But no more so than any other youth sport. In fact if you look at the adults involved in soccer organizations in Decatur you will find the same individuals who are also involved as officials and coaches in the other Decatur youth sports organizations such as basketball, baseball and softball. The role of youth sports in building character and self esteem among pre-teens and teenagers is well documented. When children are involved in youth sports they are much less likely to drink or smoke or become involved with drugs. Girls involved in youth sports are three times less likely to become unwed mothers as other teenage girls.
Soccer is one part of an overall parenting goal providing an opportunity to excel for our children.
But we have to have dedicated soccer facilities as part of the Plan 2010 to achieve that goal. Finally a soccer complex will help Decatur's well known reputation as a great place to raise children, which as you know is one of the main factors known as quality of life that individuals weigh heavily when deciding where to live. Hey, I flunked speech in college twice before I finally passed my senior year. Luckily my only competition were several telecommunications engineers whose most exciting comments were that the height of a 180' tall phone tower fits nicely on a 100' square lot and that pine trees do not properly provide camouflage for hiding poles. We did get fair to good response and two of the members have asked for further information.