Vandals strike Superior soccer complex

As the fall soccer season winds down for the Superior Stompers, the last thing organizers wanted to have to deal with was a recent bout of vandalism and careless defacement. On September 16, the leagues president, Alisha Boyce discovered the damage done at the park where their games are hosted.

“A couple of weeks ago I went to the fields so that I could repaint our lines and saw that the lock on our shed was gone. I started looking around and realized that they had stolen some of our expensive field spray paint and painted doodles on the side of the sheds. We were missing I believe five cans of paint, a box of hand sanitizer, as well as a new box of cold packs that I had bought the prior season,” detailed Boyce.

The cold packs are for coaches first aid kits to have in case of injuries. And the spray paint which isn’t cheap, is supposed to be used for making the borders and layout of the soccer fields.

She continued, “They also vandalized the porta-potties that we rent from Superior Septic for the season pretty badly. Thankfully Bill Terrill came right out and cleaned them up for us.”

Boyce quickly filed a report with the Sheriff’s Office but they have no leads on who it may have been.

Boyce went ahead and purchased a new lock since the other one was broken off and stolen.

Regardless she remarked, “It wasn't a crippling number of things that were taken, but it was really upsetting that after all of the hard work we put into this program for the kids, people feel they can just come in and do this kind of stuff.”

This will Boyce’s third year as president of the Superior Stompers Soccer program. Her vice president is Kasey Feasel. Each of them has children that compete on various teams. After consulting with prior board members about the vandalism incident, Boyce said that this may have been a first.

One possible reason she mentioned, “There is a broken down shed back by our soccer shed that the baseball team used to use and it is really the perfect hang-out spot for kids to get into trouble. We have talked to neighbors in the area and they have seen kids hanging around back there often.”

Boyce reached out to the Town of Superior and made them aware of the run-down structure that appears to be attracting troublemakers. A demolition date has been set for the near future. She remarked, “I'm really grateful at how quick they are acting on this! Hopefully this will discourage people from causing trouble back there.”

Soccer season lasts about six weeks, practice starts the week of Labor Day and their first game is usually that Saturday. Games are held every Saturday through mid-October. Teams are categorized by different age groups, U stands for under a certain age. Boyce noted, “We have one team for U6, two for U8 (we had a bunch of kids signed up for U8 this year), two teams for U10 and one team for U12 so 6 teams altogether.”

Since the soccer program is not affiliated with local schools it is funded mostly by the kids' fundraising and donations. Boyce said, “The kids work really hard selling World's Finest Chocolates through the season and it helps us get new balls, jerseys, and extra gear. We are working towards a sponsorship program hopefully in the near future with local businesses to bring in more money for the club.”

At the start of the season families have to pay $35 per child to register for soccer. This covers the cost of insurance through Montana Youth Soccer and gear to keep the program running. Considering the expenses that families pay to have their children join soccer and the fundraising efforts they put forth, it’s difficult not be frustrated when vandalism like this occurs.

Boyce expressed, “We put a lot of time, energy, and work into this program for the kids during and outside of the season. It's all so that we can have a nice sport for the younger kids. The kids work so hard to raise money for the program so for someone to come in and think they have a right to vandalize our shed and porta-potties really upsets us. If anyone has any knowledge of the vandalism, please reach out to us or the sheriff’s office.”

She added optimistically, “I'm hoping that whoever is involved will put their energy into more productive things like soccer or volunteering in other programs in the community!”

The last Superior home game was this past weekend but their regular season will end October 15, at the Plains Jamboree. The U10 teams have a final tournament on October 22, and then the season will end.

Boyce exclaimed, “We had such a great group of kids this year, over 70 total including six kids from St. Regis! That is huge for this community and I really hope we can see more people get involved and volunteer so we can keep this program thriving. We are so thankful to our wonderful coaches and parents who volunteer their time and energy into the Superior Stompers.”