the history of west branch soccer club

Our youth soccer program began in 1975 when Karl Herrmann, the Lock Haven State College Soccer Coach, had local children, including his son, playing informal pick-up soccer games on the LHSC field on Sunday afternoons. As the numbers increased and these boys got to high school, Karl and the other soccer parents approached Keystone Central School District to sponsor a boys soccer team at Lock Haven High School. Through his hard work, the boys had their first season of interscholastic soccer in 1981. Mike Kling was the first coach. Then, Abe Stauffer was hired to teach Social Studies and coach the soccer team in 1982.

Plans were then made to expand the youth soccer organization for the Fall of 1984 with a group from Woolrich expressing an interest in becoming involved. It was decided that the newly formed West Branch Soccer Club would affiliate with AYSO for the Fall 1984 season. Lock Haven now had its own AYSO Region, Region 445. So the youth soccer program started by Karl Herrmann in the '70s was now affiliated with a national soccer organization. It was at this time that the number of participants in youth soccer in Lock Haven grew to proportions greater than Karl or Abe ever imagined! In the following years, communities like Mill Hall, Beech Creek, and Loganton also joined AYSO.

The Boys U19 and U16 teams formed that first spring season played their games on Lock Haven University’s McCollum Field. Youth games in the Fall of 1984 were played at Lock Haven High School’s small practice field next to the McGhee tennis courts and also at the Lock Haven Catholic School.

Understanding that WBSC needed more field space for their burgeoning AYSO program, Karl and Abe began looking for potential field space. In the Spring of 1985, WBSC members laid out two full-sized fields and one small field at the Piper Airport. The grass fields between the airport runway and River Road became the new home of the West Branch Soccer Club and Lock Haven AYSO. These fields served as the WBSC home fields for several years.

In the Spring of 1989 it was learned that archeological digs would begin on our soccer fields in advance of construction of the dike/levee system. We were going to lose the use of the fields at the airport! WBSC leaders began looking for land to purchase to build a soccer complex. Abe Stauffer noticed farmland for sale on the Great Island owned by Earl Stern. Abe told Karl about this nice flat land. Karl pursued this with the realtor and discovered that Mr. Stern did not want to subdivide his land. However, Karl learned that Earl Stern’s son Mark had land for sale on the north side of the West Branch of the Susquehanna River, just off the Farrandsville Road.

The West Branch Soccer Club bought 10 acres of land from Mark Stern in 1989. The land was worked and grass seed planted in the fall of that year. After giving the grass a year to mature and thicken, the first games were played there in the Spring of 1991. Seeing a need for more field space West Branch bought two more acres, with most of it converted into a parking lot. West Branch now had enough land for four full-sized (70 x 120 yards) soccer fields or any combination of smaller youth fields and a large parking area. In 1993, the Keystone Central School District vocational students, led by Mark Chappel, provided the labor and skills to build a pavilion. A few years later, West Branch bought an additional 3.8 acres from Mark Stern to provide an area for overflow parking and for future expansion. The total size of the West Branch Soccer Club complex is now 15.8 acres.

WBSC is proud of the soccer complex we have built and improved upon over the years. We are the only youth sports organization to own and manage their own facility in Clinton County. Money to purchase this land and make it into a top notch soccer facility was raised in part by camps and tournaments. Karl Herrmann and Abe Stauffer have run the annual soccer camp for kids for more than 30 years now. Over the years, many tournaments have been held here, including: youth tournaments, Over 30 and Over 40 tournaments, 4v4 tournaments, and the annual high school Labor Day tournament. For 13 years, Abe ran a huge indoor soccer tournament with all profits going to WBSC. Even Lock Haven University would move their men’s soccer games to West Branch when their field on campus was unplayable. The University Men’s program used WBSC for additional field space when needed for their summer team camps. Proceeds are also raised by volunteers running the concession stand.

WBSC would not be where it is today without a large number of volunteer soccer enthusiasts. Early leaders involved with the building of the soccer complex besides Karl Herrmann and Abe Stauffer were Charlie Rosamilia, WBSC president at the time, Don Harger, and Tom Shortledge. In an effort to list names of involved West Branch leaders and workers, there is always to possibility of forgetting someone. However, what we can do is provide a list of WBSC Presidents. Besides John Covell and Charlie Rosamilia (the second president), presidents in order of their service include: Robbie Gould, Calvin Winner, Lenny Long, Dan Corbett, Abe Stauffer, Jeff Brinker, Thom Rosamila (son of Charlie) and Heidi Warner, our current president (2021-2022).

Please note: The above information about WBSC was written and published as an article in the Lock Haven Express. At the current time, WBSC is no longer affiliated with AYSO, which is a completely separate youth soccer organization.