Blue Valley Soccer

The Blue Valley Soccer Club in Johnson County, Kansas, conducts a variety of soccer activities for kids. One of these is soccer leagues and tournaments. Many of my grandchildren play in these leagues and their teams frequently participate in some of the tournaments. This weekend, the team of my youngest grandson, 10 year old Alex, played in a Labor Day Weekend Tournament.

They lost their first game, but won their next two. I watched the game they lost, so I guess I'm not their "Good Luck Charm". Alex is in white wearing number 15 in the photos below.


















The tournament was played at the newly opened $31 million Overland Park Soccer Complex. I read about this new facility in the newspaper, but this was my first opportunity to see it up close. I was amazed: 12 full-sized soccer fields, which when cut in half for younger players, provides 24 soccer fields. The whole facility is covered with an advanced artificial turf of a type I've never seen.


The blades of "grass" are about an inch long. Then they spread little rubber pieces of ground-up auto tires on top of the turf, settling down between the blades of "grass". Alex scrapped up a handful of those little rubber pieces shown here.

When a soccer ball hits the turf or when a player pivots or makes a quick turn, a little black cloud of these rubber pieces "poof up" like a cloud of dust.

Development of this type of artificial turf is sure an improvement over artificial turf fields I've seen before. It's actually soft and bouncy to walk on. I guess that's what $31 million will buy.