, Central Texas College and Texas A&M University-Central Texas. Heading east is where you’ll find Temple (pop. ~85,000), the other large city in Bell County. Back in the early days of Temple, the early 1880s, it was nicknamed “Tanglefoot” by residents for the combination of its muddy streets and alcohol that made walking the town a difficult task. When you read that, the logo and name of Tanglefoot SC then makes sense. Due to Temple’s early history, Tanglefoot SC opts for a mud brown color instead of the Army green color of its parent team Arsenal of Killeen, while keeping the camo color. Heading a little back west is where you’ll find Belton (pop. ~23,000), the county seat for Bell County. Red is the color for its team of Bell County SC. It’s the primary kit color and the white and red secondary kit gives a nod to the local Belton High School Tigers athletic teams. The names on the back of the jerseys are: Former NFL player Tommie Harris, who was born in Killeen and was #91 for most of his career as a defensive tackle. NFL Hall of Famer “Mean” Joe Greene, who was born in Temple and was #75 for all of his pro career with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Belton native and comic book artist Rick Hoberg, notably known for his work in the Green Arrow series for DC Comics The sponsor for all three teams is McLane, a wholesale supply chain services company based in Temple. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnrafael Posted August 23 Share Posted August 23 I get your point, Rev. Don't worry. In fact, I don't ever think you need to change it for the things you already did. Instead of simply abandoning it, I believe that is the best if you just refine it within your own workflow, as part of your own evolution as a concept maker. Easier said than done, so let me try to show something that can be done with your exact template: Spoiler Now, to what I did: 1. Added a round collar instead of the plain V one. 2. Lines with lowered opacity work like a charm to represent fabric cuts and stitches. 3. Being a Puma Jersey, it would benefit greatly of the Puma set of logos and tags. Can you see how it made the concept a lot more like the ones you see in other posts? It's a bit of work, but it's great and add a lot more of realism to the concepts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danny the Sheeb Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 While I still think the designs are pretty generic, I do like the way the fonts and colors carry over for teams within each association. It's a neat way of linking them together. Quote "The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 Association 5 of 36: Bexar County Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits CF Bexar CF Alsacia Schertz CF Universal Liner Notes Spoiler With a 2023 population of ~1,500,000, San Antonio is not only the county seat for Bexar County, it is also the second-largest city in Texas after Houston. Therefore, CF Bexar is one of the eight TSLC teams that gets the maximum four kits. Before we get into the kits, logos, and all that, I think we need to define the word of the day: quaternary (adj.) - fourth in order or rank; belonging to the fourth order. The multi-colored shield CF Bexar logo is a reconstructed take on the Bexar County seal which also uses the shape from the City of San Antonio website. If you take another look at the shield part of the seal, it can serve as your guide for the four kits I did for CF Bexar. The primary kit features a white shirt with a black sash, just like the upper-left quadrant of the shield. The secondary kit is based on the upper-right quadrant. It is a blue kit with a sublimated silhouette of the Alamo landmark. The Alamo was built in 1718 as a Spanish mission (giving CF Bexar its nickname of “The Missionaries”) and the 1836 Battle of the Alamo in the Texas Revolution was fought for its possession. The green-and-canary-yellow tertiary kit is based on the lower-left quadrant. The red-and-white quaternary kit is based on the lower-right quadrant and features white “cannon” sleeves. Schertz, the “S” in the CF Alsacia Schertz logo, is ~23 miles northeast of San Antonio primarily in southwest Guadalupe County, but a large part of the city is in Bexar County. Joseph and Anna Schertz, along with six of their ten children, would become among the first settlers in the present-day Schertz area, arriving in 1843. They came from the Alsace-Lorraine territory of present-day France, although it eventually would become part of the German Empire in 1871. “Alsacia”, the “A” in the team logo, is the Spanish name for the Alsace cultural area. "The Mercenaries" nickname comes from the team being the mid-level team of Bexar County Soccer. The red and white colors for the CF Alsacia Schertz primary kit give a nod to the Rot-un-Wiss traditional flag of the cultural area, along with adopting those colors from the quaternary kit of its parent team of CF Bexar. The blue and gold colors on the secondary kit stem from the local Samuel Clemens High School Buffaloes athletic teams. Universal City neighbors Schertz to its west and it is primarily in Bexar County. The all-letter logo for the CF Universal team gives a nod to the English name of its city (Universal City) with the blue letters of “U” and “C” while maintaining the CF prefix of its