The Michigan Sporting Athletic Club Eagles held a 2010 season kick-off dinner at Habib’s Cuisine in Dearborn on Sunday, April 11 amid preparations for what could be a special season for the second-year soccer club.

Members of the Mchigan Sporting AC soccer club pose for a team picture. The team held its kick-off dinner at Habib’s Cuisine in Dearborn last Sunday.

After winning the Michigan Premier Soccer League’s (MIPSL) Second Division Playoff Title last year, Michigan Sporting AC took the monumental step of bypassing the MIPSL’s First Division, leaping all the way up to the Premier Division, which features the best competition in the league.Michigan Sporting President Hassan Beydoun said the team is well-prepared for the step up in competition.”We have prepared to be very, very good this year, the new players are (all older, experienced players) who’ve played in the highest division back home,” he said.”We’re going to be doing it this year, we know we’re going to go against some really tough competition but we’re ready to go all in and play hard.”The club, which is sponsored by Bint Jbeil Cultural Center in Dearborn, picked up additional sponsors within the community this year in Papaya Fruit Market and Royal Petroleum for the 2010 season.Papaya owner Khalil Saad talked about why he decided to sponsor the team.”The reason why is because these guys are real stars on the Michigan Sporting club and I’ve known these guys for a long time; I know their love for the game and I used to play with some of them myself,” he said.Among the stars on this year’s Michigan Sporting AC team are Khalil Mroue, who won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award last year and scored the most goals in the second division, and Ahmad Zreik, who put on a show in a recent indoor league.”I was shocked to see him myself, almost 300 people were there and their eyes were all on him,” Holding things down on the defensive side of things will be Ali Fadr and his teammates. Beydoun said that Fadr is one of those players who always seems to be in the right place at the right time, covering a wide area of the field.Saad and Beyoun thanked the team’s sponsors and said that they are hopeful that the community will support the team starting with their first game at Dearborn Fordson High School on May 2nd. “These guys deserve support because they love the game, and we hope to see more fans out to give them the support they need to play as hard as they can,” Saad said.For more information on the Michigan Sporting AC Eagles, visit www.michigansporting.com or www.mipsl.com.