A soccer-passionate part of Austin has a new court to play the sport and the project partners celebrated today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Through a partnership with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD), Soccer Assist, the U.S. Soccer Foundation, and financial contributions from the community, the Dove Springs Recreation Center now offers a new soccer/futsal court. Community support was coordinated by the Dove Springs Recreation Center in consultation with the Dove Springs Advisory Board. 

The court offers the neighborhood a new option for healthy play. This project was initiated as part of PARD’s Community Activated Parks Projects (CAPP) program, which offers a way for the community to initiate improvements on parkland. Soccer Assist, an Austin-based nonprofit organization, submitted a CAPP in October 2018 to transform an underused tennis court at the Dove Springs Recreation Center into a state-of-the-art soccer play space.

Notably, this will be the first U.S. Soccer Foundation mini-pitch collaboration in central Austin and part of 1,000 safe places to play mini-pitches that the U.S. Soccer Foundation is installing with partners across the country by 2026. These soccer spaces support the U.S. Soccer Foundation’s It’s Everyone’s Game campaign to ensure children in underserved communities can benefit from all that the game of soccer has to offer.

“The Community Activated Parks Projects program provided a way for the community to tell us what healthy play options they wanted, and we listened,” said Kimberly McNeeley, Director of PARD. “Austin Parks and Recreation Department is thankful for the partnerships that provided this healthy play resource at the Dove Springs Recreation Center.”