team name with the white “C” and “F” letters up top inside the blue letter “U”. It adopts the secondary blue color from its parent team of CF Bexar, and "The Luminaries" nickname also alludes to the "Universal" aspect of its location. The names on the back of the jerseys are: Canadian Baseball Hall of Famer Cito Gaston, who was born in San Antonio and was #21 for the time he played for the San Diego Padres. He was the manager of the back-to-back World Series-winning Toronto Blue Jays of 1992 and 1993. Actor and model Colton Haynes, who graduated from Samuel Clemens HS. He is best known as Jackson Whittmore in MTV’s Teen Wolf. Tom Maxwell, the current mayor of Universal City The sponsor for all three teams is H-E-B, the San Antonio-headquartered chain of grocery stores which has become a sort-of Texas cultural icon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnrafael Posted August 24 Share Posted August 24 I won't delve in the question of the template again, since enough was said, but I like how these are developing. Further refining would be welcome. Alsacia and Universal are quite plain, but that's minor league for you. I would suggest a streamlined league-wide font, pretty much like they do in Premier League, La Liga or MLS, it would be a gain in uniformity for the entire league. A further suggestion for the logos is something someone teached me a lot of time: treat your text as graphic. Try to make it follow the graphic, and not the opposite. Your Alsacia logo is misaligned, and that's a demerit, in a way. Also, the curves between U and C doesn't match, so it looks strange. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 25 Author Share Posted August 25 Association 6 of 36: Borderplex Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits FC El Paso FC Socorro FC Horizonte Liner Notes Spoiler El Paso is the county seat for the eponymous El Paso County in the extreme western end of Texas, which all three teams reside in. At a 2023 population of ~679,000, it is also the sixth-largest city in Texas. Therefore, FC El Paso joins CF Bexar in getting the maximum four kits. Get ready to learn the word "quaternary" again! Also, "Borderplex" is the name that El Paso shares with the larger Mexican metropolis of Ciudad Juárez (pop. ~2,100,000), which is just across the U.S.-Mexico border in the state of Chihuahua. The FC El Paso logo primarily stems from the city flag, which also contributes two of the team's three colors, blue and gold. The teal color stems from the Rio Grande river that naturally splits El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, along with being the entire southern border of Texas. The blue-and-gold primary kit features a bright golden sun at the bottom of the shirt on the front and back, alluding to El Paso being "The Sun City". The teal-and-blue secondary kit pays tribute to the Rio Grande river. The orange and blue colors on the tertiary kit stem from the local University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Miners athletic teams. Finally, the quaternary kit pays tribute to the El Paso Streetcar system, which has been running since 2018 and uses restored streetcars for its fleet. The "El Chucos" nickname for FC El Paso stems from El Paso's other nickname of "El Chuco". Socorro is ~18 miles southeast of El Paso. The word "socorro" stems from the Spanish word for "succor" or "aid". It was previously given to a central New Mexican town before the founding of the town in Texas in 1680 by the Spanish and the Pico tribe members they had brough with them. The red color stems from the Socorro High School Bulldogs athletic teams, while the team adopts the teal color from its parent team of FC El Paso. The white stole on the red primary kit stems from Socorro's early days as a mission town. The "Team With A Mission" nickname stems from Socorro's motto of "City With A Mission". Horizon City is ~8 miles east of Socorro. FC Horizonte (Spanish for "horizon") adopts the blue color from its parent team of FC El Paso while adding the silver color from the local Horizon High School Scorpions athletic teams. "The Horizonites" nickname is adopted from the demonym for Horizon City. The names on the back of the jerseys are: MLB pitcher and MiLB manager Butch Henry, who was born in El Paso and was #27 for most of his playing career. Chato, the name of one of two mascots for Socorro HS Ruben Mendoza, the current mayor of Horizon City The sponsor for all three teams is Helen of Troy Limited, a manufacturer of personal care products headquartered in El Paso. Helen of Troy started out as a wig store in Downtown El Paso in 1968 and since then has grown to acquire name brands such as Vicks and Honeywell, which sponsor the FC El Paso tertiary and the quaternary kits, respectively. