FC Spaceballs, in red, goes on the offensive attack against La Liga during their soccer match on Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015 at Sports Pavilion Lawrence, 100 Rock Chalk Lane. The two teams are part of the Lawrence Adult Soccer League's indoor league.

Between the buzz generated from the past Men’s and Women’s World Cups and recent success of MLS’ Sporting Kansas City, the popularity of soccer has been booming over the past decade in Lawrence and the surrounding area.

The emergence of soccer’s popularity became apparent in Lawrence on the youth level in February of 2013 when the Kaw Valley Soccer Association joined Topeka’s Prodigy Soccer Club to become Sporting Kaw Valley, but the growth of the sport has not just been subject to younger generations.

The Lawrence Adult Soccer League is in the middle of its 28th season, and consists of 500-plus players. The LASL features different levels of recreational divisions and an open (more competitive) division for both indoor and outdoor soccer, and provides the opportunity to play year-round.

“A number of our players come from parents whose kids play soccer,” LASL president Andy Bentley said. “Youth soccer has taken off tremendously. The (Clinton Lake) Youth Soccer Complex is like a zoo on Saturdays and Sundays. There are just so many people down there. It’s taken off in the past 10 years.”

Like father, like son

One of those parents who has taken after their kids is Chad Zimmerman, who plays for FC UNO in the LASL’s Recreation C Division. Zimmerman has been playing in the LASL for three years but had never considered lacing up a pair of soccer cleats until watching his son Simon compete in the Sporting Kaw Valley league.

“I didn’t know anything about soccer,” Zimmerman said. “I just thought, ‘Wow, Sporting Park (home of Sporting KC) is awesome.’ My son was involved in Sporting Kaw Valley here, and so I thought, ‘I want to get in the adult league.'”

The connection between Sporting Kaw Valley and some of the Lawrence Adult Soccer League’s players did not go unnoticed by LASL board member Brandon Devlin. Devlin, who has coached his kids in Sporting Kaw Valley and plays in the LASL, has helped organize a partnership between the two leagues that has been beneficial to all.

“Sometimes Kaw Valley will come to us and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got this many players playing in the game at a certain age group and we don’t have enough coaches or parent volunteers to help out. Would you guys be able to talk to your players and see if you can get us some coaches?'” Devlin said. “We’ll go out and we’ll offer reduced league fees or even offering to pay the league fees for a player if that person is willing to go spend a couple of times a week with these kids from Kaw Valley.”

Referee relishesLASL’s growth

There are a variety of ways that LASL players have volunteered to help out Sporting Kaw Valley, one of which is refereeing. After playing and serving in a number of different roles on LASL’s advisory board since 1988, Gerry de Boer has remained in the league as a referee.

“I played probably for about 15 years until I got too busy with other things,” de Boer said. “I was still on the board and I picked up refereeing early on, too, but I didn’t want to be a referee and a player at the same time. I think that’s a conflict of interest.”

De Boer, who served as the league president as one of his roles on the board, said there were some struggles the LASL had to persevere through in its first few years, but he’s impressed by the league’s current state.

“We started out at different fields — Shenk (Sports Complex), the KU fields; we played on the 4-H fairgrounds. There were horses right next to the fields,” de Boer said with a laugh. “They were scared sometimes.”

The LASL reached an agreement with USD 497 in the mid-2000s to play at Lawrence High and Free State’s turf fields, and also uses the Clinton Lake Youth Sports Complex fields for some outdoor games. The league was able to start playing games year-round this past year after adding indoor competitions in the winter at Sports Pavilion Lawrence.

“There are a lot more offerings now so we can play pretty much year-round, which is great. Even when it’s hot during the summer these morning games out on the grass is nice,” Christopher Santee, a player and manager for La Liga, said. “Now with the Sports Pavilion, we can play indoor. We used to drive to Kansas City or Topeka for indoor, and now we’ve got year-round offerings.”

Family atmosphere

While the LASL is attracting players from Kansas City and Topeka, it is also bringing in diehard soccer fans of many different nationalities. Zimmerman’s FC Uno team got its name because of the diversity among the players.

“We named it that last year because we realized that we had people from like seven different countries — a lot from Latin American countries, and then we just started to add (players) from European countries,” Zimmerman said.

The camaraderie of each team is also one of Santee’s favorite aspects of the LASL, as his team has started to bond off the field as well.

“Each team is a little community,” Santee said. “We have barbecues and stuff.”

The LASL is about to kick off its fall season on Sept. 13. The final date to register for the Open (more competitive) division or the recreation groups is Sept. 4. Zimmerman assured that there is a level of play for anyone who is interested in joining the league.

“The one thing I don’t think people understand is that you can walk on the field with absolutely zero experience, and there are certain guys who will take care of you and make sure you know how to touch the ball right,” Zimmerman said.

For more information or to register to play in the LASL, go to lasl.org