Garden City Soccer Club: MY SITE NEWS
Soccer Club Strong After 30 Years
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Thursday, June 7, 2007
By TIM SMITH
Staff Writer
From sticker-covered mini vans to multiple games going on simultaneously at Maplewood Community Center, there's never been a better time to be a soccer mom or dad in Garden City.
Young soccer players have it pretty good, too.
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The 30th anniversary of Garden City Soccer Club is another prime example that the sport indeed is becoming a recreational juggernaut in the western Wayne County city.
"It's funny," said longtime club member Bill Torni, who coaches varsity boys and girls soccer at Garden City High School. "Soccer mom is a cliche but it really is a fact of life. The parents really get involved, it's more involved than any other sport that I know of.
". . .And it seems like it keeps going and going. There's always a new wave of people at the soccer club."
That involvement within the community brings a smile to the face of "soccer mom" Debbie Wiesner of Garden City, a seventh-year board member who now is the club's referee assignor.
And the fact 90 soccer families (and about 280 people) attended the club's recent family night at Livonia Recreation Center - one of the many events going on to celebrate 30 years of dedication to youth soccer - underscores Wiesner's assertion that "Soccer in Garden City is huge."
Another big night was May 18, when current Garden City Soccer Club players formed a welcoming tunnel before the Garden City Cougars' "Senior Night" contest against Redford Union.
COMMUNITY CONNECTION
In a few years, the younger kids might be on the varsity field themselves.
And why not? Torni, who has been a board member, coach and referee among other duties with Garden City Soccer Club over the years noted that virtually every high school player has played for the soccer club at some point.
"The ultimate reward is seeing those girls when they play on the big field with those high school colors on," said Wiesner, whose 14-year-old daughter Mariah will be a ninth grader next fall. "And parents coming up and thanking us for what we did (in their children's soccer development). It's just phenomenal."
Founded in the mid-1970s by the Savastano family, and nurtured by early board members such as Dave and Lisa Morrow, Cathy Aldrich, Todd Smith and Ron Carr, the Garden City Soccer Club started taking root and is now firmly planted in the hearts of the community.
Also firmly planted is the club mission statement, to help kids learn and grow as soccer players and young people first - and worry about winning second.
"We have a player development philosophy," Wiesner explained. "Our mission statement is just key, providing a soccer program and fostering a love for and respect for the game of soccer. We truly believe in that passion."
It's a passion that keeps growing, with combined enrollment of more than 300 players in three divisions: ages 5 and up, in house leagues; travel teams (ages 9 and up); and Select teams for advanced players.
Wiesner said there can be six games going on at the same time on the Maplewood field. There also are regular games over at Rotary Park, Manor Park and Radcliffe Field. But she remembers what it was like her very first year with the club.
"When my daughter started kindergarten, it wasn't like you saw a lot of soccer," Wiesner said. "In second grade, she brought a flyer home one day and said she wanted to play. So we signed her up. But we received a phone call and they said 'We have your daughter on a team, but the team can't play if you guys don't coach.'
"I handed the phone to my husband (Jeff Wiesner, who still coaches a U14 team in the club) and said, 'Here you go.' From that day forward we've been dedicated, loyal and just crazy about this club. Now, it's soccer everywhere."
The team they coached that year played "from fence-to-fence outside here at Maplewood, which is a huge field," another illustration of how the Garden City Soccer Club's collective footprint has really sunk in over the past several years.
Firmly planted in the roots of a community, the club now starts marching forward toward the next milestone.
tsmith@hometownlife.com | (734) 953-2106
