Mercer County’s New Soccer Club Set To Begin Inaugural Campaign

MERCER COUNTY, NJ — Mercer County residents now have their very own soccer club to root for. Real Central NJ Soccer (RCNJ) is the region's newest pre-professional soccer club.

They have a women’s and men’s teams and will play at Mercer County Community College, this summer.

The club was officially launched in July 2020 by Lawrence Township resident, Ira Jersey.

“When we launched, it was always with the intention to start play in May 2021, because we had a lot to do in 2020,” said Jersey.

The club was busy during the pandemic. They had to find a venue, make a logo, hire coaches, have triads – this left them with little to no time to participate in 2020 season.

“Turns out, the league didn't play in 2020 because of COVID,” said Jersey.

RCNJ currently has a 16-member team working on their inaugural season.

The team’s players are mostly students — collegiate or university-lever players — who are home for the summer.

The club’s programs allow them to train, stay in shape and play a few games before they head back to their respective schools in August.

“Our team is skewed a little bit to the younger side, 18 to 21-year-olds for the most part. And the reason for that is these are younger players that we hope will stay with us for several years,” said Jersey.

The men’s team is playing in USL League 2 and will be coached by Patrick Snyder and Carlos Figuero. The women’s team is competing in the Women’s Premier Soccer League, and will be coached by Brian Thomsen, with Kim Maurer serving as assistant.

Although RCNJ will be playing out of Mercer County Community College, they hope to have a permanent home at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ), Ewing Township, next year onwards.

“They have a lot of the amenities that we need,” said Jersey.

“Also in order to join USL League Two we needed a venue that fit their minimum standards. So, we'll likely be at TCNJ going forward.”

Jersey is hoping this summer fans come out to cheer for the team. With many Garden State residents getting vaccinated, he hopes the state relaxes stadium regulations “a bit.”

“We are hopeful the governor will allow a few more spectators in the stadium, while following all CDC recommendations and regulations. Maybe a 1000 spectators,” said Jersey.

“We're gonna lose a lot of money this year, but we're playing the long game. We want to have a team, we want to put a brand out there and we're going to stream our game so people can watch it from home if they can’t attend and hopefully get excited.”

Jersey has played soccer, coached and also refereed games. His dream of finally starting a soccer club has come true. He is looking forward to May, when the club plays its first match.

“I'll be so proud that first day on May 12, after the national anthem plays, the team gets out on the field, and they're announcing all the players names over the PA system. I'm going to get chills,” he said.

“It’s be a reasonably long journey and the goal is to sell out all 11 home games this year.”

To learn more about Real Central NJ Soccer and buy tickets to their home games, go to https://www.realcentralnj.socc....

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