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcrosby Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 Fun fact: the hummel brand requires chevrons in even numbers. Quote https://twitter.com/OutOfThisWC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 26 Author Share Posted August 26 Association 7 of 36: Cameron County Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits AFC Brownsville AFC Harlingen AFC Resaca Liner Notes Spoiler If you travel along the Rio Grande from El Paso down south and east, Cameron County is the last county in Texas you'll see before you reach the Gulf of Mexico. This means that Cameron County is the southernmost county in all of Texas. Welcome to the first of two counties in the Lower Rio Grande Valley! The county seat of Cameron County, Brownsville, is also its largest city at a population of ~186,000. Like El Paso, Brownsville also has a larger Mexican city, Matamoros (pop. ~520,000) in the state of Tamaulipas, that sits across from it. In 2003, Brownsville was designated as the "Chess Capital of Texas" by the state legislature. That pretty much fuelled what I did with AFC Brownsville's kits and logo. The roundel logo features half of a setup of the necessary chess pieces needed to play the game. The white-and-black home kit features a chessboard pattern that goes all around the waist in one of my more loud designs in the whole league. The mostly-black secondary kit grounds things a bit with a simple white stripe. Carrying on the chessboard theming for the kits is the tertiary kit, which is inspired by vintage wood chessboards with the split colors of chocolate and vanilla all the way from collar to sock. The sponsor for AFC Brownsville is Pronto Insurance, which is headquartered in Brownsville. Harlingen (pop. ~72,000) is ~26 miles northwest of Brownsville and is the second-largest city in the county after Brownsville. It is named for a coastal town in the Friesland province of the Netherlands which has this flag. For the AFC Harlingen logo, I basically Texas-ified the roundel in the middle of the Dutch flag by cutting out two of the center quadrants and replacing them with a blue field and a "H", not unlike on the Texas city's flag. The primary kit is another loud kit design of mine with the split-colored shorts and socks which are then anchored with a blue shirt. The secondary kit is all-gold with red features. San Benito is ~6 miles southeast of Harlingen. "Resaca" is a regional name given to a type of a body of water that constitutes a former channel of the Rio Grande that now has neither an inlet, nor an outlet. You can think of it as a really long lake that occasionally acts like a river. There are a few that are all over Cameron County, including one that is just outside of San Benito, which is nicknamed "The Resaca City". The AFC Resaca logo stems from the logo for the city. The purple team color stems from the San Benito High School Greyhounds athletic teams. The names that are on the back of the jerseys are: Author and researcher Ramón Saldívar, who grew up in Brownsville and is currently a professor at Stanford University. He primarily focuses on Chicano literature. Gridiron football player Harry Holt, who was born in Harlingen and played as a tight end for the BC Lions of the CFL, along with the NFL's Browns and Chargers. One of his numbers was #81. Tejano musician Freddy Fender, who was born in San Benito as Baldemar Garza Huerta. He had a number-one hit on the Country and Pop charts in 1975 with "Before the Next Teardrop Falls". The sponsor for AFC Harlingen and AFC Resaca is the Valley Baptist Health System, a local medical center with locations in Brownsville and Harlingen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 27 Author Share Posted August 27 Association 8 of 36: Concho Valley Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits FC Concho Grape Creek SC Irion County SC Liner Notes Spoiler There are two things you need to know right away before we get things going: My Dad was born in this area. There's more on this below. I believe this association was one of the two I had to transfer from the Northern Conference to the Southern Conference when I divvied the associations up into conferences. At a population of just under 100,000, San Angelo is the largest city both in Tom Green County (not that Tom Green) and in what is called the Concho Valley in central West Texas. The Concho Valley name is derived from the Concho River, which was named as such due to its abundance of freshwater mussels. "Concho" is the Spanish word for "shell". Within San Angelo's city limits is the historic Fort Concho and the Goodfellow Air Force Base, the latter of which is where my Dad was born. The blue-outlined oval FC Concho logo features a mussel and 11 stripes that alternate between orange and white. The primary kit is mostly blue with orange shorts. The orange-and-white secondary kit features the same 11-stripe pattern that's on the logo on the front of the shirt, along with blue shorts. The tertiary kit features the gold and (different) blue colors from the local Angelo State University Rams athletics teams. The Grape Creek CDP (pop. ~3,600) is ~13 miles northwest of San Angelo. The town name provided an opportunity for me to do the grape bunch logo you see before you, then the kits were a no-brainer from there. The sponsor for both FC Concho and Grape Creek SC is TCP, a company that provides hardware and software for businesses to manage their employees' time. TCP was founded and is still headquartered in San Angelo. Mertzon (pop. 747) is 28.5 miles southwest of San Angelo in Irion County, for which it is the county seat. Irion (pronunced eye-ree-on) County is named for Robert Anderson Irion. Along with being the secretary of state for the Republic of Texas under Sam Houston, he was also a physician, hence "The Doctors" nickname for Irion County SC. The all-white primary