Morningside Soccer’s 42nd Season
As I walked down to Heth’s Field on the morning of August 13, I was genuinely surprised by the sight of a large group of children gathering to play soccer. My surprise was concerning to me for two reasons - the first is that I was walking my own children, clad in cleats and shinguards, down to the field to join the crowd for the first-of-the-season players clinic of Morningside Soccer and the second is that I, along with a team of parent volunteers, had been working for months to make this very thing a reality.
Up until that moment of seeing the kids at the field, however, the concept of Morningside Soccer was just a growing list of numbers in my head:
For the past 42 years, Morningside Soccer has given kids in this neighborhood and the surrounding area a place to play the sport and have fun doing it.
For the past 14 years, Morningsiders Amber and Erin Lambert have been involved in the league and ran it for the past 4.
Last season, the Lamberts made the difficult decision to step down and about 15 parents committed to keeping the league going and had 3 months to do it.
1 mom of three and ER nurse, Steph Raufer, bravely and generously agreed to serve as league president and has tirelessly led us via a handful of Zoom meetings, many emails and a countless number of Google documents.
175 kids ages 5-16 are on this season’s roster
25 parents volunteered to coach
10 other parents are serving in other vital roles including fundraising, concessions and field set-up/maintenance
3 player clinics were held at Heth’s Field and we hosted 1 coaches clinic led by Hotspurs Soccer Club
14 local businesses and organizations are kindly supporting the league through sponsorships which enable us to keep the player registration fee as low as possible, buy the equipment/supplies we need for the season and help a few families out by offering them soccer scholarships.
Organizing a youth soccer league involves a lot of numbers, but, as I was reminded that morning walking with my kids to Heth’s, the reason for all of it is the KIDS. Starting the week of September 5, a whole bunch of really cool kids will be playing soccer at Natoli Field on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights from 6-9 p.m. through October. Stop by even if you don’t have a kid playing. Grab something from the concession stand, cheer for whoever’s playing and you’ll probably bump into a neighbor before you head home.
- Beth Vassallo
