The Tacoma Stars will open the home portion of their 2015-16 Major Arena Soccer League season with a game against the Sacramento Surge on Friday, Nov. 6 at the ShoWare Center in Kent.
The club on Friday announced its home opener against Sacramento, which marks the beginning of the Stars first full season playing in the MASL. The Stars will play 20 games, including 10 at the ShoWare Center. The remainder of the Stars schedule is expected to be released on Sept. 9.
Sacramento is led by Head Coach Mark Bickham, whose ties to soccer in the Pacific Northwest include one season playing for the Stars in 1992-93 and one season as an assistant coach with club in 1995. Bickham also served as a coach and trainer for Highline Premier when current Stars coach and general manager Darren Sawatzky was the program’s director of coaching from 2002-08.
Bickham was instrumental in the development and construction of the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwilla and is a founding member of the Starfire Sports Board of Directors.
“Hosting Sacramento in our opener will be exciting, as Mark will bring up a competitive group to the place he started as a player and a coach,” Sawatzky said. “We will look to kick off the Tacoma Stars inaugural year in the MASL with a win at ShoWare Center.”
Sawatzky will lead a Stars roster highlighted by veteran goalkeeper Danny Waltman, forward Derek Johnson and midfielder Joey Gjertsen. The team is expected to add three more players hailing from the Puget Sound area in the coming days.
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