By STEPHANIE BUNKER
Moapa Valley Progress
Parks and Recreation has opened the Fine Arts Building at the Logandale Fairgrounds to anyone who wants to play a little indoor soccer. The club meets on Thursday afternoons from 3:30-5:50. With a special weighted ball and flexible goals they are able to play the game indoors and stay cooler during the hot summer days.
Myrna Foster is the adult in charge of this indoor soccer club. She stresses that this activity remains unstructured and allows kids to play the game however they choose.
“We wanted kids to come play without an adult telling them what to do,” said Foster. “Kids don’t have enough unstructured time now days.”
Foster said that the goal for the new program is to have kids come in and just enjoy playing the game together without having to be told what to do.
The Soccer Club is open for anyone who wants to go participate. Foster has observed that most of the kids feel more comfortable when they bring a friend to play with them. “Most of the time we will get kids in pairs or in groups of 4,” she explained.
So far the club has had a few consistent kids show up but Parks and Rec staff hopes more will come to play.
The kids set up different kinds of teams, such as boys vs girls or age-based divisions where teenagers play each other and younger kids play each other.
Foster explained that equipment is available to set up several different courts in the building.
“Or if we have a bunch of teenagers that want to play we can make one big court,” said Foster.
She did warn that when they have played boys vs girls, the boys have had to really step it up if they wanted to win against the determined girls.
Foster is also the coach of a Parks and Rec soccer team. She said by the end of the season some of the kids asked, “What can we do now?” They want to continue playing the game. This club gives those kids the opportunity to play during the hot summer, she said.
