Expose Two

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Soccer in North Idaho

Sports is one of those activities that everyone knows about. When was the last time someone asked another “What’s football?” or “What is soccer?” Probably never in life. That is because recreational sports are all around the world, and go back deep in the history of society. But finding a certain type of sport in North Idaho is much harder than it seems. With districts, public school field regulations, payments for club teams, and limited recreational sports fields, it is near impossible to get on teams after the tween years.

First, there is basically only one way to disregard the regulations that people have in their district. Sting Timbers, also known North Timbers FC of North Thorns FC, is a club soccer team for North Idaho. Though the district regulations do not matter if wanting to try out for Sting, there is a price to play on their teams, unlike the city soccer varsity, or school teams (“Timbers- Thorns…”). Other than school teams this is basically the only club to get on without registration limits and regulations for each city. Sting is the only option that people have today for club soccer, and after combining with two other clubs, it did indeed become the only one in the area.

Sting started in 1985 as a non-profit soccer organization for little kids. A couple years after, Sting became a leading club in the northwest, and later joined with few other clubs to be the only one in the Northwest. “In May 2016, Sting Premier Soccer Club became the second club in Idaho and the ninth in the Northwest invited to join the Adidas Portland Timbers Alliance and Sting Timbers FC was formed” (“Timbers- Thorns...”). Sting was competing in soccer with around six other clubs in the area until Inferno was created by combining Thunder, Nighthawks, and Academy, these being a part of the six. “In May 2018, Sting and Inferno joined forces to become Timbers-Thorns North FC with 34 teams and 680 youth participating in U5-U19 age groups and developmental programs” (“Timbers- Thorns…”) So then, North Idaho only offered one club team with the many regulated district teams, which are difficult to join, especially if someone does not go to a school with a sports team.

There are a very limited amount of practice fields for those who do not participate in a soccer team. But thankfully, other than the Kroc Center, two other public fields are or have been set up. North Timbers is one of the two helping out the community with indoor as well as outdoor soccer fields for public access. “This week saw 160 yards of reinforced concrete poured... getting us well on our way to completed foundations for the 15,000 square foot TTNFC indoor soccer facility” (“From the Pitch”). Otherwise, Real life ministries is putting in an indoor soccer field for the public. We need to do something to let the taxpayers of North Idaho get what the public needs for their kids-public recreational sports.

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Sources

------------Thompson Mike. “From the Pitch”. TTNFC Monthly Newsletter, August 2018, https://mailchi.mp/5baad000c2f9/from-the-pitch-august-2018-news?e=[UNIQID]. Accessed October 30, 2018.

------------“Timbers- Thorns North FC”. North Timbers, https://www.timbersthornsnorthfc.com/. Accessed 31 October 2018.

------------“Welcome to the city of Coeur d'Alene Parks and Recreational Department”. City of Coeur d'Alene Idaho. https://www.cdaid.org/parks. Accessed 30 2018.