Carman Valley Leader-Making a “pitch” for soccer fieldsFacilities needed to cope with growth

By Gene Still


The growth of soccer’s popularity in Carman has led to local recreation officials making a “pitch” to expand the number of available soccer fields in town. Tara Brennan, general manager of the Carman-Dufferin Recreation Commission, said they are in the process of working towards adding to the community’s available soccer pitches or fields. “Over the last couple of years, soccer has grown and those numbers will continue to increase so we’re in desperate need of more soccer pitches,” Brennan said. Robin Cox, coach of the Carman Blues’ squad that competes in a female city league, founded the local soccer program in 1988 with 15 players. And Cox noted how since that time it’s grown to the point that this current season there are approximately 250 players from youth to adult, playing the sport in the community. However the increase in the number of available fields has not kept up with the increase in players. Essentially the town only has one “true regulation” field and that’s on the far east side of Carman Collegiate. The other pitches, at Sunnyside, Dufferin Christian School and another near the baseball diamonds on the collegiate grounds, are not regulation. Brennan said the rec. commission is well aware that this situation needs to change. “It’s huge because as a community the size of Carman, to be in the position to have to turn kids away or force older teams to consider playing home games elsewhere, is not the situation we want to be in,” Brennan said. “It’s so important that we get (more) fields up and going.” Complicating matters is the fact that Recreation doesn’t own any land for soccer. But Brennan said they’re planning to change that by beginning preliminary negotiations with a landowner about the possible purchase of 12 acres. However she was quick to note, that talks have only just begun and there remain many factors to be decided such as lighting, parking, hydro, surveying the land and the final price tag. “It’s hard to predict, because we’re in the process of just looking at the land and surveying and figuring out exactly what we will need,” Brennan said. A local soccer coach and past-president of the Carman Minor Soccer Association, Kelly Gerbrandt, welcomed the push to create more pitchs for the sport. “It’s been a couple of years that minor soccer numbers have been increasing,” Gerbrandt said. “There’s an obvious need for more space. “If you want to develop kids’ skills and keep them coming out, you need to provide places to play.” Brennan added, that while they haven’t set a formal deadline, they are working to solve the problem as soon as possible. Once they’ve decided on their plans, they will approach the councils for Carman and the Rural Municipality of Dufferin, for funding. Additional sources of money will come via grant applications and future fund-raising projects.