The Washington Area Soccer Program (WASP) will get to better serve the program’s youth and be a more inviting host to other communities thanks to a recent grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation.

WASP received $5,000 to purchase new goals for their soccer fields north of the Wellness Park. WASP Board Vice President Sarah Grunewaldt says they have been working to improve their fields, “One of the things that we needed desperately was two new sets of U10 goals. The ones that we had, one of them we adopted from the original Washington soccer program that happened like 20 years ago and they were very, very rusty and very, very rickety and we were afraid that someone was going to get hurt. So we decommissioned that set and then we had another set that we’re not entirely sure where they came from but they got blown away during a windstorm last winter sometime.”

Grunewaldt adds that resulted in the organization being short a couple of fields this spring, so they made it their goal to get some new goals. Board Member Sally Hart says with the riverboat grant they’re able to purchase more equipment than expected, “Initially we thought we’d get the two sets that we needed to replace and now looking at some of our funding and what we’re able to match and what some of the prices are currently, we’re going to be getting those two U10 goals that we need for sure and then we’re going to get another U12 goal. So that’ll be nice, it’ll give us more opportunity to host games in the future.”

WASP thanks the riverboat foundation for their continued support as they previously received a grant to purchase bench seating for their players. The new goals will arrive before the fall season, and registration opens for those four years old through high school on July 1st. More information can be found here.