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Community Corner

Henry and Ola Park to Receive New Soccer Goals

Two Seminole Heights civic groups raised $4,000 to buy goals for three fields.

Tampa’s nearly 500 youth soccer players will soon take to the field with three new sets of aluminum goalposts next weekend. Banished will be rusted goals — welded from scrap metal and pieces of signposts — that Tampa’s parks department relied on for years.

The new goals will be on three fields at Henry and Ola Park and will make their official debut March 12. 

“They’re really nice and beautiful goals,” said Lori Greer, who oversees the youth soccer program for the city.

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The relatively lightweight goals can be moved to avoid overplaying fields, she said.

The new goals were paid for with money raised by the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association and the Old Seminole Heights Preservation Consortium. The groups raised $4,000, including $400 during a free soccer clinic at the park.

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“This is a really great neighborhood run by some really great people,” said Matt Welch, who was chairman of the OSHNA committee tasked with finding a way to pay for the new equipment.

 “[The old ones] were very old, very rusty and very dangerous wrought-iron goalposts on all three fields,” Welch said in an email.

“They were pretty awful,” agreed Nikki Couture, a Seminole Heights resident who has two 9-year-old sons playing in the league.

In addition to fields, the park, at 502 W. Henry Ave., has a recreation center, picnic area and restrooms. The boys and girls soccer teams play every Saturday during season from 9 a.m. to about 1 p.m.

“We usually cater to a lot of inner city kids,” Greer said. “We do it for a very minimal fee.”

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