ROCKWOOD ‒ Local soccer club Rockwood FC is expecting to swell in numbers and has turned to council for additional support ahead of next season.
When asked what the maximum number of players the club can accommodate, director Kim Pullen-Ripley said that while they’ve never turned anyone away, the group’s biggest restriction is field usage.
The group currently has 561 registered players and over 100 volunteers divided between the Marden/Royal Distributing Athletic Performance Center, and the Drexler Sports Fields.
“We’re expecting to see, as the community grows, increased usage for both the facility at Marden and at Drexler fields,” said Kim, during a council meeting in Guelph/Eramosa.
Sharing his support for the group, Mayor Chris White suggested that staff investigate how much a set of lights for the main field would cost as a way to stretch the facility's usage.
The facility is currently used four times per week.
“My objective is to get as much field use as possible,” said White. “Beyond that, moving forward…it seems like lights just make a lot of sense to me because it can build out what you can do.”
President, Stephen Pullen was enthused at the idea as Rockwood FC is currently one of the only soccer clubs that doesn’t hold tournaments.
“Part of the reason (we don’t run tournaments now) is because you have to play night games as well as the day,” said Stephen. “(Getting lights on the main field) opens up the doors for us to promote our own tournaments and bring in other clubs and agencies.”
White agreed that the group is essential the the “cross-pollination of communities” and bringing additional foot traffic to local businesses.
“The initial objective behind expanding that park was pressure from soccer groups since we don’t have the big arenas or facilities that other municipalities have,” said White. “We’ve got a downtown that we’re trying to figure out how to boost and by having people remain in the community to play soccer, hopefully, they will do a little bit of shopping downtown too.”
Stephen also believes the soccer club will help put Rockwood on the map, sharing that seven or eight years ago, when the group’s first technical director took a team to Ottawa, Rockwood was virtually unknown.
“They had no idea who we were and yet the team won the tournament,” said Stephen. “If my legacy were to be anything, we would get lights and then start promoting Rockwood and its reputation across the province.”
Staff were directed to look into how much one set of lights would cost for the main field.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
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