New Goals Bring the Love of Soccer to Hawthorne Elementary

If you live in the neighborhood, you might have noticed something new at Hawthorne Elementary School. Four brand new, state-of-the-art soccer goals in the park.

While it took Antonio Cruz-Rodriguez years to get the goals, in the end he said the effort was more than worth it.

“Growing up in Madison you didn’t have that many opportunities to play soccer,” Cruz-Rodriguez, the Hawthorne Community School Resource Coordinator 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.”

When Cruz-Rodriguez first started at Hawthorne four years ago, he immediately saw the need for proper goals. Students had been using cones or shirts to mark the goalposts, but that would inevitably lead to arguments.

“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.”

But when he first started to look for goals he could purchase and bring to the park, it was immediately clear the challenge was larger than he expected. 

The biggest problem? Proper soccer goals made from durable material cost upwards of $10,000 each.

“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 had been helping Hawthorne with the usual donations for years through the Madison Public School Foundation’s Adopt-a-School Program, providing — snacks, drinks and wet wipes — but really liked the idea of bringing in goals. The church's community members had seen students playing with cones before, and decided this was the perfect project to sink their teeth into.

Leaders at First United decided they would take the lead on fundraising, so that Cruz-Rodriguez could focus on everything else. 

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

Now that Cruz-Rodriguez was confident the church could help fundraise and alert him to any open grants, he set his sights on finding goals for a reasonable price.

Luckily, Madison-based school furniture company Demco is also a Hawthorne Adopt-a-School partner — who has a connection with Beacon Athletics and Keeper Goals. Shortly after getting in contact with Keeper Goals, they agreed to sell equipment to Hawthorne for 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,” he said. “That’s stuff like soccer balls, pinneys and extra nets for the goals.”

After a four year journey the goals were finally shipped to Hawthorne and installed last May, just in time for the outgoing fifth grade class to use them before graduating to middle school.

Andrew Blievernicht, a bilingual resource specialist at Hawthorne, had a firsthand look at how the goals changed not only the quality of play, but also their role in building relationships.

“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.”

While getting the goals and painting lines on the field was a huge step forward, Cruz-Rodriguez still has lofty ambitions for what the new soccer pitch could bring to his community. 

“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.”

Importantly, when a club is set up at Hawthorne it will be accessible for everyone. Club soccer often gets expensive quickly, as demonstrated by the price of the goals, which creates large barriers to entry.

Cruz-Rodriguez said he wants to keep the price as low as possible – ideally about $15 for an entire season – though any student interested in joining the club would be able to for free.

If his plan comes to fruition, Hawthorne would have a club team set up this spring, just in time for the World Cup being hosted in North America.

“The buzz around soccer will be huge this summer,” Cruz-Rodriguez said. “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.’”