It is a name much loved, and still filled with many memories for Puget Sound soccer fans: Tacoma Stars.

It is also a name that is still very much alive.

This week www.TacomaStars.com goes online as the PASL (Premier Arena Soccer League) club prepares to play at the professional level in the new season, which kicks off in the late fall.

Gone are the days of playing before 20,000 fans at the Tacoma Dome. Gone are the days when the MISL (Major Indoor Soccer League) was more popular than any American outdoor league. These days there are numerous local, regional and national indoor leagues, some of them professional, many of them amateur.

Now the Stars play their home matches where the MISL Stars once practiced, the Tacoma Soccer Center. In this historic venue the Stars are one of the leaders in PASL attendance, though it is a far cry from the MISL "glory days."

These current Stars, however, are better in their league than the old Stars ever were in theirs. Witness to this is the 2009-10 PASL Premier season where Tacoma won the first-ever winter national championship for the Stars colors. (See celebration video below).

You can get a Stars-eye view of action from last season in this video that I took from the penalty box!

With the arrival of PASL Pro, the action should be even faster, the talent level even greater and the competition even fiercer than Stars fans have witnessed in recent seasons. The era of nationally televised indoor soccer matches played before tens of thousands of fans with household names on expensive rosters may be over, but they are being honored still with local pride and gritty determination by the Stars and their group of talented players and coaches.

The Stars are coached by player / coach Greg Howes, a Tacoma native. If you have followed the world of indoor soccer in recent years then you know there has been no bigger name out there in the sport than the 3-time national MVP.

Club press release

Tacoma Stars Press release: The modern day Tacoma Stars announced their official return to the professional ranks and the launch of their new website, www.TacomaStars.com. The reconstituted Stars have played the last several years in the Premier Arena Soccer League culminating with March’s PASL-Premier national championship victory, and now will move up to the Professional Arena Soccer League for the 2010/11 season.

Led by three-time league MVP and Tacoma native Greg Howes, the Stars will field a team at the professional level for the first time since 1992. The original Stars played nine seasons and lost in seven games in the 1987 championship series that many consider the greatest in the sport’s history. Game 7 drew a crowd of 21,728 to the Tacoma Dome, an indoor soccer attendance record that still stands today.

The Stars most famous player of that era, Preki, was just inducted into the US Soccer Hall of Fame.

The owner of today’s Tacoma Stars is Marian Bowers, who has had a major impact on soccer in the greater Tacoma area. In 2005 she reopened the former Arena Sports which upon its closing left hundreds of soccer players and other athletes without an indoor practice facility. Within in a short period of time Marian not only revived the Tacoma Stars PASL-Premier soccer team, but rebuilt the facility to over 200 teams playing at The Soccer Center in various leagues.

In April 2010, Marian was awarded the Golden Scarf from the Seattle Sounders for her commitment and dedication to soccer in the Northwest. Among the many reasons she won the award were her years of dedicated volunteer service at the club, district, association, and state levels of soccer. Additionally she was recognized for reviving the Tacoma Stars and supporting them all the way to Nationals three years in a row.

Marian is in the midst of developing plans to build a new facility in Tacoma that will continue to serve soccer players of all ages. She is dedicated to offering programs accessible to the community at large including sending Tacoma Stars players to local schools to mentor kids. Marian is committed not only to soccer but to the betterment of the Tacoma area community. She genuinely cares about the impact her business makes on the community. Her grit and determination make her an inspiring role model for anyone aspiring to pursue their dreams.