Who We are
We are the Naperville Strikers Futball Club. The Naperville Strikers FC is an organized soccer club in the Chicago Area, playing out of Naperville Illinois and has had much success competing in the chicago area and in national tournaments. We compete in the Premier Soccer League (Open Major & Over 40 Divisions), National Soccer League (2nd Division) and the West Subirban Soccer League (Over 35 Division). We are not only a soccer club that likes to have fun, but a soccer club focused on winning, tradition and competing at the highest level of Soccer.
Strikers History (1993 - Present)
The club was formed in 1993 by Robert Menendez and Rick Rushford and was formed out of the most talented players, at the time, playing in the Naperville Park District in-house league. That winter, the team played it's first session together at the Ultimate Spordome in Aurora, IL. Art Jackson, now the manager/player of the over division was part of that inaugural team.
In 1994, the team decided to enter into the Northwest Suburban Soccer League "NSSL" (now known as the Premier Soccer League "PSL") in the 2nd Division. It was also in 1994, that Sam Ionta manager/player of the Open team joined the team at 22 years of age. In 1994 Rick Rushford also took over the team officially when Robert Menendez left for a job in Miami Florida. The team was promoted to the 1st division somewhere around 1996.
In 1999/2000, many of the original players left the team to play with an over 30 St. Charles team in the NSSL. In 2001 Rick Rushford also left the team and turned the Open Team over to Sam Ionta to manage and run. Over the next couple of years, the team slowly rebuilt and added some of the players that still play on the open team today. It was also at that time that Geoff Pence, co-manager of the current open team joined on and brought many players from North Central College over to the team. The team also decided to take the show on the road, in the years shortly after that and competed in the Americas River Soccer Classic Tournament "ARSC" DuBuque, IA and the the USA and NSC Cup in Blaine MN. It was at these tournaments that the team had much success and earned national & international match credits by playing teams from Canada, Mexico, and other teams throughout the United States.
In 2010, Art Jackson former open player and manager/player of one of the St. Charles Over 40 teams and Sam Ionta discussed moving the team back to the Naperville Strikers Futball Club, becoming the current day Naperville Strikers Over 40 team.
In 2010, a few of the players, lead by Ty Nelson and Kevin Reimer entered the Open Team into the 2nd Division of the National Soccer League Indoor session.
In 2011, Brian Bushnell and Quon Vo approached the Naperville Strikers FC and decided to move their team "The Force" over to join on as the Naperville Strikers Over 35 team competing out of the West Suburban Soccer League. The team is also entertaining the idea of moving over to the Premier Soccer League as an Over 30 team in the 2012 Season.
Looking Forward
The club is looking to continue to expand and has been in discussions with a few youth teams to join the club as the Junior Strikers. More talks are still needed and we are looking to bring those teams over in the 2012 season.
In addition, the Strikers are looking to secure their own parcel of land and eventual clubhouse to play all of the clubs games at. This would ensure the best facilities and pitch for all the teams of the club.