A New Home for Oakwood Soccer Club

Outdoor Complex Opens in Portland, Conn.

September 23, 2009

The Oakwood Soccer Club recently opened an outdoor complex in Portland, Conn. with two artificial turf pitches, including one with lights.

Oakwood Soccer Club's new outdoor complex spans 24 acres.

The 24-acre site is seven miles south of the Oakwood Sports Center (indoor facility) in Glastonbury. The park is located at 521 glastonbury turnpike (Route 17).

The Oakwood Soccer Park is the home training and match site for Oakwood’s 23 premier teams, boys and girls ages U8 through U18.

The two state-of-the-art soccer fields (111 yards x 71 yards) feature the latest field turf product, in-filled monofilament artificial turf. The same surface is installed at Gillette Stadium. The product will allow for year-round play. Oakwood plans to train their older academy teams outdoors as long as the fields are playable or plowed. In fact, the club already has 12 home academy games scheduled for February 2010.

Oakwood coaching directors Rick Derella and Dave Farrell, both members of the Connecticut Soccer Hall of Fame, have envisioned this project for nearly 10 years. The park will allow the club to grow with additional teams, tournaments and summer camps.

“The Oakwood Soccer Park will give us the opportunity to train outdoors on regular basis, 11 months a year,” Derella said. “Our players will certainly benefit from the extra field time.”

Added Farrell, “Now we can focus our efforts in a planned manner without conflict of others, in terms of scheduling. It’s a great value added to our club members.” The club has rented mulitple turf and grass fields for the past 21 years.

The park has space for a third field and a restaurant/clubhouse as future considerations. Financing for the project was made possible through TD Banknorth.

Oakwood Soccer Club is a member of the U.S. Soccer developmental academy and is a non-profit youth club. For more information and photos, go to oakwoodsoccer.com.