About the Project:

Walnut Creek Soccer Club has engaged the City of Walnut Creek to provide state of the art training and game facilities for the youth soccer players. The objective is and has always been to ensure children in the Walnut Creek community are able to benefit from the fantastic life skills playing a sport provides. The field improvement projects at Heather Farm and Tice ensure they are able to do so in a safe environment. The goal is to enhance local facilities to compete with other top organizations in the area to ensure WC families can play locally. Currently, the club loses approximately 1,000 hours of game and practice time due to city maintenance of fields, lack of lights, and inclement weather. With the field improvement projects the club will be able to satisfy the growing demand for soccer in the Walnut Creek community. Each year the organization is required to turn away families who’d like to be involved in the Walnut Creek Soccer Club community. This project will ensure the club can continue to offer its programs to all levels of players and age groups for decades to come. Walnut Creek Soccer Club is the largest youth sports organization in Walnut Creek with 2,900 players joining its ranks each year.

Facility Specs:

Walnut Creek Soccer Club engaged with city officials to ensure field improvements were included in Measure O. Following its passing, Walnut Creek Soccer Club and CWC signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the proposed improvements. The focal points of field improvements were Tice and Heather Farms. The Tice project will include adding lights that will allow for more hours of safe play, especially during the late fall and winter months. Heather Farm includes turfing fields one and two. The turf of Heather Farm will also ensure that the city is able to save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water over the life of the turfed field, reducing the City’s climate footprint. Turf requires less upkeep and on average is 25% less costly to maintain than natural grass. It requires no watering, no mowing, and very little maintenance. Heather Farm #1 will be a full size 11v11 field with lights, fencing and more. Heather Farm #2 is currently fitted as a 9v9 size field, but has room to additionally expand to an 11v11. HF2 may be lined for 9v9, 7v7, and 5v5.

About the City Partnership:

As the majority stakeholder at these facilities, Walnut Creek Soccer Club has agreed to contribute $1.5 million to the field improvement project After careful review and analysis, we feel this is a fair contribution to the anticipated $9-11 million total capital cost. In total the club will need to raise $2mm to cover additional costs such as new goals, benches, storage, and related field equipment. We anticipate a project completion date of the Fall of 2025 however the club continues to advocate for a reduced timeline for the project.

About the Club:

The Walnut Creek Soccer Club (Walnut Creek Soccer Club) was established in 1971 and is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization with the purpose of offering community soccer. In May of 2018, the club became an affiliate with Surf Sport, commonly known as Surf.

Today, Walnut Creek Soccer Club is the largest youth sports organization in Walnut Creek, offering recreational and competitive soccer programs to 2,900 players, ages 5-18.

Walnut Creek Soccer Club’s mission to its members will continue to grow and evolve as the landscape of soccer changes in America, but the current emphasis is on life lessons and building a love for soccer.

Walnut Creek Soccer Club offers players of all abilities an opportunity to play soccer on a team, with training and matches. There are three playing level programs at the Club: recreation, select and competitive.

• Recreation: 4 month season, recreation level, parent coaches
• Select: Fall & Winter season(s), recreation plus level, parent coaches
• Competitive: Year-round, competitive level, travel, professional paid coaches

The Club’s Director of Coaching, Adam Cooper, is responsible for all coaching aspects of each of the three programs. He offers coaching clinics for recreation-and-select coaches, parents, and players.

Recreation and Select programs are coordinated by parent volunteers with the assistance of the club's paid operations staff. The Club’s General Manager oversees all three programs.

In addition, the club offers several supplemental programs:

• Camps/Clinics: WCSC offers player development camps throughout the calendar year for players of all levels. Our club features recreation and competitive camps during the fall, winter and summer.
• College Advisory Program: Provides professional guidance for Walnut Creek Soccer Club members interested in playing collegiately. The program includes several player-and-parent college nights to educate and guide prospective players, often involving presentations from former players, current-or-former college coaches, and current-or-former professional players. Additionally, Walnut Creek Soccer Club’s U15-U19 1st teams participate and compete in college showcases each season.
• TOPSoccer: A volunteer-led program designed to provide a fun and meaningful experience for players with special needs, while also improving fitness, self-esteem and social skills in a safe and caring environment. Using a buddy system, players are paired with a volunteer youth partner.