Teams to watch
* Chattanooga Football Club National Premier Soccer League Home venue: Finley Stadium Season: May 9 through July * Chattanooga Roller Girls Women's Flat Track Derby Association Home venue: Chattanooga Convention Center. Season: Feb. 7 into October * Chattanooga Rail Runners Central Basketball Association Home venue: Rossville Athletic Center Season: March 29 through May * Georgia Rampage X-League Indoor Football Home venue: Northwest Georgia Trade & Convention Center (Dalton) Season: March 29 through May * Mountain City of Chattanooga & Lightfoot Club of Chattanooga Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball. Home venue: 6th Cavalry Museum polo field Season: April 4 through August.
The National Premier Soccer League keeps growing, and the Chattanooga Football Club keeps going to the NPSL national final.
Last year in New Jersey was Chattanooga FC's second runner-up finish in four years and third in the club's six seasons of operation, and general manager Sean McDaniel said in late February that the league expects to have more than 70 teams in 2015. His team went 15-3-2 in 2014, and NPSL coach of the year Bill Elliott and national goalkeeper of the year Greg Hartley are among the principals back for 2015.
The success attracts fans, too, with CFC averaging about 5,000 for its home matches last year and drawing just under 8,900 for the 4-1 national semifinal win over Sacramento Gold FC.
There will be at least seven home games this year, and bids for U.S. Open Cup and postseason matches could bring more. Tickets cost $5 in advance or $7 the day of a game, or a jersey can be bought that works as a season ticket. The season begins May 9 with a visit to the Georgia Revolution in Conyers.
Chattanooga FC experimented with a women's team last year, and it went 5-3-2, but McDaniel said that league was a "little unstable" and CFC is taking this year off from women's competition.
CFC Academy is part of the youth soccer collaboration that with the Chattanooga Sports Committee expects to have more than 200 boys' and girls' teams taking part in the Scenic City Cup tournament the first weekend of May.
Seasons are under way for the Chattanooga Roller Girls in flat-track roller derby, the Chattanooga Rail Runners in the Central Basketball Association and the Dalton-based Georgia Rampage in X-League Indoor Football, and two local teams in the new Tennessee Association of Vintage Base Ball are about to start.
The Roller Girls have April competition ahead in Jackson, Miss., and Gainesville, Fla., and a trip to Augusta, Ga., the first weekend in May. The Roller Girls are slated to host the Music City Stars on May 16, the Columbia (S.C.) QuadSquad as part of a June 27 doubleheader, the Tragic City Rollers on Aug. 29 and the Atlanta Jukes on Oct. 10 -- all at the Chattanooga Convention Center, where they were unbeaten in 2014.
The Rail Runners were founded by longtime Harlem Globetrotters showman Paul Gaffney, who played collegiately at Tennessee Wesleyan. The Rail Runners play their home games at the Rossville Athletic Center in the league that also includes the Middle Tennessee Storm, the Memphis Soul Kings, the Mississippi Eagles, the Bowling Green (Ky.) Hornets, the Fort Wayne (Ind.) Flite, the Peoria (Ill.) Panthers and the Springfield (Ill.) Sentinels.
Featuring players mostly with local high school or college ties, Chattanooga went 8-3 with a low score of 97 points and four exceeding 120 in its inaugural 2014 season. The Rail Runners were set to open by hosting Memphis and Bowling Green this weekend, and they also will be home for Middle Tennessee on April 12. The season winds up with a May 16-31 tournament.
The Georgia Rampage play in the Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center and have eight games this year starting March 29, with home contests April 4, April 11, May 2 and May 20. Chattanooga also has two teams, the Tennessee Train and the Chattanooga Soul (formerly the Locomotion) in the Independent Women's Football League.
The Vintage baseballers play by 1860s rules and don't use gloves, and the 10-team league's regular season runs from April 4 at the old polo field in Fort Oglethorpe (at the 6th Cavalry Museum), with Mountain City of Chattanooga hosting the Nashville Maroons and the Lightfoot Club of Chattanooga taking on the Franklin Farriers, till Aug. 30 in Nashville.
Nationally significant local sporting events include the U.S. Pro Cycling Championships during Memorial Day weekend, the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon -- now a USA Triathlon regional -- on July 11 and the Head of the Hooch rowing regatta Nov. 7-8. That set of 5,000-meter races is the second largest head race in the United States and last year pulled in more than 2,100 boats and about 10,000 rowers from more than 30 states and several countries, with spectators perched above and lining the Tennessee River. The first FAI Pan American Gliding Championships are coming up April 6-17 at the Chilhowee Gliderport at Benton, Tenn. It will be the first such competition in North America.
Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6291.