NEW BRITAIN New Britain Soccer Club will hold opening day meet and greet on Sunday 21st Aprilcent at Willowbrook Park at 1 p.m. Registration for the season is now closed. More than 300 athletes, ages 3 to 18, will participate in both grassroots recreational and competitive travel programs this spring. Over the past few seasons, we have experienced tremendous growth and have big plans for soccer in New Britain. Our motto is “We're more than just a club, we're a community.” We are excited to share this news with New Britain residents and spread the word that the “new” New Britain Soccer Club is here. we are proud. And we are ready to take our place among other respected youth sports organizations in the city.
Please come and see the program for yourself or contact us if you have any questions.
Our club is part of a long history of youth soccer in New Britain. Around 1999 or 2000, the city built a concession stand in Willowbrook Park, tucked away on the soccer field behind New Britain High School. Essentially an artificial island surrounded by Willowbrook, the park has served as the home of Willowbrook Park. It has been a soccer club ever since. Over the years, various club directors and volunteer committees have left, and mismanagement has caused the club to lose its affiliation with the state's youth soccer governing body, the Connecticut Junior Soccer Association (CJSA). Membership in the CJSA links a town's club to the U.S. Youth Soccer Network, allowing it to register players, provide insurance, and organize competitions and leagues among towns in Connecticut. In 2020, what little remained of the former New Britain Youth Soccer League was completely disbanded due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But a skeletal staff of dedicated volunteers has kept the club on life support, providing children with much-needed opportunities for outdoor recreational activities amidst the challenging environment of social distancing and mask-wearing mandates. worked tirelessly. Through their efforts, the club eventually re-affiliated with CJSA and was revived.
In its current form, New Britain Soccer Club is a very young program, having only been officially established in 2022. In the CJSA's central district, Berlin, Newington, Wethersfield, West He competes with neighboring clubs such as Hartford and Glastonbury. The latter was founded in 1971 and has been in continuous operation for over 50 years, making it one of New England's oldest and largest youth soccer organizations. We believe New Britain has the potential to rise to the level of one of the strongest youth soccer programs in the state. Our city has young people with amazing athletic abilities and parents who desperately need a safe place, completely free of electronics, to leave their kids for a few hours to get energy in a constructive way. It's full of people.
There is clearly a demand for soccer as a youth athletic activity in New Britain. In addition to the religious status of this beautiful game within New Britain's globally diverse community, driving this popularity are the active and exciting nature of the sport, its relative safety, simplicity and restrictions. There are no rules and little equipment required. Still, the game requires expensive space infrastructure that creates unequal disparities based on the economic status of families and communities. As a result, youth soccer has largely moved to a pay system. Kids with the means to do so are primarily attracted to expensive soccer programs in the suburbs, but cities struggle to make these fundamentals available. As a result of this system, children are denied the opportunity to participate competitively in one of America's fastest growing sports.
To overcome this gap, New Britain Soccer Club aims to make quality soccer programs available to the city's youth. With soccer as our inspiration, we have expanded outward from athletics to develop a comprehensive program that includes support for the development of essential skills such as academics, fitness and nutrition, emotional intelligence, leadership, and college readiness. did.
The growth over the last few seasons has snowballed into a larger group of hard-working volunteers than ever before who have begun to properly manage and organize the club. Also arriving were many talented parents, former athletes and soccer-minded people who made up the volunteer coaching staff. The challenge we now face is to continue this growth and we need further support from the local community. And we believe it's time for the city to invest, both publicly and privately, in the best-in-class soccer infrastructure needed to keep our children safe. Rain or shine, in the darkness of late fall or the bright summer sun, everyone has a safe place to play that they can be proud of.
The City of New Britain and its Department of Parks, Recreation, and Community Development are strong partners of the club, always willing to assist us by providing access to the city's parks and amenities, while the Department of Public Works maintains the field with the utmost care. we have. We have also recently received support from a variety of nonprofit and community organizations, including grants from the Mayor's Trophy Charitable Fund and the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain, which will allow us to continue practices and games into the evening. They helped me purchase a portable lighting system. time. Local businesses such as Liberty Tax and King's Car Wash are also participating as sponsors and fundraising partners. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our community partners, but we still need to keep the ball moving.