Write a new simple attractive title based on the title from RGV Red Crowns bring the excitement of league soccer to Valley and dont use quote marks

HARLINGEN — On a warm but breezy Friday summer night in the Valley, it’s not unusual to see a flock of red-crowned parrots but in Harlingen, the ubiquitous bird is gaining a different meaning through a local soccer team called the Rio Grande Valley Red Crowns which is built for and by the community.

Hosting their last regular season game on Friday against the Brownsville Soccer Club, over 1,000 tickets were sold with a flock of red-crown fans filling up the restored Harlingen Field.

In just the team’s second season in existence, the Red Crowns are steadily growing in the community and in their respective league.

Scoring the first goal of the day, the home stands were marked with lots of red-crown flags and a banner saying “Protect the Nest,”as fans went crazy with excitement with cheers, drums and green smoke.

The Red Crowns’ growing team, fandom and culture is a product of a passionate idea from the community, kick-started by the founder and president of the club Jamal Fayyad.

Already a huge soccer fan, Fayyad got his first taste of the business when he worked with the now dissolved Rio Grande Valley FC Toros.

“I always felt like the Valley could support something like this, and it would do really well, but I felt like the Toros from day one were always Houston’s development team,” he said. “It was never like our club from the beginning, and so I left about two years before they completely dissolved and I remember I was like I was just done with working in soccer. I love the sport, so I had preferred being a fan.”

Taking a trip to England to support his favorite club, Liverpool FC, a last-minute postponement left Fayyad with no plans.

Determined to watch some soccer, he did get the next best option which was watching local lower league soccer games. Upon seeing these small community-based teams fight it out for a chance of promotion to a higher league or to fight up being regulated, Fayyad had a eureka moment.

“I’m in communities the size of like La Feria or Roma, and to see these small towns in England get behind the club, that’s what kind of made me think, like, this could work back home,” he said. “But it needs to be done different this time, and the biggest thing I noticed was that it was all about the community … it wasn’t about the wins or losses, it wasn’t about creating this, like, amazing all-star team. It was about giving people buy-in from the get-go and making them feel a part of the process.”

Fayyad said the football club came together with the help of his girlfriend Alissa Castaneda, who deals with the marketing of the team, his cousin Shaylen Villarreal who helped design merchandise and the jerseys for the club, and graphic designer Tyler Blake who helped with the logo.

“None of us make any money from the club, we do it out of passion,” he said.

It took about three years to even unveil the team name and logo. In those three years, Fayyad said community input was part of every step in building the club by doing surveys and asking people what they would want to see out of a local soccer club.

“You’re selling people an idea, and the big pushback I had was, ‘This has already happened, and it didn’t work, like, why will it work now?’ … I always knew what the ambition was, but we couldn’t get ahead of ourselves until we aligned everything in order. So, I think the hardest project is just is when you’re really passionate and you really believe in something, is getting others to feel the same way when it’s literally just an idea.”

Fast-forward to the team’s last regular season game and the fandom continues making strides such as the establishment of the club’s own tailgating fan group called Los Pajaros Locos.

Spearheaded by Gregory Zavala Owner of UpperCut Club, a barbershop in downtown Harlingen, the tailgating group made their own fan shirts with the club colors and could be seen flocking around outside the stadium giving away free food and beer.

“We’ve supported the movement since it started, and we were like, ,’Hey, man, we’d like to be a part of that and do a tailgate group.’ And we all barbecue and so we decided to just bring out barbecue and, you know, booze for the fans to get them started and pumped up before the game starts,” Zavala said.

Growing up watching soccer with his favorite team being Tigres UANL, the lower Valley local said he thought it was awesome when he heard a team was forming in Harlingen.

Wanting to be even more involved, Zavala said his barbershop is the spot for most players to get a haircut before home or away games.

“It’s something we did since last season, and it was cool getting to know the players, like, on a cool level like from other countries and our local boys,” Zavala said.

Attending every home game this season, the Los Pajaros Locos leader said he’s seen the growth of the soccer club from year one to two.

“It’s definitely grown in a great way, like there’s so many people coming and supporting,” he said. “I talk to everybody who comes (from) all over the Valley, Upper Valley, mid-Valley, like Lower Valley, all coming out and supporting man, and it’s a beautiful thing to watch.”

With RGV Red Crowns home field bringing fans all over the Valley, local Harlingen residents remember when the stadium was home to the WhiteWings, a minor league baseball team.

In a full circle moment, Adrian and Amanda Rodriguez, who were born and raised in Harlingen, are now parents to two boys and are now taking their family to RGV Red Crown games.

With the whole family decked out in Red Crowns jerseys, soccer scarfs and even free red-crown lucha libre masks, Adrian said a local soccer club is great for the Valley and for families like his to have a nice night out.

“It’s a full circle moment, because we came here when we were kids, and now we get to share it with our family, and I’m pretty sure other families as well get to experience it as well, and born and raised in Harlingen, we see a lot of friends and family that we grew up with that are here,” he said.

Amanda said it’s great to have a soccer club play just down the street from where they live and as season ticket holders since last year, she is excited to see the growth of the club.

“It’s great because the resources that we have today, they were not around back in the ‘90s, so it’s even more exciting to see and experience this opportunity, continue to follow them on social media, because that’s a big part of marketing, and just highlighting the great qualities that the team offers,” she said.

Fayyad said he has received great feedback on the club, its merchandise, logo and culture around the club.

“People are really excited, even people who just don’t like soccer, love the brand, love the colors, love the merch that we put out,” he said. “I think people have seen our intentions with this club, and truly being local, and it’s been great.”

Recently featured in a national Bank of America commercial aired during FIFA World Cup games, the Red Crowns are garnering attention all around the Valley and the nation.

“I think people have seen that we stand by our mission statement, and that is providing an opportunity for local athletes, for local artists, for anybody who wants to be involved in the sport, and so it’s been good, and people are slowly buying in,” Fayyad said. “I think what you’re seeing now with the World Cup has kind of been like that extra push for people to see what the Red Crowns are doing is unique. Like the fans we pull in, the merchandise we sell, the food partnerships that we do. This is not something that most lower league clubs do, and so the fact that Bank of America took notice, I think the rest of our community has really started to take notice that we’re doing something unique and something special.”

Fans at the season finale saw a high scoring match that ended 3-3 with a last minute tying goal by Brownsville SC.