By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



The newest area sports club officially kicks off today, with 89 young athletes ready to play.

Children in the North Jefferson Soccer Club (NJSC) play their first games today at the Kimberly Soccer Complex, the former Kimberly ball fields.

Donnie Gooch of Kimberly started the NJSC. He received approval in November from the Kimberly Town Council to convert the town’s ball fields to soccer fields.

“Right now everything is in place,” said Gooch.

The 89 kids are divided into six U6 (under 6 years old) teams, four U8 teams and four U10-U12 teams.

His children, Chloe, 8, and Eli, 6, play on NJSC teams.

Besides youth soccer clubs in Gardendale and Hayden, NJSC is the only soccer club in the area, Gooch said.

He said that his organization is more convenient for families in Kimberly, Morris, Warrior, Trafford and other nearby towns, thus the reason he chose the name North Jefferson Soccer Club.

“Now it’s convenient for them,” he said. “Now they can call it their own.”

For the NJSC’s first season, there will be no travel. Gooch said that all games this year will be played at the Kimberly Soccer Complex.

He added that traveling is a possibility in the future.

“My goal is to build a strong rec group, but also a competitive group that can travel,” Gooch said. “It really depends on the numbers.”

Gooch said he would like to see NJSC teams playing soccer at the middle-school level by fall 2009.

“But before you have a middle-school or high-school program, you’ve got to have a rec program,” he said. “It will take three to five years for the kids to grow through the program and have the skills to play at the upper level.”

In the meantime, with about three weeks of practice under their belts, NJSC teams are scheduled to play seven games today on the newly-converted fields.

Gooch said that the soccer fields will make it through this season, but they will need some work in the future.

“In baseball, the grass doesn’t get touched, but soccer is brutal on grass” he said. “The grass will hold up through May. But to get the fields ready for next season will take a lot of money.”

Gooch said that he has over-seeded the fields to get them ready.

Also, he and volunteers have moved several hundred feet of fence, removed dugouts and pressboxes, changed light bulbs and done other work.

“I’ve tried to make it not look like a ball park,” Gooch said. “Everything is old, but it’s starting to look more like a place to play soccer.”

For more information about the NJSC, go to www.njsoccerclub.com.