Flint resident Robert White grew up around soccer, and while that instilled a love for the game in him, it also taught him that beyond athletic competition, sports are a great vehicle for building community. He’s trying to bring that to Flint with a new weekly pickup soccer gathering for adults.
White is originally from Kalamazoo, and his dad is English. He remembers watching his dad play in adult leagues throughout the week, and falling in love with the game watching former England star Michael Owen in the World Cup and in the Premier League. But beyond the game itself, he also loved the social interactions that occurred around it.
“I always tell people the funny story is that I used to get tips because a guy would bring a keg of beer every Thursday night, and I would pour the beer for people and I would get like my $30 in tips or whatever it was,” White said. “So there was always the social aspect. It was playing soccer, having fun on the field, and then going out to do stuff like going out to a bar, sitting in the parking lot and talking with people, having a drink or whatever it might be. I’ve just seen it from a young age, and so that’s part of what makes the sport a beautiful thing.”
White has lived in Flint for about three years. He’s been impressed by the number of sports programs geared toward young people in the city, like Flint Style Soccer, but has wanted to add something to get more adults together to play and socialize. He launched social media pages for Flint Athletic Club (Facebook and Instagram) in late May, and began organizing “show up and play” style meetups on Sundays at 2 p.m. in Woodlawn Park in Flint’s College Cultural Neighborhood in June.
“It’s just trying to make more spaces for adults,” White said. “There’s often a lot of emphasis on children, and I love children, I work with children in my day job at the library. But when we focus so much on children, then there is nothing for them as adults, right? You want your children to stay in the city where you’re living. Flint Style’s doing incredible stuff, free soccer for kids. That’s beautiful. But where are they gonna play soccer when they’re 18? Where are they gonna have people to talk with about soccer or just sit in the park? So this is just continuing to build the social infrastructure.”
Woodlawn Park also provides a convenient location – even if the field itself is a bit bumpy – because it has existing metal nets, so White doesn’t need to find his own nets or set them up. People can just arrive and play. So far, that’s what has slowly but surely been happening when the weather has cooperated.
“I had not spent a whole bunch of time in this park, but I saw the nets, and I said, ‘Well, that’s really cool,’” White said. “The beautiful experience last weekend was when I came, I was setting up, and a kid just was riding his bike through the park, and he said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘Oh, I’m about to play some soccer.’ And then we kicked the ball around for half an hour before we really got started. And then we were playing 2v2, and a dad and his son came because his soccer game had gotten canceled, so then they played with us. So just being in the park, people are coming through the park or using it, and see us. It’s just nice because it’s a community space. You get to see people from around the community of all ages.”
Flint Athletic Club pickup games are open to people of all skill levels. The group is intended for adults 18 and older, but they’ve been open to others joining their games. They ask that people who play wear cleats or turf shoes. They also encourage spectators who may not want to play, but want to spend time in a park on a Sunday and meet new people in the community. White’s idea for the group is modeled after large supporter clubs that develop around European sports franchises. Those groups are centered on supporting the team and also just building community and social opportunities.
“Everybody’s welcome,” White said. “You do not have to come out here to play soccer. People have came out and they just sat under an umbrella with a cooler. They had some sandwiches. It was just a little picnic. That’s what’s the beautiful thing about some of these massive soccer clubs. Yeah, they’re billion-dollar organizations, but they are clubs. There’s a unity between people watching and the people playing, it’s all one group. That’s what we wanna build.”
There’s potentially more adult interest in soccer in Flint because of the success of the Flint City Bucks and Flint City AFC, which regularly draw soccer fans who might be interested in participating in more social opportunities around the game to Atwood Stadium.
“They’re (the Bucks and AFC) so talented that the beauty of the game is truly on display, and I think we wanna show the other beauty of it, which is that it’s a social game and it’s for people to build community,” White said.
White even hopes that the club concept expands to have more competitive adult soccer meetups, or other more casual adult sports than just soccer that meet and regularly play pickup games. He mentioned groups like Flint Roller Derby and Flint Social Cycling as organizations that do a great job of organizing social opportunities around a sport or physical activity.
“Part of the inspiration behind it too is like the Flint Roller Derby team that does incredible work as community athletics,” White said. “That’s a social space, but they also travel around the state and the region, and they compete against other teams. I would love to get to a point where we have a team of just regular people that play soccer, and we can play against each other in a more serious way. But I think just coming on Sundays, that is gonna be the bread and butter where we just wanna continue to have pickup and make it as accessible for anybody to come and enjoy the game and play in a recreational way.”
For now, though, White is simply hoping to build up a regular group of casual Sunday afternoon players who get together each week.
“For right now, we’re just gonna play some soccer in the park,” White said. “That is what makes these clubs around Europe and South America like really beautiful things, is that they are social clubs for working class people. And that is what we need, just a spot for people to come if you want a nice day in the park, play some soccer, socialize with other people, and really just trying to build that.”
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