With just 14 days until the start of the new USL League One season, South Georgia Tormenta has suspended operations and will not participate in 2026 play, sources tell Backheeled.
Beyond The 90 first reported that the club will not field a team for the upcoming season.
While their third-division peers have been training throughout preseason, Tormenta never began team-wide preseason due to financial difficulties.
After a strong end to 2025 under manager Mark McKeever, Tormenta saw six of their players move to USL Championship this winter, but they began to supplement those losses with a set of league veterans. Nonetheless, those additions ceased on January 29th. As of now, Tormenta only has 16 rostered senior players, with reinforcements put off due to workers’ compensation insurance payment issues.
In a private message obtained by Backheeled, club owner Darin Van Tassell assured Tormenta staff that his organization had secured loans to cover the unpaid premiums. Van Tassell concluded the message with: “Stay focused and stay positive.” Higher-budget USL Championship clubs cite workers’ compensation insurance expenses in the six-digit range – and though the exact scope of Tormenta’s delayed payments are unclear, sources cited salary delays as a regular occurrence for Tormenta players.
