Spurred by interest from two New Canaan residents, officials say they’re forming a women’s pickup soccer group that will play Sunday nights starting later this month.
The new program (register here) will run 8 to 9:30 p.m. weekly starting April 28 through June 2 at Water Tower Turf Field 1 at New Canaan High School (closest to Lapham Community Center, where there’s close and ample parking), according to Assistant Recreation Director Zack Philippas.
“It’s a pick-up style, so it means each week teams will be formed based on the players that are there,” Phillippas told NewCanaanite.com. “And this flexible format ensures that everyone gets plenty of playing time and an opportunity to get new teammates. And it also allows us to have 14 people sign up and we could do 7-on-7 on a smaller size field. It gives us the flexibility to be able to do that.”
The new program is for those 21-and-over, he said. Currently, there are eight people signed up with ages ranging from 29 to 46, he said. According to the Recreation Department site, the six-week program is $45 for residents and $60 for nonresidents.
Phillippas said he had been approached by two local women last month about starting the new pick-up game.
“Our goal is we just wanted to throw this out there,” he said. “It’s a new program that we’ve never done. We’ll see the kind of feedback we get, and then either leave it as a women’s pickup league, or if we say, you know what, maybe we only got 20 people, maybe we want to try to do a co-ed league instead and go from there? So we’re trying to explore this avenue first, but the goal will be able to continue to grow and expand and build the program, whether that means making it co-ed for men and women or just leaving it as women continue to grow this with the possibility adding on a men’s league down the road, separate from then what already is that is not run through the Rec Department.”
The women’s pick-up soccer group was mentioned publicly at last week’s Parks & Recreation Commission meeting. There, Parks and Recreation Director John Howe said the town is hoping to get enough people to register to make it a viable program.