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The Tigres youth soccer team has been a way for the youth of Ulysses to learn the game of soccer while traveling to face more established club teams in Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal and Guymon, Okla. The Tigres have played host to games in Ulysses at the Grant County Recreation field off West Patterson Avenue and at a field just south of the Ulysses High School baseball field. The Tigres played a Parents vs Team game at Sullivan Elementary School in October.
the team has no permanent place to host games or even practice, and representatives of the team, Economic Development and the Chamber of Commerce approached the USD 214 Board of Education Nov. 11 in the hopes the district may allow more permanent use of its facilities. Economic Development Director Bob Dale and Chamber Director Marita Hauser were there to tout the opportunities that may come with playing host to tournaments featuring out-of-town teams.
Dale said Economic Development, the Chamber, the City of Ulysses, and several other business owners recently met with the Tigres soccer club, which is trying to create a youth and adult soccer league from the ground up, much Garden City, Dodge City, Liberal and Guymon.
“They came to us because they’re not really sure how all this works in a community and with interacting with city council, county commissioners, school boards, all those things,” Dale told the trustees. “So we’re trying to help them through getting to establish a non-profit corporation that they can actually work through.”
Dale said there’s some good economic opportunities for the community with such a program.
Virginia Mora spoke on behalf of the Tigres soccer club. Her brother-in-law is the coach of the team, and said the team has represented Ulysses at tournaments as far away as Denver. Mora first asked if it was even possible to use the name Tigres since Ulysses High School teams are called the Tigers, even though UHS does not have a soccer program.
Dale wanted to make sure there were no copyright issues.
“I know our kids started here in elementary school,” Mora said. “They want to know if it’s possible to use the same name to represent the town with the soccer team.”
The board had no problem with it.
“I think it’s a wonderful name, personally,” said board vice-president Diana Nunez. “I think it brings both our cultures together and it represents our culture wonderfully. Tigres is Tigers in Spanish and I think that’s wonderful and I love it.”
The other issue is lack of practice space and a permanent field for games. Mora said practices can be held indoors during the winter since the league plays year round. Games can also be played inside gyms, which some teams have done, most notably Guymon, Okla. which has held indoor soccer games at their junior high school in recent years, with an indoor tournament held there on Nov. 17.
“We don’t have the space here to train the kids, more in the winter,” Mora said. “Because right now we don’t have a building to train. We train four days a week because all the weekends, they play outside.”
Mora said that Grant County Recreation has allowed use of their outdoor fields for games, they cannot use their gym because of rec league basketball.
Superintendent Corey Burton said the team has requested use of the grass field just west of Sullivan Elementary School in the past. To use the gyms, he said it’s just a matter of filling out the same paperwork and coordinating with the coaches at those gyms to work around basketball games.
“They have the insurance, we already have that on file,” Burton said.
Dale said Ulysses City Administrator Luke Grimes has been working with them and has some ideas to create some outdoor spaces to play.
“Everybody here understands how popular soccer is and that something ought to be done, we just need someone who wants to do the work,” Dale said. “And I think we have someone who wants to do the work.”
Board president Ron Smith asked what other grounds the team would need to use for practice.
“We’re actually looking for competition fields eventually so when this league gets together they will be able to host Garden, Dodge, Liberal teams to come here and compete,” Dale said. “Right now they’re doing all their games on the road.”
Dale said the rec. field behind the UHS softball field is not available at the moment. But the Ulysses city council discussed forming a Frazier Park Master Plan at the Nov. 13 city council meeting that includes soccer fields.
“It will be an economic benefit to the community when you have events like that,” Hauser added. “People come in and they eat, and they fill up with fuel and sometimes spend the night depending on the tournament and how far they’re coming.”
The Hickock Elementary School principal said rec. basketball uses their gym for practices, as well as one club basketball team, but said the soccer team could call her and schedule a time for soccer practice there. Grant County Recreation plays their regular season games at the Sullivan Elementary School gym.
The school board had no problem with use of the Tigres name and scheduling use of school facilities for practices.
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