New Deal Expected To Keep Chiles In San Diego Throughout His Career
The San Diego Sockers announced the signing of team captain and leading scorer Kraig Chiles to a new five-year contract extension that will keep Chiles in San Diego throughout his professional indoor career. Terms of the deal were not announced as per club policy.
“We’re excited to sign Chiles to this five-year deal and wanted him to finish his career with the Sockers,” said Sockers GM/VP of Operations John Kentera, “It’s been fun for me and the rest of our organization to watch Kraig develop not only into one of the top indoor soccer players in the world, but also a great husband, father, and a coach to hundreds of youth soccer players around San Diego County.”
In six seasons with the Sockers, Chiles has set the standard for strikers in the game of indoor soccer. Again leading San Diego last season with 45 goals and 62 points, the Poway High and San Diego State University graduate has recorded a 60+ point season in each of the Sockers’ past four campaigns. His 246 career goals lead all players from the Professional Arena Soccer League/Major Arena Soccer League over the past six years, and his goal total ranks just eight behind Juli Veee’s club record of 254 career Sockers goals.
“I want to be able to look back in ten or fifteen years and say that I played my entire career with one club outdoors (MLS: Chivas-USA) and one club indoors, the Sockers.” said Chiles of his decision to recommit to the Sockers, “I could have bounced around many times but I wanted to stay here and continue to build something special in the city I grew up in and love so much.”
Kraig Chiles helped lead the Sockers to PASL championships four consecutive seasons (2009-13) and a U.S. professional team sports record 48 consecutive victories (2010-13). In his first year wearing the captain’s armband, the Sockers recorded a 16-4 regular season record, capturing the MASL Pacific Division regular season title. The San Diego Hall of Champions has twice named Chiles a Professional Star of the Year (2013, 2015).
“Kraig has been a loyal player to the organization,” said Sockers head coach and owner Phil Savagio, “If you look at his history, he played for one club growing up, one high school, one college team, one MLS team, and now we guarantee he’ll play for only one indoor team in his career.”
In addition to his service on the field, Chiles works as the director of the MCRD Junior Sockers program and is director of coaching for the Cardiff Mustangs. Chiles has also committed to appear at all of the Sockers’ summer youth camps throughout the offseason. He helped captain the U.S. National Arena Soccer Team to the first-ever WMF World Cup championship in late March, scoring the decisive goal in a 5-3 finals victory over Mexico.
The next step for Chiles is to return the Ron Newman Cup to San Diego after seeing the championship go to Chicago and Monterrey the past two seasons.
“We are putting the pieces of the puzzle together and I know we are putting the right talent in place to get back to the championship level (next season),” said Chiles, “This organization is committed to winning and I want to be a part of that.”
Season tickets for the Sockers’ 2015-16 MASL season are available for pre-purchase by phone during business hours Monday-Friday at (866) 799-GOAL.
