Clearwater Chargers, Fusion FC to Merge

Two Tampa Bay area soccer families are growing and getting a name change.

The Clearwater Chargers and Fusion FC aremerging to create the Chargers Soccer Club. The new youth league will sport more than 2,500 players on 50 fields at locations in Clearwater, Tampa and Lakewood Ranch.

“We don’t want to be dating," said Rob O'Nan, president of the Clearwater Chargers. "We want to put this together and that everyone that is part of the organization can be proud of it."

The merger creates one of the largest youth sports soccer clubs in the state and should be complete in time for competition in May. Some of the work to complete the merger includes setting up the new divisions, administration and coaching staffs, O'Nan said.

The new club is expected to offer more competition within the local soccer community rather than require local teams to travel to find it. The merger also will bring in top talent for regional and state competitions.

“It's definitely a big step for us,” O'Nan said.

The name might change, but the soccer will remain the same. The same programming and options will be available for current recreational and competitive players. Games will be played at the clubs' respective fields. Players in Clearwater will not have to travel to Tampa or Lakewood Ranch, unless they opt to join a specialty tournament team. Also, registration fees are expected to stay in the same range.

“When you look at the landscape, it just seemed to be a good fit with ourselves and the people who are out at the Tampa Fusion club,” O'Nan said. “We know the people over there ... and their ideals and philosophy are almost identical" to ours.

A new logo to match the new name will be unveiled soon. It will feature three stars for the three national championships the clubs share. Fusion FC, which merged with Black Watch SC a few years ago, captured the 1985 U18/19 Girls national championship. The Clearwater Chargers had national championships in 1995 and 1997.

There also will be new uniforms. The colors, taken from the common colors of the two clubs, will be red, yellow, black and white.

Both soccer clubs have long traditions. Former players include current professionals Kenny Cooperof the Portland Timbers, Bobby Boswell and Richard Mulrooney of the Houston Dynamo, Zac MacMath of the Philadelphia Union and  and JP Rodrigues of .

Many former players come back to coach, O'Nan said.

“It’s a huge roster. I don’t know many clubs that will have the quality of the coaching staff and the history,” O’Nan said. “The legacy of our club is people will keep coming back.”