By Elizabeth Lowe
Staff writer
Goodrich – A drive along Gale and Hegel roads near Oaktree Elementary is usually leisurely.
Not so on soccer season Saturdays, when vehicles carrying Goodrich Recreational Soccer Club members jam the roadway. All trying to turn into the school drive. All hoping to find a parking space.
Like soccer organizations across the country, the Goodrich club is rapidly expanding.
‘We were told by the board of ed that soccer is one of the biggest things in town,? said club president Harry Flotemersch. ‘The only thing bigger in town is the school.?
Participants have more than doubled since the club began in the late 1990s. From 130 players, the club has grown to nearly 400 players, says Flotemersch.
To local club organizers, soccer’s widespread appeal means a generation of kids are getting off the couch and into the fresh air, learning to follow directions, operate as part of a team, and be good sports. While many use their soccer experience as a springboard to other interests, some remain in the sport, playing on a travel league or for Goodrich High School soccer teams.
He feels children don’t have to be genetically predisposed to being great soccer players, as is the case with other sports in which it’s difficult to succeed ‘if you’re not exceptionally tall or large or fast?.
The popularity of the sport’which is played in two seasons each year’also means fields are quickly depleted.
‘In spring and fall we’re wearing out the grass like mad,? said Flotemersch. ‘We estimate that 20,000 hours a year somebody’s running on a field.?
Unlike nearby soccer organizations operating through municipal recreation departments, the club is on its own, relying solely on volunteers and borrowed fields.
The club uses fields at nearly every school in the Goodrich district, along with fields on loan at area churches but it’s not enough.
‘You can get 20 families moving to Goodrich, and all of a sudden you need two more teams,? said Flotemersch.
Despite the school district’s generosity, club officials know the growing organization will soon need to branch beyond school boundaries.
‘The school system has been wonderful about allowing us to play on school property,? said Rick Kurkechian, soccer club field coordinator. ‘But even they are running out of green pastures.?
‘We’re lacking the land to satisfy growth,? said Goodrich schools athletic director Al Martus, speaking to the Goodrich-Atlas Chamber of Commerce at the group’s June 14 meeting. ‘We are the only school that lets the community use the fields.?
‘We believe it is an important time for us to look to the future,? says Flotemersch. ‘If we don’t, club growth will have to slow due to growing field and infrastructure needs of the club. With the 700 plus parents involved in the Goodrich soccer club alone, we feel we can work with the school and community to make a difference for the future.?
The club is developing remnant corners of land as practice fields, but is seeking gifts of land or use of fields in the area.
‘We’re not saying we’re looking for land just for soccer,? says Flotemersch, who hopes to see the development of a community recreational complex in the Atlas Township area. ‘We envision this to be for all sports.?
The $90 sign-up fee paid by each player doesn’t cover the cost of running the volunteer-staffed club, which holds a pizza fund-raiser which raises $3,000 to $5,000 each year to supplement the cost of uniforms, quality goals and equipment, maintaining fields, and training players and volunteers.
Volunteers are desperately needed for the growing club, says Flotemersch. Until recently, soccer hasn’t been a well-known American sport. Moms and dads’lacking first-hand knowledge’are hesitant to help.
‘Parents might be uncomfortable helping, but there’s a whole bunch of other things to organize,? Flotemersch said. The club also has videotapes, and brings in soccer experts to help train coaches and assistants.
Learning to run the organization has been a learn-as-you-go process for most club officials, including the president, who was recruited as a coach literally at the last minute.
‘Somehow I just got volunteered by my wife, and four years later I’m running an organization with a $20,000 to $30,000 budget,? said Flotemersch.
‘I’m a professional problem solver at DaimlerChrysler, but this has been a challenge. I never thought of (needing fields and volunteers) before when I was playing sports. It was just there.?

Club officials encourage parents to sign their children up for soccer this month, before teams fill up to avoid having to get on a waiting list.

Donations of land or equipment are badly needed. Club officials say they’d love to name a recreational complex after a community philanthropist.

The club is also in desperate need of volunteers. No experience is necessary; training is available.

Other donations, such as a mobile sprinkler donated by the Goodrich Lions Club, are also welcome.

More club details can be found at http://www.goodrichsoccerclub.com.