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Kids
in Danville and across central Illinois have a first-class
soccer complex for practice and play. Planning work
began in 1994, with consensus building, gathering community
support, and beginning fundraising efforts. The site
is centrally located on Winter Avenue in Danville, on
land leased from the City of Danville and Danville School
District #118. At the beginning the land was brush covered
rolling hills snarled with vines and choked with debris.
Over the next four years of architect drawings, site
work, earth moving, and seeding, the Danville Area Soccer
Complex grew from the dream stage to reality.
The
complex opened with formal dedication ceremonies on
September 12, 1998. A parachute jumper brought the flag
and the ceremonial "first ball". There were speeches,
the DHS marching band, soccer games (including adult
v kids). The complex is a fully irrigated 8-field sports
facility with pavilions, 2 lighted fields, concessions
and restrooms, utility shed, and paved parking lots
for 800 cars. Work goes on with field maintenance and
finishing touches.
The
project was funded entirely by donations and grants
generated in the local community from families, friends,
businesses, corporations and local foundations, and
from US Soccer, with a helping hand from the State.
Almost all of the work of construction and maintenance
was and is done by local contractors and labor union
volunteers.
The
scale of the complex is surprising. Over 90 thousand
yards of earth were moved to terrace the fields. It
took 2000 bales of wheat straw to mulch the grass seed
over the 16 acres of the complex. The irrigation system
has 3500 feet of main line pipe, and about a half mile
of pipe in each field. There are 232 sprinkler heads
in the fields, and 32 control valves. 8 miles of underground
wire control the valves. There are 26 aluminum soccer
goals, 60 corner flags, and about 8600 feet of sideline
on the soccer fields. The entire enterprise, with a
budget of about a million dollars, was done without
incurring any debt whatsoever.
The
complex is now home to Danville Soccer Association,
which provides recreational soccer opportunity for 1500
kids aged 4-14 from all communities of Vermilion County
(and a few from Iroquois and Edgar). Each soccer weekend
there are more than 60 games at the complex in DSA alone.
Travel teams of the Central Illinois Youth Soccer league
play matches there several weekends per year, and Danville
High School Men and Women, First Baptist Men and Women,
Schlarman Men practice and play there. Danville Area
Community College men play and practice at the complex,
too. The annual Clash at the Border Competitive Tournament
hosts about 77 teams from 5 surrounding states.
The
Danville Area Soccer Complex is a focal point for youth
soccer in the entire area. Residents from throughout
the county meet weekly during soccer season, with teams
competing with teams from Hoopeston to Chrisman, and
everywhere in between.
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