U.S. Soccer Expanding in Fayette County with the Enhancement of Five Fields at McCurry Park

U.S. Soccer, Fayette County and the Fayette County Youth Soccer League celebrated their partnership this week to enhance five fields and the facilities at McCurry Park South in Fayetteville.

In addition to speeches to dedicate the fields, a kids' soccer clinic followed with some of the players on the US Women's U19 national team who are training at the facility this week.

"I've been out here almost every month, every week, so it's been fantastic seeing it from the very beginning when we first started all the way through the process of the refurbishment," said Chelle Adams, the Chief Financial Officer of U.S. Soccer. "The best part was today of actually seeing people who haven't seen it since we had actually made the investment, so that was really exciting to see that."

The new fields help improve the conditions for the community as well as provide a high-quality training environment for U.S. Soccer's Youth and Extended National Teams, creating more opportunities for them to get on the ground near their new home at the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center which will open next year.

As JT Batson, U.S. Soccer's CEO, spoke to the crowd on Wednesday, he shared how much this project means to him personally. Batson said that Fayette County Youth Soccer League president Bryan McDermott played an massive role in his soccer journey, and as he brought him up to speak, got choked up.

"Obviously, I have seen the fields while they're being upgraded, but being here with some of the people that helped make it happen and helped my own soccer career happen was pretty cool and very surreal," said Batson.

Bryan McDermott, who is the president of the Fayette County Youth Soccer League, has seen the growth of the sport here in Georgia first hand. With U.S. Soccer building their home here in Georgia, this will help expand the sport at all levels, including the grassroots level.

"Right here on this field in January, there was a MLS NEXT game and the kid scored the winning goal late in the game. He celebrated by doing a knee slide. If he tried that a year ago, he would not have knees," joked McDermott. "That's when I was like, wow, this is really fantastic."

There is a lot of history at McCurry Park and the celebration was an opportunity to look back and see how far soccer has come here in the U.S. and in Georgia.

"I have many wonderful memories here, some not so great memories of Ricardo Clark, who was one of the all time great players for AFC Lightning. He was my year, and we played AFC every year. I distinctly remember at the McCurry fields over there, I was marking him, he made a move and probably 35 yards out, left me in the dust and buried a shot in the top corner. I was like, 'Man, maybe I should try refereeing or something because this guy's pretty good.'"

"It's big. You might not think of it. It's like, well they're the national team people, you don't ever see them, but you'll find at a higher level, there'll be influences. Right now, our referee program, we had a ref clinic with Kari Seitz (U.S. Soccer Vice President of Refereeing), stuff like that," said McDermott. "It's so much easier to get that kind of access, and that's gonna help right down to the little kids because everybody's getting more education going down the road."

Batson has so many fond memories of playing at McCurry Field and playing the beautiful game, and that is why he wanted to play a role with U.S. Soccer, to continue to grow the game at all levels.

"There are millions of people across the country who believe that soccer is a force for good, who are like the folks here who have put their own time, their own money and their own energy to make it to where everyone can have access to the game, so how do we as U.S. Soccer be in service to those folks and support them in doing that? That's why I'm here," said Batson. "Of course, we wanna win things. We have a business to run, but ultimately, at its core, it's the people that are here. They're the reason why we're here and we want to help them achieve their soccer dreams."

📷: Sofia Cupertino