RailHawks enter important offseason

The Carolina RailHawks' USSF D-2 championship hopes died with a 1-1 tie against the Puerto Rico Islanders on Saturday night, as the Islanders claimed the title 3-1 on aggregate goals.

Now the clock begins on one of the most important offseasons in the young club's history.

The RailHawks are part of the proposed six-team North American Soccer League that applied to the U.S. Soccer Federation for Division 2 sanctioning.

However, new USSF rules say that a league must have no fewer than eight league members who meet certain requirements. NASL did not include NSC Minnesota or AC St. Louis on its USSF bid, but it hopes to be granted a one-year waiver as the two teams try to attract more investors.

Not to be forgotten is the RailHawks' interest in retaining coach Martin Rennie. In two years, his RailHawks teams have earned the second seed in the playoffs both times and made it to the championship finals this season.

With that track record, it's likely that Rennie could have higher-level soccer clubs contacting him about their coaching vacancies.

Then come the numerous decisions on which players to retain from a club that finished runner-up in its league. Most Division 2 players do not have contracts longer than two years.