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Paul Lapointe, owner and founder of the Massachusetts Twisters and the American Indoor Soccer League (AISL) announced this afternoon that the Twisters have reached an agreement in which the Twisters will join the new National Indoor Soccer League for the league’s 2008-09 season, which will kick off on November 15th.
The Twisters will play their home games at the 5,500 seat Eastern States Coliseum, which has been the home of the team for its previous six seasons in the American Indoor Soccer League.
"The last 48 hours have been an incredible whirlwind of emotions for me and my family," said Lapointe. "Now that the agreement has been signed, I can look back on the past eleven seasons and see that the vision that I had when I started the Twisters and the American Indoor Soccer League has finally come to fruition.”
“We were just waiting to be accepted by the most respected group the sport has to offer. We had many options, and we would have not continued this season with anyone except this group of owners who understand teamwork outside the lines. This is right for the AISL and the Massachusetts Twisters. What a great opportunity for the media and the soccer fans in Massachusetts to support a team on the largest stage of indoor soccer. "
"The next two weeks are going to probably be sleepless ones for me and my family, but I can guarantee that we will have a great product for the fans of Massachusetts come opening night."
Bob Alves, who has served as the Twisters' game operations manager the past two seasons, has been promoted to director of operations for the team, and will assume his role immediately.
The Twisters are the second AISL club to join the first-year NISL. In September, the 2008 league champion Rockford Rampage announced that they would be joining the NISL, which was born out of the May demise of the Major Indoor Soccer League.
The NISL features the Baltimore Blast, the 2008 MISL champion, the Philadelphia Kixx, la Raza de Monterrey (Mexico), as well as the Rampage and Twisters. Many of the top indoor players in the world play in the NISL, including stars such as Denison Cabral (Baltimore), Jamar Beasley (Rockford), Genoni Martinez (Monterrey), and Pete Pappas (Philadelphia).
All five members of the NISL have been champions of the respective leagues they have previously played in. The Baltimore Blast are five time indoor champions, having most recently won the 2008 MISL title, after defeating Monterrey in a nationally televised game last April.
The Twisters will open their inaugural NISL campaign on Saturday night, November 15th when they will travel to face the Philadelphia Kixx at the Spectrum, with kickoff scheduled for 7:05PM. The Twisters will kick off the home portion of the schedule on December 6th, when the Kixx will come to the Big E for a 7:35PM kickoff.
Twisters Ticket information will be released at the end of this week.
An announcement concerning the lineup and other major news coming from the AISL will be made by the end of this week.
Now in it's seventh season, the American Indoor Soccer League has offices in West Springfield, MA (Administrative) and Cleveland, OH (Media Relations). For more information on the AISL, contact commissioner Paul LaPointe at (413) 569-0088 or director of media relations Rich Paschette at (216) 741-4144. Information on the league can also be found on the AISL's official website, www.aisl.org.
Questions or Comments? aislpr@aol.com
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The
Mass Twisters is a current Member Team of the National Indoor Soccer
League. For more information on the NISL, log on to www.nislnet.com
Questions or Comments? info@masstwisters.com
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