It took only three years for the $19.8 million South Germantown Recreational Park to evolve from a gleam in a soccer parent's eye to a 19-field complex ready to host the public during a grand opening weekend beginning Friday.
The opening celebration, complete with fireworks, will be held 4 to 8 p.m. Friday. It will be followed by the park's first official event: the Washington Area Girls Soccer Tournament, which begins on Saturday.
The soccerplex gained support from the Montgomery County Planning Board, the County Council and the state in quick succession, meeting with opposition from a handful of neighbors but greeted with enthusiasm by others.
"Obviously, I'm looking forward to it," said Councilwoman Nancy H. Dacek (R-Dist. 2) of Darnestown, who represents the upcounty and plans to attend the opening.
"I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it all works out because traffic was always the issue and you never know until that's tested, but I think it will be a great asset to the community, and not just the soccer but the entire park."
The County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to allow the soccerplex to open even if a planned road connecting the park to Route 118 was incomplete; however, soccer officials said they believed the road would be done. A community meeting is planned Oct. 17 to evaluate the traffic measures in the wake of the opening events.
In final form, the 655-acre South Germantown Recreational park, a public-private venture located on Route 118 and Schaeffer Road, will provide 24 soccer fields, including a lighted championship field that will seat 3,200. The complex will also feature the Discovery Sports Center, a facility with two indoor soccer fields also suitable for other sports. Finally, the restored King barn and facilities for a variety of outdoor activities will also be part of the finished product.
Friday's opening is for the area of the park devoted to soccer; the 42-acre "central park" area of the complex, which will include a splash park and other sports offerings, will not be completed by the county until May 2001. The other facilities will follow.
"This has been a long time coming and we're excited to see it," said Trisha Heffelfinger, executive director of the Maryland Soccer Foundation, a private organization that will run the soccerplex portion of the park. "But I think the big moment even more will be kids playing on the fields [Saturday] ... all 19 fields going with kids on them and hearing what they think. That's what this was about."
The ball starts rolling
The soccerplex was first discussed at a Bethesda pizzeria in fall 1997, said Maureen Hendricks.
She and her husband John have repeatedly been described as the driving force behind the soccerplex. John Hendricks, president and chief executive officer for Discovery Communications, has donated $1 million to the park. The Potomac residents have two high-school-age children who have been playing soccer for about 10 years.
The idea to bring a top-quality soccer facility to Montgomery County came while the couple was out to dinner with Ken Salomon, now president of the Maryland Soccer Foundation.
"We just hit a very responsive chord when we brought this up two and a half years ago," John Hendricks said. "There were just two calls I made. I called the governor and his son played soccer, and he could immediately identify with the problem ... and [I called County Executive] Doug Duncan and they had this land."
By January 1998, the lobbying had begun and the progression from that point to the completion of the complex has been relatively quick, especially compared with other projects in Montgomery County.
As it progressed, the proposal spawned the Maryland Soccer Foundation, a nonprofit group created to represent youth soccer interests and raise $14 million for the project. The county contributed $8.8 million, with $2.7 million of that to widen an access road to the park. The state gave Montgomery $4 million from its Program Open Space funds, allowing the county to divert funds toward the soccer complex.
Community involvement
The soccer community has also helped with funding. Each player in organizations such as Montgomery Soccer Inc. -- about 22,000 total -- will be charged an additional $10 assessment fee during spring and fall registration for at least the next five years. Their fees will go toward the construction of the complex, which was debt-financed and will be paid off with such donations.
The community involvement helped speed the governmental processes, said County Planning Board Chairman William H. Hussmann.
"I think the significance of the project to the community has led to the processing of permits, and all faster than is generally the case," he said.
Construction has also moved quickly, he added: "They got it done in record time. They're to be commended for showing us how to get things done."
Dacek agreed that the private contributions were critical in the complex's rapid development.
"Ten million dollars from the soccer people -- that'll move things," she said. "The park would never have come on line this quickly without the private group coming forward to put money in it."
Maureen Hendricks said she and her husband visited the complex about once a month as the building progressed.
"I remember once when we went out and one field was done and I just cried, it was so beautiful," she said. "It meant so much to me to have these fields for kids in Montgomery County. The kids are just going to be in awe when they see these fields, because this is how soccer was meant to be played, not dodging holes or the ball bouncing on rocks. ... For a soccer player to play on that quality field, it's a whole new game."
Rockville resident Mark Owen, 11, has been playing soccer for five years. His team, the Devils, played at the soccerplex Saturday.
"This is definitely better than all the other fields I've played on," Owen said Monday. "It was nice and level, the grass was cut short -- I would definitely recommend the fields."
At this Friday's ceremony, hard-hat tours of the nearly completed two-story Discovery Sports Center will be offered as well. The building will be a nerve center for the soccerplex, housing offices, food and retail concessions, and meeting rooms as well as indoor athletics facilities that can be used for several indoor sports. Indoor soccer begins there Nov. 13.
Raffle drawings will also be part of the grand opening. So far, the foundation has raised about half of the $14 million promised as its contribution to the complex, Heffelfinger said.
"We're expecting the grand opening to be a real shot in the arm for the fund-raising effort," he said.
Fund-raising will be an ongoing effort at the park. The foundation needs to raise about $2 million annually to operate the complex.
From the Gazette Papers