Soccer fields serve as meeting ground for young adults

The Detroit City Futbol League is athletic, it's irreverent, and it's bringing together 11 city neighborhoods in a spirit of social interaction and play -- for a change.

Detroit has seen an influx of younger adults who want to live in an urban environment. They tend to have a high level of commitment to making the city a better place to live, and most are involved in multiple volunteer organizations. They meet each other in neighborhoods, but more often in some public forum where they're hashing out solutions to city problems. With having full-time jobs and stumping for causes, their lives can be an exhausting round of meetings, fundraisers and informal political debates.

But one night a week, about 300 of them get together on Belle Isle for an entirely different purpose: futbol -- or as most Americans term it, soccer.

The league's home is the Belle Isle World Cup Soccer Field. Two games are played simultaneously at 6:15 p.m. and three more at 7:15. Because of the uneven number of teams, one sits out each week. The teams play seven-on-seven with a minimum of two women on the field from each team but, with close to a 50-50 gender split in members, many teams field more women than that.

League founder Sean Mann says this makes the play "a little less physical and more friendly." And players of all skill levels are welcome.

"You know, a lot of us work in the nonprofit field," says Sandra Yu, of Hubbard Farms, which is Mexicantown's historic district. "We're always trying to save the world. When I came out here opening day it was pouring wet, and there were over 200 people out here just playing soccer. Then I went to one of my save-the-world meetings that night. It was really nice to go to something where a bunch of people in Detroit were getting together just to have fun."

Mann, who just turned 30, agrees.

"I moved into Hubbard Farms in 2009 and got to know my neighbors real quickly in great ways through protests and boarding up abandoned homes, and I figured there had to be a more normal way for us to get together, enjoy each other's company and get to know each other," Mann says.

"I also thought it would be a good way to market the neighborhood because not a lot of people had heard of it." So he thought it would be fun to have a one-time game with Corktown and see if there were some other teams interested. "And before you knew it, it just took off," he adds.

"Now we have 11 teams and over 300 people in the league."

At least 75 percent are city residents.

"I like to promote the idea that there are distinct historic neighborhoods in the city," Mann says. "Any great city is made up of great neighborhoods, and I thought this was a way to market and promote the neighborhoods that make up Detroit. It's a great way for us to change perceptions about the city."

Yu has invited South Korean exchange students from Ann Arbor to come to some matches. "It completely changed their perspective on Detroit," she says.

And for city residents, the league is a great way to connect with neighbors.

"Going into it, I thought I knew every young person in my neighborhood. And I've been blown away to find that out of the 25 people on my team I only knew five of them beforehand," Mann says. "I had no idea there were that many young people in my neighborhood. And I think that's been the universal experience of all the people playing in this league."

Mann says that because the league grew out of his connections to Hubbard Farms and southwest Detroit, the historically African-American neighborhoods of the city are under-represented this season.

"We're very aware that we need more geographic areas in the league," says Mann, a self-described policy wonk who works in public advocacy. This fall, the league will reach out to neighborhoods in the central city. He hopes after one successful season "it'll be an easier sell."

Some teams include several neighborhoods. The North Side and Boston-Edison are part of New Center. The Villages team includes Indian Village, West Village, East Village, Berry subdivision, East English Village, the Gold Coast and Island View. Other teams represent Cass Corridor, Corktown, Downtown-Lafayette Park, Green Acres, Hamtramck, Hubbard Farms, Mexicantown, Midtown and Woodbridge.

"There were three things we wanted to accomplish," Mann says. "Bring people together in their neighborhoods, promote the neighborhoods, and just have a good time. And I think we've hit it out of the ballpark on all those fronts."

Now Mann is looking forward to next weekend's playoffs. Copa Detroit will be July 31 and will be a fundraiser for Think Detroit/PAL. "We've shown that there's a great interest in soccer in the city," Mann says. And he hopes to get some of the players involved in coaching youth soccer teams. Think Detroit/PAL has about 1,000 city youngsters involved in its soccer program, Mann says.

The Copa games at the Belle Isle World Cup Soccer Field start at noon, and the championship game will be at 6 p.m.

A Midtown artist is designing the Copa trophy. Mann had two criteria for the trophy: "that we'd be able to write the names of the annual champions on it," and, in keeping with the irreverent spirit of the league, "that we'd be able to drink beer out of it."