DECATUR, GA — The YMCA is honoring the place in metro Atlanta where its youth soccer program first began.
A marker has been placed at the Columbia Seminary fields in Decatur recognizing the site where organized YMCA youth soccer in the United States started.
The program began in 1967 when Georgia’s first professional soccer team, the Atlanta Chiefs, approached the Decatur YMCA to help organize soccer clinics for young players.
Chief Marketing and Communications Officer James Reynolds said the effort helped introduce the sport to children at a time when soccer was still developing in the country.
“To really help organize soccer clinics to teach kids and get them to understand more about the game of soccer; it was a pretty nascent game at that point in the United States,” Reynolds said.
Within the first few years of launching the program, the Decatur YMCA had about 6,000 children playing soccer.
Reynolds said the new marker also highlights the organization’s history as Atlanta prepares to host World Cup matches this summer.
“It’s just a really neat way to kind of make our mark in the World Cup when it comes to Atlanta in a couple of months,” Reynolds said.
As YMCA teams begin their spring season, players will also wear new jerseys representing countries participating in the global tournament.
“We can have really cool exciting match-ups like the U.S. vs Italy or Wales vs Holland and things like that,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said players can choose which country they want to represent while taking part in the YMCA’s spring soccer season.
WSB Radio’s Mary Ryan Howarth contributed to this story.