The Williamson County Soccer Association heads into the fall 2022 season with a new president — and facility upgrades.
The league draws nearly 3,000 area residents and visitors for weekly matches at the Williamson County Soccer Complex in Franklin.
Todd Lee, the organization’s new president, said the upgrades will continue the legacy of its founder, Jose Fernandez, who died in 2015.
“We’re bringing things back to life the way that the community deserves, and the way that Jose would have wanted it to be,” Lee said at a ribbon cutting event celebrating the revamped facilities.
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“He brought soccer to Williamson County, and the opportunities that created for him to impact lives and families in and around the community through the game of soccer was his dream.”
Fernandez, a native of Spain, founded the Middle Tennessee Soccer Association in 1977 and later oversaw its growth as the Williamson County Soccer Association. When he died in 2015, Tennessee Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, passed a resolution honoring his memory and crediting him with bringing organized soccer to the area.
“It’s a real treasure for our community,” Johnson said at the ribbon cutting event. “We’re very blessed in Williamson County to have such a great organization promoting sports, good healthy exercise for our kids and our community.”
Lee takes over as president from Todd Seifferth, who stepped down as president after 12 years. Lee first met Fernandez as a player on one of his teams and later worked for him to maintain fields at the soccer complex.
A facelift for the soccer complex
The soccer complex will look a bit newer when the fall season kicks off.
Three of the 27 outdoor fields have been improved, and onsite buildings — including the bathrooms, the clubhouse and the picnic area — have been reinforced, painted or completely updated.
Lee said the fields are a far cry from the plot of land Fernandez built his dream on in the ’70s and ’80s.
“It started with an immigrant’s dream in 1976,” Lee said. “He saw a TVA property that was full of holes and had a dream of what it could be for the youth of Williamson County.”
Cole Villena covers Williamson County at The Tennessean, part of the USA Today Network — Tennessee. Reach Cole at [email protected] or 615-925-0493. Follow Cole on Twitter at @ColeVillena and on Instagram at @CVinTennessee.