Visit almost any park in Saskatoon this summer, you might spot a group of pint-sized players learning the basics of soccer.
Those venues include John Lake Park just off Broadway Avenue, where roughly a dozen kids got some touches on the grass, such as 11-year-old soccer fan Sonny Garcia-Fahlman.
“I like doing the drills to practice so I can get better and better at soccer,” said Garcia-Fahlman. “I meet new friends every time that I come here and I just get to be outside.”
Garcia-Fahlman is part of over 3,000 kids across Saskatoon who are participating in the 16th year of the ‘Kids in the Park’ program put on by Saskatoon Youth Soccer.
The program introduces kids to the sport over short, one-hour sessions that take place in 44 parks across the city and is completely free for participants and their families.
“It’s to get kids moving and playing when the weather is right, and not having to worry about any of those things,” said Saskatoon Youth Soccer technical lead Dan Kelly.
“They can just come out and enjoy themselves.”
O’Reilly Insurance and The Co-Operators are title sponsors for the program, with Declan O’Reilly committing to at least another five years of funding Kids in the Park.
A fan of soccer all his life, he said the community park is where the love of the game begins.
“This is where it all starts, kids playing in the park kicking the ball around,” said O’Reilly. “As a young soccer player back in Ireland we would start the soccer game on a Saturday morning at 9:00 and continue playing all the way through 9:00 that evening with people just coming and going, coming and going. So this is just reminiscent of that.”
This summer’s program coincides with the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, where Canada’s superstars are drawing even more attention to the pitch — something that Kelly said is helping to drive interest towards programming like theirs.
“That success at the top sort of drives down growth at the grassroots levels,” said Kelly. “So we see that, we see girls coming out wanting to play like Christine Sinclair or Diana Matheson. A shout out to a local as well in Kaylyn Kyle as another one that they mention, too.”
Just as importantly as the skill development, the program’s goal is to get kids moving while creating long-lasting friendships and breaking down barriers in sport.
“I like soccer so much because you get to score, tackle, dribble and do all sorts of things,” said 10-year-old Muna Ezuma.
Drop-ins are encouraged across all 44 parks through the summer, while the program runs until Aug. 17.