Ukrop Park dedicated

Lisa Billings/Chesterfield Observer Soccer players swarm the field to warm up before competing in one of the first games on opening day at Ukrop Park last week. With the county government's budget already stretched tight as a drum, there was simply no public money available to build the type of first-class sports facility that would both improve training for local youngsters and bolster the Chesterfield economy.

The Richmond Kickers Youth Soccer Club (RKYSC) stepped up and filled that void, spearheading an aggressive fundraising campaign to construct Ukrop Park, a 34.5- acre sports complex near the intersection of Iron Bridge Road and Chippenham Parkway. County officials worked with RKYSC representatives throughout the project, providing help on zoning issues and guidance in navigating the occasionally unpredictable world of local politics. Ukrop's Super Markets provided much of the funding.

As County Administrator Jay Stegmaier noted during his remarks at last week's dedication ceremony, the $8.5 million facility is an example of what can happen when the private and public sectors approach each other in a spirit of partnership.

"The days when one entity - public, private, nonprofit - can solve everyone's problems are just gone," he said. "The future is all of us coming together to meet the needs of the community and create opportunities that impact the quality of life, the stability of neighborhoods and the future of our youth in dramatic ways."

Planning for the soccer complex, which features six lighted fields (four grass, two synthetic) began three years ago. By the time RKYSC launched its fundraising effort last June, the local economy had stalled, and the collapse of the stock market made lining up donors even more difficult than usual.

But instead of pushing the project to the back burner and waiting for economic conditions to improve, RKYSC president Rob Ukrop emphasized the organization's commitment to teaching local youth life skills through teamwork and healthy competition, and the metro Richmond community responded.

"I see several projects come across my desk and only about half of them make it through, but knowing who was behind this one…they had the willpower and expertise to get it done," said Mike Golden, director of the county's parks and recreation department.

Golden noted that the county plans to build two additional soccer fields and a parking lot on land adjacent to Ukrop Park. The extra field space will come in handy when RKYSC hosts tournaments involving travel teams from throughout the Mid-Atlantic region; those events, in turn, help the county through money spent on hotels, food and other items.

The more immediate beneficiaries will be the nearly 1,800 local soccer players who compete in the Kickers' youth travel and recreational programs. Instead of having to hold practices at a variety of locations because of field availability issues, these players will now hone their skills on perfectly manicured fields fit for a professional squad.

"To have a facility like this, it's unbelievable," said Ian Major, a University of Virginia bound soccer player who participated in the Kickers' youth program for eight years. "It's all about developing skills at this point. The players are going to say, 'Look at this nice facility we have to train on.' That's going to make them more apt to go out and train even harder."

Ultimately, producing quality soccer players in the Richmond area can only mean good things for the Kickers organization - both on and off the soccer field.

"We're reaching the stage now that there's going to be players who played for the youth club who might not be good enough to play Major League Soccer or even higher levels in Europe or South America, and may want to come back and play for the Kickers," said Leigh Cowlishaw, head coach of the Kickers professional team. "That's great, but it's not our main objective. Honestly, our farm system is trying to produce quality individuals, whether it's in soccer or whatever other profession they choose."

Another partnership, this one between RKYSC and Poseidon Swimming, continues to work on the second phase of Ukrop Park: a state-of-the-art, 50,000-square-foot aquatics center that will serve as headquarters for one of the area's most successful year-round swim clubs.

Ukrop said the project is scheduled to be completed within the next 16 months. The $8 million facility will be able to host a variety of high-level competitions, bringing swimmers and their families to Chesterfield and providing another major shot in the arm to the county's economic development efforts.