Cenovus Energy Superior Refinery provided new field goals outside Cooper Elementary. This is a huge step forward to help young athletes looking to practice closer to home in Superior. In fact, the Superior Soccer Association is excited to have their teams practice there soon.
Sara Shuster, the Superior Soccer Association’s president said it’s a relief having a dedicated practice space for the players.
“Last year we started a tournament team for soccer in Superior. We had never had one before. A bunch of our kids had been going to Duluth to play. We were playing teams like Hermantown, Cloquet, and we were just thinking, like, why doesn’t Superior have a travel team?” Shuster said. “We just started kind of small. Then this year it just kind of took off and we ended up with nine travel teams, five rec teams. We have 140 kids in the travel program and then another 60 in the rec program. All of a sudden we realized that there’s no place to practice. So we were kind of scrambling, looking for some field space.”
Shuster said the new soccer field goals will benefit all of Superior providing a hub for soccer, lacrosse, and other sports.
“Then we had to fund nets and benches and make it a safe space with some of the holes and things like that, which was also a challenge for a newer organization with the travel program. It’s just great that there is this big huge field that’s now being used to accommodate all the kids in the community.”
“We’re also always accepting new kids. We have a fall league. That registration starts just in two weeks here. We always have 300 or so kids do that. But, you know, it’ll be helpful for all the sports to be able to recruit. Having a big complex like this is going to make it easier for us to have more longer term sustainability in terms of financial goals. We will be able to host a tournament here if we want to, which we’ve never really had any place where we could do that. But now we can bring multiple teams to this one area.”
Soccer plays a huge role with bringing the community of superior together. Several members of University of Wisconsin-Superior’s Women’s Soccer Team helped set up the new field to get more kids involved with the sport. Lindrey Schendel, Brenna Mattson, and Niya Wilson, said they wished there was a soccer field in Superior when they first started.
“I think being able to see how many people came and helped. Even the kids starting to play on it right as we got the goals up,” Schendel said. It’s just fun to see that everybody who came and showed up is excited about it. And it’ll be fun to just watch it help grow the enjoyment for the sport.”
The Superior Soccer Association also has a fall league, and the registration starts in just two weeks. Many kids in Superior start playing soccer when they’re young. Alexa Mooney said when she got started she made so many new friends and she can’t wait to play soccer this summer.
“it’s just an amazing sport. And I think, firstly, I think it’s the best sport. And most people around the world like it. So they should just come try it. the experience is just awesome. Like, if you don’t have any friends in that team, you’re going to make friends. Because the team is awesome. There’s just…it’s all fun.”
For more information about the Superior Soccer Associations you can read more here. Also for other stories happening in Superior you can read more here.
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