HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-08-03, Page 22 News Record • Wednesday, August 3, 2016
Local competitive soccer team gets second place in Toronto area tournament
Justine Alkema
Clinton News Record
A local soccer team has
achieved second place at a
tournament for the highest
league soccer for their age
group. The team, consisting
of youth born in 2003, is a
part of Huron FC, the com-
petitive soccer league for
Huron County. They are
under the umbrella of the
London Athletic Club (LAC),
They played in a large
tournament in Georgetown
on July 22 - 24. The LAC
Spartans made it to the finals
but lost in a close game.
"We were playing Toronto
area teams," said Huron FC
manager Annie Sparling.
"The LAC club has around
365 players; 65 of those are
from Huron County. We
played clubs with 500 to
1000 kids and still came in
second, so that was cool."
Huron FC started two
years ago to provide an
opportunity for higher level
soccer in the county.
"It's pretty exciting for
Huron players to have this
level of soccer available,"
said Sparling. "Our local sys-
tem is good, but it's very cas-
ual; it doesn't allow kids with
gifts for soccer to advance:'
This summer, the league
joined the LAC to provide
more opportunity for their
players. This is their first
summer providing outdoor
soccer (they usually do
indoor soccer called futsal,)
so some of their teams
weren't quite big enough;
combining with London
gives them enough players.
Team members from the
LAC Spartans are half from
Huron County and half from
London.
In London, there are doz-
ens of competitive soccer
clubs. People pay upwards of
$2000 per season to have
their children play with great
teams and great coaches.
Before Huron FC, Huron
didn't have any competitive
clubs, which shocked
coaches from London. It was
The LAC Spartans with their trophies for coming second in the highest league soccer for their age group in Georgetown.
an "untapped market" at the
time. In only two years,
Huron FC already has 65
kids in the league. Experi-
enced coaches from London
come up twice a week to
train Huron FC players.
The club will be hosting a
training camp on the Lower
Contributed photo
Christian Soccer Field in
Clinton from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
on August 9 -12.
Skate park, splash pad and new play equipment groups to work together to revitalize Clinton Community Park
Justine Alkema
Clinton News Record
Three groups have come
forward with ideas on how to
improve Clinton Commu-
nity Park by the Clinton
Raceway.
The first group was the
skate park committee. This
group came forward last
summer. There used to be a
skate park on the location,
but the equipment was run
down and unsafe, so it was
taken down. The concrete
pad the equipment was on
remains, and a small group
of local parents got together
with the intention to add
new equipment on the pad.
This group had it in mind to
eventually refurbish the
entire park, which works
well with what happened
next.
A couple months ago,
Linda Renkema, founder
and director of Room2Grow
in Clinton, came to council
with the idea to build a
splash pad at the park.
Council seemed to particu-
larly like this idea; several
council members said they
would personally prefer a
splash pad to a skate park,
however they still liked the
idea of the skate park, and
the skate park committee
was the first to come forward
and receive both permission
and monetary assistance
from council.
Also recently came a third
woman named Jennifer Cox.
Cox told council in a letter
that she is interested in put-
ting together a playground
committee to add new
equipment to the park such
as swings, slides and
benches.
"The presence of young
children and parents at such
a location might prevent the
skate park from becoming a
`hangout' which has
deterred other community
members from making use
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of the space," she wrote. "I
am willing to participate in a
committee to promote and
fundraise, possibly alongside
the skate park committee."
Council had to decide how
to approach these initiatives.
To be sure, they wanted to
support them. Councillor
Metzger expressed at one
meeting that during his time
as a councillor, this was the
first time he had seen such a
strong grass-roots initiative
by people in the community.
That was something they
wanted to encourage.
They discussed the issue
at length at a strategic plan-
ning committee meeting at
the beginning of June. They
ultimately decided that the
three groups should work
together.
First, all three groups had
expressed interest in work-
ing together. Also, they fig-
ured that the community
might be more willing to
support a bigger, more
encompassing project. It
would also grow the size of
each committee as the skate
park committee, which is the
most established, has strug-
gled to find volunteers and
get the community involved.
All the new equipment could
also hypothetically be con-
structed around the same
time after the money is
raised, which could prevent
the park from becoming a
construction zone for a few
years.
Thus far, council support
has included two councillors
to sit on the skate park com-
mittee and $30,000 towards
the project.
Clinton Community Park.
Justine Alkema/Clinton News Record