Scrub Nation FC: Your New Favorite Sunday League Club
"Even scrubs can come up and compete with the best"
Scrub Nation FC was born out of a desire for friends to continue playing the beautiful game and in 2025 they will be kicking off their first season in the APSL.
The club was birthed by college friends who were bored and looking for a Sunday League to play in. While the Scrubs got off to a difficult start, as the years went on, wins started to pile up.
“As we went on through the years, we started picking up better guys, started poaching from other teams, and then when we got too good to play in the local amateur league, we joined a league called Casa, and then kind of rose through the ranks there,” club owner James Ames said. “Then this past spring, we got an invite to play in the APSL feeder league, Casa Select, won that our first season, made APSL in our first try.”
Ames grew up playing soccer in Connecticut and played collegiately at Mount Ida. The name of the club came from Ames and his college teammates lovingly calling each other scrubs.
“We saw each other in the classroom or something, we'd always call each other a scrub,” he said. “Then when it came time to put a team name together, we thought nothing would be better than to become Scrub Nation. So we just were went from being like a bunch of guys just messing around calling each other names to actually forming this pretty competitive, good team.”
But time comes for us all and as injuries racked up, he took a backseat role in the game. Along with owning the club, he was also Scrub Nation’s first manager. He has dreams of owning a professional club.
For now, Ames is working hard to make Scrub Nation more than just your typical Sunday League club. In the early days, along with serving as the manager of the club, he handled all the backroom tasks for the club.
“It's all about building community,” Ames said. “It's all about building an atmosphere. We don't just want to be that Sunday League team. We're just trying to build that family-like atmosphere. We try to do things as a team all the time, whether it's going out or hosting cookouts or just getting together on the weekend watching the Prem. It all comes down to just building a culture, especially when we have a bunch of new guys. We want to help them feel included.”
“We want to continue growing in the ranks in the U.S. pyramid.”
The American Premier Soccer League stakes its claim as the only league with promotion and relegation in the United States and is situated in the third tier of the United States Soccer Pyramid.
Promotion and relegation is gaining traction across the United States. The USL has announced plans to install the mechanism, with a planned implementation around the 2027 or 2028 season.
Ames is proud to play in a league that features the mechanism due to the drama and intrigue it can create. Scrub Nation actually found itself in a relegation battle and it is a moment that Ames looks back proudly considering they were able to survive. Additionally, the club was in a promotion playoff match in Casa Select that created one of the crowning moments for the owner of the club.
“We were in a promotion playoff game, went up 2-0 and then gave up two quick goals. So just a roller coaster of a game, had to go to extra time and as we're putting together our squad, getting ready for PK’s, one of our young talents, Johnny Rodriguez, hits a 30-yard screamer, golden goal winner. I've never seen our guys get so hyped.”
Now, Ames is more focused on his duties as owner. Carlos Rojas, a former player for the club will be the Sponges’ manager.
Scrub Nation begins its APSL campaign on Sunday against the reigning champions of the APSL’s Mayflower Conference, the South Coast Union. Ames noted that the roster will feature a blend of veterans who have played for the club previously and some exciting U-21 talent.
“That's where we get to test ourselves, see how we're gonna hold up, but I'm excited,” he said. It's a long season, we go to the spring, and I'm hoping for a lot of success with our guys. We want to continue growing into ranks in the US pyramid.”