Soccer's on the way

by Kristen Milton
Staff Writer

First fields at complex begin to take shape

The concrete steps lead to nowhere now, but in a few months, they will guide soccer fans to the Discovery Sports Center, nerve center of the new South Germantown Recreational Park.

"Those are bathrooms right there," Trisha Heffelfinger said recently, pointing to an area where numerous orange-tipped metal poles rose from the concrete. She also pointed out indoor playing areas and the corner where her office will look out over several soccer fields and the restored King dairy barn.

Heffelfinger, executive director of the nonprofit Maryland Soccer Foundation, visits the site about three times a week to escort prospective sponsors or just keep an eye on the work.

"Six months ago, we were selling a dream," she said. "Now people come out and see we're making that dream a reality."

The 655-acre $19.8 million public-private venture, located on Route 118 and Schaeffer Road, will eventually provide a 24-field soccer complex including a championship field with seating for up to 3,200, plus an indoor arena. Heffelfinger said the foundation has raised about half of the $14 million in sponsorship promised as its share of the costs. She hopes to see more sponsors come forward in the next year.

"I think they'll want to invest in our kids," she said, "giving them a place to live out their dreams."

Meanwhile the park, which has been both dream and nightmare at times for many area residents, will host its first games Saturday when four teams headed for the Maryland State Cup championships will scrimmage there. The first official tournament will be held Oct. 7 when the Washington Area Girls Soccer Tournament arrives to find 19 fields and the culmination of years of work.

During a recent tour of the soccerplex site, officials cited the October deadline again and again. That's when the barn, with its new windows, paint job and 80-some cow stalls, will be ready for visitor tours. It's when Central Park Road, which winds through the site, will be completely paved and ready for traffic. And it is when county residents will get a good look at the park that plans to offer volleyball, golf, basketball, lacrosse, in-line skating and other sports at points throughout the year.

"It's like a shopping mall of recreational parks," Heffelfinger said. "[Families] will come here and have some people at the driving range, some at soccer, some at the splash playground ... I just think people are going to fall in love with it."

"If I were a neighbor here, I'd rather have this than housing," said Migs Damiani, the county's park project manager. He said while the soccerplex has caused controversy as it has gone through various stages of development, he believes 99 percent of the area's residents will welcome its opening.

Residents who have opposed the park have expressed concerns about noise, traffic and lighting overwhelming the once rural area. Others resisted the destruction of the James and Macie King dairy farm, located on parkland.

Today, the park is showing signs of what it will be with steel beams, piles of orange clay, newly seeded fields and construction crews dotting the landscape.

Soccer itself will only be played at the park about 60 dates a year, Heffelfinger said. For the rest of the time, the complex can host a variety of indoor and outdoor events and activities.

"We've had some interesting requests," Heffelfinger said. "There's one group that does dog agility trials, and they want to do that here."

The restored dairy barn will add a historical element to the area by hosting "interpretive tours," Damiani said. The barn has been returned to a 1940-50s style.

That has taken a $500,000 overhaul in recent months, with county workers replacing windows and rotten wood, scraping off lead paint, and stabilizing the barn. Six carpenters are still hard at work on the barn, Damiani said, and two adjoining silos are being studied to determine how to best save them as well.

"We'll save them," he said, watching three barn swallows fly through the 10,000-square-foot structure.

While the park and barn will open in October, the area will still grow and change somewhat in coming years. Trees planted between fields will grow and enclose each game "in [its] own little world," Damiani said. In addition, three soccer fields will be added in 2002 and two more in 2004.