By Chris Wimmer
This past weekend I had the priveledge of taking my twelve year old daughter to play an "indoor" soccer match at quite possibly the worst indoor field in use in Virginia or for that matter the whole country.
Anyone who lives in the Northern Virginia area and participates in youth soccer will probably know about Frying Pan Park. It is in essence a 1950's style working farm that is mostly used for school field trips to introduce children to farming and animals. However, during the cold, rainy, and recently extremely snowy conditions it transforms into an indoor soccer field.
When I say transforms that is a bit of an overstatement. In acutality it is just a metal barn type building that looks as if it is meant for showing animals in a 4-H event rather than a suitable soccer field. It is all dirt and surrounded by a metal ranch fence.
It is hard for me to believe, that with facilities like the Dulles Sports Plex, and the indoor field located at South Run Park, that Frying Pan Park is even considered for paying league soccer games.
With as many youth soccer clubs in the Northern Virginia Area and the amount of money that goes into both running and participating in the local soccer scene how can it be that there are such limited facilites. I know there is tremendous cost that goes into building indoor soccer fields but isn't it a shame that our children are relegated to using a horse corral to participate in sports during the winter.
We do after all live in a seemingly steady economical area and although the economy is not very strong currently I have not seen a drop in the number of kids participating in youth soccer over the last five years that I have been involved.
Let me know if you have played, coached or been a lucky spectator at Frying Pan Park and what your opinion is.
Great Blog Chris, and oh so very true!
ReplyDeleteI agree that better facilities are needed but I disagree about Frying Pan. Most indoor facilities are by definition "indoor soccer" meaning a cross between soccer and hockey without the padding. Many injuries are suffered by crashing the boards and because the ground surface is covered concrete the balls move with much greater velocity. One of my daughters had her arm broken at one of the Indoor Plexes, it was nobody's fault in terms of unnecessary roughness but because of the speed of the ball. She's 10. While injuries can happen anywhere, this injury would not have happened outdoors. Most teams that play indoors have injured players at a much greater rate than outdoors.
ReplyDeleteFrying Pan, while cold and a dirt surface, is big enough to have "out of bounds" and the surface "gives" which is, in fact, "outdoor soccer." This makes it better practice for outdoor soccer and much safer for the kids.