adidas Warrior Soccer Classic
What: Youth soccer tournament
When: Saturday though Monday
Where: Five area soccer facilities in Huber Heights, Beavercreek, Oakwood and Vandalia
Notable: About 520 teams and more than 20,000 visitors are expected in the area this weekend for the 25th anniversary of the event
HUBER HEIGHTS — Carol Maas, co-director of the annual adidas Warrior Soccer Classic, leaned on the podium under a tent erected to discuss the fields behind her.
The Warrior Soccer Complex had been pounded by rain for several hours on Thursday. That is, until Maas stepped up to speak at the news conference discussing the 25th anniversary of the massive Memorial Day weekend event and the sun peeked out.
“Look at this beautiful place,” said Maas, who is also president of the Warrior Soccer Club based in Huber Heights. “And the sun is shining.”
Tournament and club officials hope for a bright debut for its newest soccer expansion. The Warrior Soccer Complex, built over three years on 50 acres of land on the corner of Fishburg and Rip Rap roads, will make its debut at this weekend’s Warrior Soccer Classic.
At 12 fields so far, the facility could be expanded to 14 for the event and up to 36 in future development, club officials said.
“We just put the goals together a week ago,” said Jim Paxton, the Warrior Soccer Classic co-director.
As usual, the tournament will be played at several area facilities, including Thomas Cloud Park in Huber Heights, Hobson Freedom Park in Beavercreek, Old River Sports Complex in Oakwood and Vandalia Fields.
But the Warrior Soccer Complex is a particularly emotional spot for Maas and Paxton, who founded the Warrior Soccer Classic in 1986. Maas said the soccer club began saving money for its own facility about 15 years ago and slowly moved toward affording the land and the renovations to produce the complex.
Paxton said the club has searched for the right property for up to 10 years. After several other deals failed to materialize, the club purchased 50 acres of a 114.71-acre plot owned by the Wayne Pee Wee Football Association.
Companies were hired to level the ground, which was previously a mix of a gravel pit and overgrown land, and plant grass. By Thursday, during a news conference at which Maas, Paxton, Dayton Mayor Gary Leitzell, Montgomery County Commissioner Dan Foley and Huber Heights Mayor Ronald Fisher spoke about the event’s importance to the community, players were able to run around on the now fully grown grass.
“It has taken every bit of three years,” Maas said. “There were maps, meetings, going through the process.”
The project isn’t finished, either. Maas and Paxton said they hope to create more fields on land that has not yet been cleared, and as Maas spoke under the tent on a gravel lot on Thursday, she said the area would someday be a building including concessions.
Maas was particularly emotional while discussing the opening of the complex whose idea is almost as old as the Warrior Soccer Club, which was founded in 1982.
“You think it’s never gonna happen,” Maas said. “This pad, this will be a building someday. That’s gonna take some dreaming and a lot of work, but if you’re not dreaming, why bother?”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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