“Mini-Pitch” Project Breaks Ground at Birdland Sports Park

DES MOINES, IOWA–Kick It Forward’s ambition is to make soccer more accessible for kids and adults by giving players a safe place to play in their own neighborhoods. With this goal in mind, Kick It Forward partnered with Kum & Go, Musco Lighting, Hansen Company, the City of Des Moines and the U.S. Soccer Foundation to bring the first outdoor futsal court and Mini-Pitch System™ to the Des Moines area.

“Our goal is to bring several mini-pitches to neighborhoods throughout the Des Moines area. We see and hear about the need for accessible, safe places to play, and the Birdland neighborhood is the perfect spot for the first mini-pitch. I want to thank Tanner Krause and his family at Kum & Go, Joe Crookham, Jeff Rogers and Eduardo Zamarripa at Musco Lighting, Tony Garcia at Hansen Company and many other members of the Des Moines soccer community whose financial contributions made this project a reality. We hope to have the next mini-pitch built in 2020 and are currently seeking out the next location,” said Matt Sahag, founder and president of Kick It Forward.

Futsal is a smaller version of soccer, typically played on a hard surface with size dimensions similar to a basketball court. Games consist of four field players plus a goalkeeper; however, this Mini-Pitch will be available for soccer programming, pick-up soccer and accessible nearly 20 hours per day. The court comes with lighting, fencing, goals and benches and can be assembled in less than one week.

Monday night’s approval from the Des Moines City Council was the last and final hurdle to overcome. Construction began November 20. “Soccer has been making major waves in the community lately and we hope to continue the momentum with this project,” said Sahag.

About Kick It Forward

Founded in June, 2012 by Matt Sahag as a way to provide training to youth soccer players that wanted to improve their soccer skills while also impacting the lives of others in a positive way, Kick It Forward has evolved into an organization attempting to grow the game of soccer in a grassroots way. From covering and promoting high-school soccer matches to Soccer Talk, a podcast discussing soccer in Iowa, offering free soccer clinics and donating soccer gear to programs in need, Kick It Forward looks to continue growing the game of soccer in innovative ways. This latest venture, Musco Lighting’s Mini-Pitch System™, brings the vision of Kick It Forward full-circle.

About Musco Lighting

Since 1976, Musco Lighting has led the world in the design and manufacture of sports and large area lighting solutions. The company has pioneered the most innovative systems using metal halide and LED technologies, resulting in an unparalleled ability to control glare and light spill in a way that’s cost effective and energy efficient. Musco has been engineering systems around the LED for nearly a decade, and has designed permanent and temporary solutions for everything from Little League® fields to Olympic Games. The company has earned awards including an Emmy for the quality of its lighting in television broadcasts and a Technical Academy Award for movie lighting. Musco’s global team of experts partner with customers to plan, complete, and maintain a trouble-free solution for their facilities.