Soccer players excited over new field

Participants in Washington?s youth soccer program have had to play on less than ideal fields in the past year. They hope that will change next year when the city will allot 9.5 acres on 18

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street for four soccer fields, two youth and two adult. In the meantime, the Washington Area Soccer Club must practice in whatever green space it can find outside the elementary schools of Lincoln and Stewart.

Sidney Ryan is the president of the Washington Area Soccer Club, which consists of multiple age brackets that play games over the summer and fall. Ryan said that the club was able to play on the green space east of Whitesell for a few years until last spring, when the company announced it was no longer willing to accept the liability of hosting soccer games on its property. Since then, the only fields the club can play on have been at Lincoln and Stewart, although there is not enough room at either school to have a full-size field, even for the youth leagues.

The soccer field at Stewart is sandwiched in between the ball fields. Ryan said the ground is full of ruts and is not a good place to play.

?It doesn?t have to be perfectly level. We just don?t want the kids to go missing,? Ryan said. ?And the diamonds get in the way, too. The kids run into the gravel. It?s not quite as bad as pavement, but it?s still not good.?

Ryan said that the field at Stewart was not watered over the summer as most soccer fields in other towns are. He said the field is also inadequate because it is too small.

?When you haven?t practiced on the proper size field, it?s hard to get adjusted when you play on a full-size field in tournaments,? he said.

Angie Suchan is the mother of three boys, all of whom play youth soccer. She said she looks forward to the day when her kids can play on well-kept, full-size fields.

?The soccer fields in Fairfield are amazing,? she said. ?We?ve gone to Ottumwa, Oskaloosa, Dubuque, Ames, Iowa City and Burlington. When we get the new fields, parents who come from out of town will be able to see that Washington has something, too. It?s embarrassing that Washington does not have anything right now and you go to all these other towns and they have more than what we have. They have nice ground to play on where we really don?t have anything. Some of them have six or seven soccer fields in a single area.?

Christian Mejia is 14 years old and has played club soccer in Washington since he was 9. He is the son of Fernando and Rosa Recendez. When Mejia started in soccer, he had to travel to Burlington every other weekend to play games because there was no place in Washington to play games. Ryan said the grass land by Whitesell was not available at that time.

?I wondered, ?Why do we have to go all the way over there??? Mejia said.

Mejia said the field at Stewart would need a lot of work to bring it up to par with the fields he has played on in other towns.

?A good field would have good grass with no bumps,? he said. ?It?s easy to sprain an ankle here. The ball bounces weird directions which makes it hard to pass. It?s kind of good in a way because it forces you to control the ball better.?

Ryan added, ?These fields in Washington are fast. If you pass the ball on those nice, grassy fields, it slows down. You?ve got to move fast to get a ball here. The fields have been worn so short that it?s like running across a gymnasium floor with bumps.?

Mejia was one of two players from Washington, the other being Joe Smith, who played on an all-star team representing the state of Iowa this past summer. He and other Iowans competed in Kansas City against the best players from surrounding states. He said the field was made of Astroturf, which was a nice surface but also very warm.

?Your feet get really hot playing on it, and the surface is a lot faster,? he said.

Sixteen-year-old Brooks Rangel was at soccer practice Thursday wearing the shirt of his favorite soccer team, Real Madrid. He is the son of Juan and Enedina Rangel. Rangel plays in both the U16 and the U19 league. He said he plays five to seven games each year with the club. Rangel plays the position of forward.

?I play forward because I love to score,? he said.

Rangel said more goals are scored at the youth level than at the professional level because the participants at the youth level vary so much in ability, and also in age.

?We have guys and girls playing together, and sometimes we have 10-year-olds playing with 16-year-olds,? he said.

Stephany Recendez is 15 years old and has played organized soccer for the past seven years. She said she wouldn?t mind a shorter commute to her next soccer match.

?It would be nice to have home games instead of going out of town all the time,? she said.

Recendez said her father, Fernando, coaches a soccer league for adults. Ryan said the adults used to share the space at Stewart, often waiting until the youth soccer teams finished until they could take the field.

Washington Schools Athletic Director Bryce Smeins said that the school is in the process of putting in an adult soccer field south of the high school softball diamond. He said it was seeded this past summer.

?Our intent is to play there in the spring if we can,? Smeins said. ?It depends on the weather over the winter. The grass may or may not come in by the spring.?               Smeins said he was happy to learn that there will be more soccer fields north of town next year.

?The more grass areas we have to play on the better,? he said. ?To be able to get a couple more fields some place is awesome.?