Madison Reporter

Four new soccer goals have been installed at Hawthorne Elementary School, a project that took several years to complete. Antonio Cruz-Rodriguez, the school's Community School Resource Coordinator, led the effort to bring proper equipment to students who previously used cones or shirts as makeshift goalposts.

“Growing up in Madison you didn’t have that many opportunities to play soccer,” Cruz-Rodriguez said. “But now kids can learn how to play soccer at school — really the sky is the limit for students' aspirations now that we have a simple thing like goals.”

Cruz-Rodriguez noticed the need for real goals when he started working at Hawthorne four years ago. The lack of proper equipment often led to disputes among students about whether a goal had been scored and where boundaries were located.

“There was a lot of controversy over if a goal was scored, where the out of bounds markers were,” Cruz-Rodriguez said. “It was just a big mess.”

The cost of durable soccer goals presented a major obstacle, with prices reaching upwards of $10,000 each. With limited school funds available, Cruz-Rodriguez turned to community organizations for support.

“The school obviously didn’t have the budget for that, so I had to start networking with different organizations in the community to see if we could get any outside help,” he said. “Luckily I found a great partner in First United Methodist Church.”

First United Methodist Church had supported Hawthorne through donations via the Madison Public School Foundation’s Adopt-a-School Program and decided to lead fundraising efforts for the new goals after seeing students’ enthusiasm for soccer.

“They could have donated to other causes, but they really liked how passionate our kids were about soccer,” Cruz-Rodriguez said. “Without them, I don’t think we would have ever been able to get these goals.”

Additional support came from Demco, a local school furniture company and Adopt-a-School partner. Demco connected Hawthorne with Keeper Goals through Beacon Athletics, resulting in equipment being sold at half price.

“Because we were able to get such a big discount on the goals, now we can use extra donations to buy other equipment,” Cruz-Rodriguez said. “That’s stuff like soccer balls, pinneys and extra nets for the goals.”

The new goals arrived last May and were installed before fifth graders graduated. Andrew Blievernicht, bilingual resource specialist at Hawthorne, observed positive changes following their installation.

“We’re a Developmental Bilingual Education school, and students in the program are usually in their own classroom, so recess is one of the few times everyone is together,” Blievernicht said.” “Once the goals came in everyone started to truly play together and develop friendships that they weren’t able to build in the classroom.”

Cruz-Rodriguez hopes this development will lead to forming an accessible soccer club at Hawthorne Elementary this year. He aims for participation fees as low as $15 per season or free for interested students.

“My goal for this year is to bring a soccer club here so every kid gets to feel what it’s like to be part of a club,” he said. “To have jerseys, socks and shin guards, so it feels like you’re a part of something bigger.”

He added: “The buzz around soccer will be huge this summer. I want kids who play here to have that dream of ‘hey, I could play in the World Cup one day, and I can start right here.’”