Just after completing the spring season, volunteers reorganized the complex to make better use of our space, make our parking safer and shift fields away from the newly levelled and seeded area. The June floods put quite a damper on our plans - taking out about two acres of planned field area for the fall - but we think we have it organized to make the best use of less space than we had planned. 

For the fall season, we have centralized parking lot with traffic only on the north side of the complex. Four out of the five fields are well away from the dangers of moving cars and trucks and the other field is next to the parking lot. This new layout also allows us to keep off the new section so that it’s in the best condition possible next spring.

Under the new layout (see the drawing), you’ll enter at the northwest gate as in the past, and make an immediate left turn. Turn right into the first parking area and look for an angled parking space. Traffic in the parking lot is one-way. Upon leaving parking area, turn right and proceed forward to the exit on your left. 

You can help us make this transition by staying off the field under development and being patient with the new system. Please don’t park anywhere other than the parking lot. In the past, we illegal parking, speeding and driving the wrong way on a one-way created dangerous situations for our children and damaged a few cars.

PLEASE SLOW DOWN. Soccer balls still roll and they’re usually followed by a child who’s not looking out for cars. 

See the diagram below for details. If you’d like to help direct traffic during the first couple weekends, please contact Mark True.

The Carlisle Soccer Club is making a drive to eradicate the dreaded sand burr (see photo at right) from our soccer complex and we need your help.

Despite all our efforts to keep water on the grass and smother out the sand burrs, they’ve come back again with the hot, dry weather of the past couple of weeks. We’ve been able to get a lot of them up with our bagging lawn mower, but there are still some on the fields. We have learned about a pre-emergence herbicide that we can put on in the spring, but that won’t solve our problem now.

Our goal is to literally pull all the remaining sand burr plants out from our playing fields. What we need from coaches, team parent and parents is to organize your teams and gather additional friends and family to head out to the complex and pull these plants out from the ground. We will need to focus initially on just the playing areas of the game fields and we’ll progress into the walk ways in between the fields as well throughout the month. Obviously this need is immediate with our first set of games starting this weekend. You and your teams are free to head out at any time, the sooner the better. Our goal is to completely rid the sand burr plant by the end of September.

Wear work gloves and pull as much of the plant out of the ground as possible.

Collect your team’s sand burr plants and we will set up a scale for weighing what is picked. Put it on the scale and let Paul Gruber know how much your team picked. The team with the greatest weight total of picked sand burr weeds wins a Pizza Party for their end of season team celebration.

To focus our efforts, work on the field associated with your age group. Therefore, u10 teams work on the u10 field, u12 on the u12 field, etc. Also, remember to remind your Burr Eradicator’s to wear shoes (no sandals or flip flops) and gloves. If you have empty five gallon buckets, please bring them.

If you have any questions, contact Chad Cooper or Paul Gruber.

The water is receding slowly back toward the North River, leaving behind a thick layer of corn stalks and other field trash from nearby farm fields.

The Club is currently considering a number of options to get the trash off the two to three acres affected within the next seven days. If you have any ideas, let us know!

The new turf has not been touched by the floodwaters, nor has the new parking lot created in the center of the complex. As we begin to plan for the fall season, we’ll begin to lay out the fields to take best advantage of the best grass at the complex. Some fields will be placed on the eastern one-third and some will be east of the new parking lot. To assure that we’ll have the best field possible, we plan on leaving the new turf area on the west side of the complex alone until at least the fall 2009 season.

The Carlisle Soccer Club recently received a $500 grant for the purchase of new u12 goals from the Greater Carlisle Community Foundation.

On hand to receive the check a few weeks ago were: (front row, left to right) Haley Gruber; Makayla Curiel; Madison Polley; JoJo Haack; (second row) Audrey Gruber; Rachel Studer; Alanys Burgess; (third row) Cindy Rockwell, Foundation president; Mark True, Club president; Paul Gruber, Club vice-president; Marci Haack, Club development director; Denny Studer, Club treasurer; and Melinda Huisinga, chair of the Foundation’s Grantmaking Committee.

The Greater Carlisle Community Foundation was founded in 2005 for the purpose of providing philanthropic support for community betterment projects in the greater Carlisle area, including the communities of Palmyra, Easter Lake, Avon, Carlisle and Hartford. The foundation’s areas of interest emphasize arts and culture, humanties, enviornment, animals, health, education, human services, public and society benefit.

Word is that the North River is rising again, and more of the eastern section of the field covered in flood water. A small portion of SE 72nd St west of the complex is also covered with water. We’ve been able to move the lawn mower, the pickup truck and the grass seed to higher ground. Pray for dry weather and a quick retreat of the flood waters!

When you head out to the Carlisle Soccer Complex this weekend, you won’t be able to miss the new field development work that’s underway.  Construction has begun install several acres of newly leveled, fertilized and seeded fields.

This is the direct result of the fund raising that our club has done recently and we’re looking to continue that progress for the next couple of years.

We are starting with about 4 acres on the west side of the complex, where the u14 field was located. The u14 field has been relocated to the east section, east of the middle driveway. The u6, u8, u10 and u12 fields will also be shifted slightly to the east.

The sandy soil has been turned over, the ground has been laser leveled, fertilizer has been mixed in and new seed has been planted. Once the ground temperature warms up to 55 degrees, we expect emergence within two to three weeks. Even though the turf installer has optimistically stated that the fields could be ready in as little as 45 days, the Club has decided to postpone any playing on the new fields until 2009 to establish a strong root structure and avoid the damage many soccer clubs have endured this season in playing on their fields too prematurely due to a cold spring.

“This is exciting because it means that we’re moving forward, doing the things that players and parents have been asking us to do,” said Mark True, Club president. “We’re kind of starting over on our field development, doing things we would have liked to do a year or two ago, but simply didn’t have the funds available. Our new underground supply lines, our above-ground irrigator and our new John Deere lawn mower have all been made possible because we’ve been able to managed our registration fees carefully and raise additional funds in a variety of ways, from grants to car washes to bottle and can drives.”

“Once this section has been well-established, we can move on to another section, and within a couple of years, our entire complex should be more evenly covered with grass.”

Parents and players are asked to stay off of the newly seeded area, and to keep children from playing in the attractive dirt piles - the soil contains fertilizer.

The sun broke through once in awhile, but the gray day didn’t deter a group of volunteers who installed a primary supply line from the well to the center of the complex on Saturday, March 22nd.

Tim LeClaire (right) surveys the nearly 500-foot trench he dug with a heavy, balky trencher. A handful of volunteers installed a four-inch line to replace the leaky fire hoses used in the past, allowing for less labor-intensive watering using our above-ground irrigator. We are still raising money to install power at the complex, a new electric motor, underground irrigation lines and new turf.

Facilities director Chad Cooper supervised Paul Gruber; Tom Staecker; Marci and Calvin Haack; Walter, Linda, Kwin and Keaton Walker; Christian and Lucas Millman; Mark, Quinn and Carson True and other volunteers who worked on the pump shed, cleared downed tree branches, reseeded some areas and lined the fields.

In the coming months, we’ll be continuing improvements including the start of a pilot seeding project with a field development company. We’re also looking for some gardeners to help us spruce up the entrance to the complex. Volunteer coordinator Cheryll Polley will also be calling for volunteers to sign up for times to run the irrigation system and mow the fields.