YOUTH SOCCER KICKS OFF FALL SEASON IN JACKSON

Kevin Priester, checks the names, before he judges kicking and throwing for distance on Aug. 17 in the Jackson City Park.

Soccer is the fastest growing sport in America and a big reason it is growing fast is because of youth programs that peak a child's interest early in life.

Jackson began youth soccer in 1988 and this year more than 500 kids signed up for the fall league.

The fall league has less participants than the spring soccer league, according to Ken West, president of Jackson youth soccer.

The season will begin Sept. 7 and will last for six weeks. The drawing for teams has been done and soon the soccer fields at Jackson's Soccer Park and City Park will be filled with soccer playing children and their parents.

At the end of the season all-star teams will be selected and the players will go to various all-star tournaments around the region, West said.

The goal of the program according to West is to "teach kids soccer and let them have fun while they are doing it."

Children will participate in soccer from grades K-8. With each age group the size of the team, length of quarter and rules change.

There will be 8-10 coed teams in the Kindergarten division and they will play seven on seven and have 10 players on each roster. The quarters are 10 minutes long, according to West. All of the kindergarten games will be played at the soccer park.

The first and second grade division is divided into a boys league and a girls league and there will be eight teams competing in the boys league and six competing in the girls league. The team size remains the same and it is still a 40-minute game.

All of the first and second grade division games will be played at the soccer park.

There should be six to seven boys teams and four girls teams in the third and fourth grade soccer division. At this level, the team on the field grows to the standard FIFA rule of 11 players per side. Now the game length is 48 minutes and the games are played at the city park on fields one and two.

West said that as the kids get older they realize they have to pick one or two sports to specialize in and soccer suffers like all other sports with less interest.

In the fifth and sixth grade division there will be three boy teams and three girl teams and they will also play at the city park on fields one and two. The length of the game continues to climb, as this division plays a 60-minute game.

The seventh and eighth grade division will have two boy and two girl teams and they will have interleague play with Cape Girardeau's soccer program. The 72-minute games will be played in the city park.

It costs $25 to play in the youth soccer league, but $15 is returned in soccer dollars to the parents which can be used at participating businesses. The Jackson program is sponsored by Burger King and Mid-America Hotels.