Minor soccer gets new professional sized fields

Posted on: J A McRae

Shannon LeClair – Times Reporter

Members of the Strathmore Minor Soccer Federation, or any soccer players really, will have a new field to look forward to in the new season.  For three years, the talk of building two new full sized soccer fields has been in the works. The new fields will be located behind Walmart, just east of the Ranch Estates. As part of the next development stage there will also be a road which divides the fields. “We had some land originally at the northwest corner of the agricultural society, that they were going to lease to us to develop and that sort of fell through. Then last October, the town and developers working in that area (behind Walmart) were required to have a percentage of the property green space, and someone on council knew we were looking for it and offered it to us and we’ve just been kind of working through things since then,” said Mark Shorhen, president of Strathmore Minor Soccer.  The fields will be roughly 80 yards by 100 yards, and they can split into four fields for the younger teams. Fundraising for the field has been an ongoing thing, Shorhen said. They received a grant for $100,000, but the final costs may be double that amount.

Full irrigation will be put into the field, and Eagle Lake Sod is donating enough sod for one full field.

“They (the town) have given us about a 90 day time frame to get everything done, the irrigation and the sod, and by the end of August the fields will be ready to walk on, not to play on, but we’ll be able to have the grand opening,” said Shorhen. The new fields won’t eliminate Parkwood because there are so many teams, said Shorhen, but it will alleviate having to play on poorly maintained fields.  Tenders for the project are to be signed sometime in the next few days, and there wont be a ground breaking ceremony but there will be a big grand opening when the fields are ready.