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Kensington Soccer Club hosted the ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday afternoon for their brand-new outdoor soccer court. The project was a collaboration between several organizations, which I wrote about here.
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The court took just one day to complete, which happened last Wednesday, October 12th. Street Soccer CEO Lawrence Cann said that he arrived at the site and began work around 8:15am, and it was completed by 5pm that day. Much of the labor was done by community volunteers. The surface is a system of interlocking tiles, made of a durable plastic, seen below:
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Location is of the utmost importance for more reasons than just having enough space to construct it. Street Soccer USA’s ideal condition is that their courts be near as many residences as possible. This makes a lot of sense since the purpose is for people to use it, therefore it should be convenient to get to. The current location is not exactly that ideal, but Jasper Street is a common route for kids walking home from the nearby Northeast Catholic High School, as well as the Erie-Torresdale Station of the Market-Frankford Line. It also happens to be adjacent to the commercial lot owned by local boxing superstar, Danny “Swift” Garcia. The WBC welterweight champion was on hand to kick-off the court, photos of which can be checked out on Kensington Soccer Club’s Facebook page.
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The court will be used by Kensington Soccer Club for their instruction, but mostly it will be used for children to have a structured place to play the game outside the confines of a league or coach-led organization. The lot has lights, which is necessary as the daylight is short this time of year.
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KSC President Jim Hardy said that the schedule for the court hasn’t been finalized yet. There are summer programs for KSC that are still ongoing, and they’ll begin some autumn ones. The exact times of the organized club activities hasn’t been nailed down yet. However they choose to utilize it, it can only be a positive development for youth soccer in Philadelphia.