Indoor Soccer US

Indoor Soccer for everyone: kids to masters, players, coaches or referees, fans or managers

BY KELLY LYELL - KellyLyell@coloradoan.com (Original article in www.coloradoan.com)

The city of Fort Collins is offering indoor youth soccer programs this winter for the first time.

Youths in grades 2-8 will be able to play 5-on-5 or 6-on-6 games on a new state-of-the art surface being installed on an indoor, hockey-shaped rink at O.D.'s Sports Crossing, 218 Smokey Street.

The new Fort Collins Indoor Soccer Club is going to lease the rink from O.D.'s and is paying roughly $100,000 for renovations that include an AstroTurf GameDay 3D playing surface, that the manufacturer said offers the durability and safety of artificial fields like those at Poudre School District's French Field and Colorado State University's Hughes Stadium without the need for as much of the rubber filling that gets into players' clothing and eyes.

"We've got the Cadillac of all turfs coming in," said Shannon Clarke, coach of the boys soccer team at Mountain View High School in Loveland and one of the founders of the Fort Collins Indoor Soccer Club. "It's going to be the best turf in the state, really."

O.D.'s has been offering inline hockey and indoor soccer since it opened 12 years ago but has seen demand for its soccer leagues dwindle with the opening of two other indoor facilities in the area - Edge Sports Center in northeast Fort Collins and Arena Sports on the outskirts of Windsor. O.D.'s has been using the old-style, three-eighths-of-an-inch thick artificial turf, the kind that could be rolled out quickly and pulled back up for indoor hockey tournaments, and co-owner Joe Olbrys said many soccer players told him they were drawn to the other two facilities by their better playing surfaces.

"This will be permanent," said Randy Ditton, O.D.'s general manager. "The turf's going down on one rink, and they (the Fort Collins Indoor Soccer Club) will offer turf sports year-round."

Olbrys said the agreement to provide indoor youth soccer, indoor soccer training camps, indoor youth football and inline hockey training camps and an adult ultimate Frisbee league at O.D.'s was in place before Clarke and his group came in and agreed to lease one of O.D.'s two rinks. The lease agreement, Olbrys said, calls for those programs to continue on the new surface, which is being installed Jan. 9.

The new youth soccer leagues will run for eight weeks, beginning the week of Jan. 21. Players register as individuals, for $73 apiece plus a $15 fee for a city of Fort Collins reversible green-and-gold jersey if needed, through the city.

"I've been in the area for 20-something years, and I've certainly done my fair share of playing there (at O.D.'s)," Clarke said. "It comes to a point where you need a soccer facility, run by soccer people, and in a facility that they can afford to play it in."

Teams will be formed by grade, with separate boys and girls divisions for those in grades 2-3, 4-5 and 6-8, said Marc Rademacher, a recreation supervisor for the city. The league is designed for younger players to develop skills and is not for advanced players, Rademacher said. Grades 2-3 will play on Monday evenings, and grades 4-8 will play on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings.

Mini- and Junior Rapids indoor soccer training programs for youths ages 4-10 will be held on the new surface on Sunday afternoons, Rademacher said.

The city is offering indoor football skills camps on Tuesday nights, leaving the facility available for the Fort Collins Indoor Soccer Club's adult leagues Wednesday through Friday nights and most of the day Saturday and Sunday.

"For years, I've been trying to figure out how to team up with the city, and we finally got it done," Olbrys said. "I think it will be nothing but a complement to what we already do."

Registration will be through the city, beginning at 8 a.m. Thursday online at fcgov.com, over the phone at 221-6655, by fax at 416-2278 or in person at the Northside Aztlan Community Center, 112 E. Willow Drive; Fort Collins Senior Center, 1200 Raintree Drive; Edora Pool Ice Center, 1801 Riverside Ave.; or Mulberry Pool, 424 W. Mulberry Street. Details are in the Winter/Spring edition of the Recreator, which is available now on the city's Web site, www.fcgov.com and will be distributed Tuesday to city recreation facilities and in that day's editions of the Coloradoan. .

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