Pick up indoor soccer league starting up at York River Community Centre

November 1, 2022

By Mike Riley

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

According to Facebook group Bancroft and Area Things to Do a couple of weeks ago, Bancroft resident Michael Di Cintio was looking to set up an indoor pickup soccer league throughout the winter at the Maynooth Community Centre. Di Cintio comments on the progress of this indoor pickup soccer league which will have its first game on Nov. 4 at the York River Community Centre.

Di Cintio said he was looking for more players to join an indoor pickup soccer league according to his post on the Bancroft and Area Things to Do group on Facebook on Oct. 18. He said that all ages and skill levels were welcome to join.

On Oct. 18, Di Cintio told Bancroft This Week that since they hadn’t been able to get into the Maynooth Community Centre, the games would be at the York River Community Centre.

“We do have some interest, enough for a full team. But we would love to see more people get involved. It’s really fun, team-oriented and a great way to get some exercise through the winter,” he says.

By Oct. 27, Di Cintio had secured a firm time slot of Friday from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the York River Community Centre, with games happening weekly through the winter. The first game of the season will happen on Nov. 4, and a registration fee of $30 per player will be charged for the season. This fee can be paid through e-transfer to Di Cintio at m_dicintio@hotmail.com or cash at the first game. The fee is for soccer nets, which will be donated to the York River Public School, so the students can use them permanently. Once the nets have been paid for, the registration fee will be waived thereafter.

Players are asked to bring non-marking indoor shoes and a change of clothes, and they’re asked not to attend if they have cold or flu-like symptoms. If anyone interested in attending needs a ride to the game, they’re asked to get in touch with Di Cintio, and he’ll see if something can be arranged to facilitate their trip to the game.

Di Cintio says that all he did was promote the indoor pickup soccer league on social media, and that it had been organized by his friend Jake through calls and texts for about 25 years. Of course, it did slow down through the past couple of years with COVID-19.

“We weren’t allowed to have indoor soccer leagues for two to three years. Finally, it’s getting back into place and it’ll be nice,” he says.

According to Di Cintio, they already had people registered who were regulars for the summertime soccer league.

“What we want to do here is have multiple teams going on the same night so we can kind of rotate. The more people that get involved in it the better it’s going to be. The more fun it will be. Just in case somebody can’t make it out one week, it’s not like we’re going to be short for a full team,” he says.

Now that the soccer league is more publicized, Di Cintio says it’ll be nice to see how many people end up getting involved.

“Because we’ve always had enough players for a small game every week, just by word of mouth. I’m pretty confident it’ll get pretty popular,” he says. “There’s not a lot of options for indoor physical teamwork activities.”