kit also alludes to "The Doctors" nickname. Since Grape Creek SC already has purple (specifically the color of grape) as one of its team colors, that leaves Irion County SC with a two-tone grey stripe kit not unlike the secondary kit of FC Concho. The names on the back of the jerseys are: Baseball Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who was born in San Angelo and became a four-time consecutive Cy Young-award winning pitcher, primarily with the Atlanta Braves. His number during that time was #31. Shuichi, the name of the mascot for the Grape Creek High School Eagles athletic teams Old West outlaw Laura Bullion, who was born in nearby Knickerbocker, to Mertzon's east. The sponsor for Irion County SC is the local Mertzon Meat Company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RevNet Posted August 28 Author Share Posted August 28 Association 9 of 36: Denton County Soccer Association The Association Logo and Team Names The Team Logos The Kits Denton SC Little Elm SC Denton Colony SC Liner Notes Spoiler Unlike other associations, there is an alternate name for this group of three teams, which is "DFW Metro North", but since all three teams are in one county, this association is named for Denton County instead. At a population of ~140,000, the city of Denton is the largest city in Denton County, the county seat for the county, and the 20th-most populated in Texas. The "Redbuds" nickname comes from Denton being declared the "Redbud Capital of Texas" in 1994. Redbuds are a group of 10 small trees or shrubs, and they usually are identifiable by the appearance of small pink flowers on the tree or shrub. The city also holds an annual Redbud Festival every spring that traces its roots back to a festival that was held by the local Texas Woman's University starting in the 1930s. All of this is to say that is the reason for the primary kit being all-red with a green collar. The green and white colors on the secondary kit are attributed to the University of North Texas Mean Green athletic teams. The black-and-red tertiary kit with the pair of lips on the front of the shirt is a tribute to the 1973 musical The Rocky Horror Show, which was made into a movie (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) two years later. The movie has since become a cult classic. Rocky Horror takes place in Denton and was written by Richard O'Brien, who is also a long-distant cousin of mine. Little Elm (pop. ~55,000) is ~20 miles east of Denton. Given the tree nature of its name, it's only fitting that the primary kit for Little Elm SC has a green shirt and green socks. The gold color on the secondary kit stems from the Little Elm High School Lobos athletic teams. The Colony (pop. ~44,500) is only an 8-mile drive south of Little Elm on Farm to Market Road 423. For the team name, I just combined the county name of Denton and city name of The Colony to create "Denton Colony SC". The black-and-green primary kit for Denton Colony SC is obvious, given the team logo colors. The three stripe colors on the secondary kit stem from the city's logo. The names on the back of the jerseys are: NBA player Jalen Wilson, who was born in Denton and is currently #22 on the Brooklyn Nets. American soccer player Weston McKennie, who considers Little Elm his hometown, despite being born in Fort Lewis, WA. He is currently #16 for Italian giant Juventus. Eric Yang, who won the National Geographic Bee in 2009 as a student at Griffin Middle School in The Colony The sponsor for all three teams is Sally Beauty, a chain of beauty stores that primarily sell hair, nail, and skincare products headquartered in Denton. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnrafael Posted August 28 Share Posted August 28 These three are probably the not-soccer logos I've seen around these boards. Maybe this has been contributing to that view of mine that your concepts lack that "association football" aesthetic. I've been noticing, no matter how close are some these locations to Mexico, you don't seem to bother having some "Atlético" or "América", not a club named after a saint, or some "Fútbol Club", you barely used a CF (and not even said that CF stands for "Club de Fútbol"). Not a single team outfitted by Charly, a company that is way more acessible than Castore (that just broke out from UK) or DIIY (that only had Bundesliga side FC St. Pauli to its name), for example. How this is possible in a country that once even had a "Chivas"? This makes your concepts look a little bit "sterile", "tactless". They lack appeal, they lack local links. You are clearly not looking the team/association as a football community endeavor, but as a company. It looks like a heartless, money-driven, artificial franchise that could move to another city whenever bad results come. Let's take Southern Texas for example: Harlingen is composed by 81% of Latino people, and that's the average percentage of this ethnicity in the counties around. Yet you decided to go with "Association Football Club", a practice that is so british that looks out of place. Sorry if all of that sounds harsh and rude, however it's clear that something's lacking... Suggestion, have a look around at Mexican football teams, especially for the southern ones. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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