Do It Yourself Soccer

Photo By Lt. Col. Carol McClelland | The same day Maj. Karl Boggs received a donated soccer net, he cut it to size on home-made goals.  

CAMP ARIFJAN, KUWAIT

08.23.2008

Story by Maj. Carol McClelland 

1st Theater Sustainment Command

By Maj. Carol McClelland
1st Theater Sustainment Command, Public Affairs

CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – It started with two things, an idea and a rocky patch of dirt behind a designated softball field. But it took teamwork and the love of a sport to make it happen.

About a year ago Chief Warrant Officer Gerardo Ledesma arrived at his deployed location—a camp in the middle of the desert. The camp is large enough to be divided into zones that are reached by motorized transportation. In a zone furthest from where Ledesma lived, there was a soccer field. But in his zone there were a group of soccer players whose only connections were being deployed together at the same location and their love for a game that most have played since childhood.

Ledesma and other soccer enthusiasts decided to make their own soccer field closest to where they lived and worked. With help and approval from camp leadership, they drove a forklift with part of a chain-link fence dragging from behind to clear rocks and even out the land. They welded scrap parts together to make non-regulation sized goals. Then they attached thick, green windscreen scrap netting, normally used to limit dust in motor pools, to the goals.

With daytime temperatures in the triple-digits, most outdoor sports are played at night, so the innovators received help to obtain generators and lights. The only thing left was to attract players. They hung flyers around their zone for any players that wished to play "pick up" games during designated days and times.

"The Soldiers really make the game," said Ledesma, who is assigned to the 109th Transportation Company, under 28 Joint Logistics Task Force. "When they come out and play, it really comes together because you can have goals, you can have the net, the balls and the field, but if the players don't come out, you don't have the magic of the soccer match!"

And come out they did. All ranks, from all services, and international military units assigned here, started showing up to play. Sometimes they'd have only six people, so they'd readjust to 3-on-3. And sometimes they could field full teams.

It all depends on what missions are going on, said Ledesma, who played for the All Army Soccer Team in 2000. "The guys are always pulling convoy security missions so they come when they can," he said.

On this night Ledesma found himself drawn to the homemade soccer field because he saw someone "messing with their goals." But he was relieved to see it was Maj. Karl Boggs, another pick-up player from 1st Theater Sustainment Command's Distribution Management Center.

Boggs, an Army Reservist cross-leveled from U.S. Joint Forces Command, sent a monthly newsletter to his colleagues back home in Suffolk and he mentioned their do-it-yourself efforts. Someone forwarded the newsletter to Laura Massie, a government civilian employee at JFCOM, who happens to be the president of the Tidewater Women's Soccer League. She read Boggs request for a used soccer net but "went above and beyond by sending us not only a net but a couple of soccer balls and a pump," Boggs said.

Boggs brought his pocket knife, a handful of plastic ties, and the regulation-sized net and used it to replace the windscreen netting in both goals. "I knew one full net would cover two small ones," Boggs said.

Ledesma was happy to see the other netting replaced because he said they would kick the ball in and it would rip. They frequently paused the game to fix the holes.

"I'm happy someone embraced this effort and made improvements. We have pride and are taking ownership of our efforts here," Ledesma said.

• Date Taken: 08.23.2008
• Date Posted: 08.23.2008 08:12
• Story ID: 22789
• Location: CAMP ARIFJAN, KW