2021 Soccer Outlook: Grove City Kids Association (GCKA)

The Grove City Kids Association (GCKA) Soccer Club is a volunteer run non-profit organization providing what they describe as “both rec and travel soccer programs”. GCKA is part of the much bigger Grove City Kids Association which provides youth sports programming in softball, football and cheerleading. Last month we asked Club Director, Adam Austin what they are most excited about going into 2021 and Adam immediately pointed to their 3rd Annual Grove City Fall Classic this September. Austin shared, “We will be hosting the 3rd annual Grove City Fall Classic in September. The first two years have been very successful

and we are planning another fun tournament for

2021.”

In the Summer of 2020 GCKA found themselves in the same impossible spot that all of Ohio’s soccer programs were in, planning for a fall soccer season while navigating stringent and confusing Ohio health policies regarding COVID-19. What made things even more complicated was planning for the second annual Grove City Fall Classic was underway, with no way of knowing if they would be able to play or not.

Barely weeks before the event was scheduled to kick-off Governor Dewine introduced the health department’s return to play protocols. These orders were met with mixed reviews, while we were all excited to get back to competitions the provision restricting teams to one game per day proved impossible for tournaments planned at the beginning of the fall season. While we were seeing tournament after tournament cancel GCKA got to work reaching out to each club individually, consulting with and submitting plans with Franklin County and Ohio Health Departments and arranging (and rearranging referees). What was a 2 day event, became a 4 day event and each team had the opportunity to play a minimum of 3 games Thursday-Sunday. In the end, GCKA did it, they pulled off the first COVID Era Tournament in Central Ohio. A 4 day, socially distanced, masked and simply wonderful tournament.