
{"id":26122,"date":"2012-05-24T12:47:05","date_gmt":"2012-05-24T16:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=26122"},"modified":"2012-05-27T17:45:08","modified_gmt":"2012-05-27T21:45:08","slug":"40-years-of-kickin-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2012\/05\/24\/40-years-of-kickin-it\/","title":{"rendered":"40 years of kickin&#8217; it."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_26127\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26127\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/2012\/05\/24\/40-years-of-kickin-it\/rainbowsoccera\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-26127\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/RainbowSoccera.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"RainbowSoccer\" width=\"500\" height=\"441\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26127\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/RainbowSoccera.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/RainbowSoccera-113x99.jpg 113w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/RainbowSoccera-128x113.jpg 128w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/RainbowSoccera-100x88.jpg 100w, https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/RainbowSoccera-360x317.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26127\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">An image of a past Rainbow Soccer program.  Rainbow Soccer started in the spring of 1972 and celebrated its 40-year anniversary last weekend.  Photo courtesy of Rainbow Soccer<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\n<strong>By Rose Laudicina<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>From a rag-tag group of teenagers and their younger siblings running around a soccer field to more than a thousand kids on organized teams in shirts representing every color of the rainbow, Rainbow Soccer has come a long way since its inception in 1972. <\/p>\n<p>The organization\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s philosophy \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to tone down the heavy emphasis on winning and competition, giving people an open and protected opportunity for a shared athletic experience\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has remained constant over the years, although the organization is starting to evolve.  <\/p>\n<p>The recreational soccer league celebrated its 40-year anniversary last weekend with a celebration and a send-off. Vicky Brawley, who has been with the league since its inception, resigned from her position as director of Rainbow Soccer. <\/p>\n<p>When Brawley first started Rainbow Soccer with her former husband Kip Ward, a soccer player at UNC, the only soccer teams in town were the UNC JV and varsity teams. <\/p>\n<p>Ward saw the need for soccer in the community when students from Chapel Hill High approached UNC players to ask for help in starting a high school team in 1971. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Those kids would go out and scrimmage with the UNC players,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Brawley said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Kip was trying to figure out a way the kids could hone their skills. In his attempt to try and figure that out, to expose soccer to more kids and more people, Kip and the kids came up with the idea for Rainbow Soccer.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Being from London, Ward had grown up playing soccer and understood the positive effects starting sports at an early age could have. <\/p>\n<p>In starting the league Ward recruited his friends, UNC teammates like future legendary UNC women\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s soccer coach Anson Dorrance and Brawley \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even play soccer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to help him coach, referee and manage the league. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rainbow began open to everybody,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Brawley said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter if you were an incredible athlete \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you could be uncoordinated and just want to be with your friends. Any skill level was fine.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>A founding member of the Chapel Hill High soccer team and Rainbow Soccer, Tim Peck remembers the league\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s beginnings. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The first Rainbow Soccer team was mostly the high school team and the younger brothers and sisters of the team,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peck said.  <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was sort of a funny-looking team where you had all the different ages running around together.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Starting with around 60 kids and quickly expanding to 18 teams in its first season, Rainbow Soccer paved the way for leagues in the area while erasing stereotypes, exhibiting a tolerant environment in a county that was still desegregating its schools. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rainbow started in the early \u00e2\u20ac\u212270s when segregation was dying and everything was in a state of flux.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Brawley said. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Boys and girls were fine, blacks and whites playing on the same team were wonderful. Even if you couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pay anything you could still be involved as scholarships were available from the very beginning.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Despite being an experimental concept in Chapel Hill and Carrboro in the \u00e2\u20ac\u212270s, Rainbow Soccer was immediately embraced by residents and continues to be a staple in the community. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Literally thousands of people have played Rainbow Soccer since it started 40 years ago,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peck said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is a huge soccer tribe of which Rainbow is certainly the beginnings of.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Mike Hickey, who has been president of the Rainbow Soccer board of directors for three of his four years on the board, will be taking Brawley\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s place as director and wants to continue the league\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fun, non-competitive environment while including more skills development for the players and coaches. <\/p>\n<p>Additionally Hickey wants to focus more on the nonprofit aspect of the organization through fundraisers, to help \u00e2\u20ac\u0153give back to the community that gives us so much.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is something that has been in place in this community and touched many, many lives over a long period of time,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Peck said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is a huge family and a special experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>To find out more about Rainbow Soccer, visit rainbowsoccer.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rainbow Soccer has come a long way since its inception in 1972.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":26127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26122"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26138,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26122\/revisions\/26138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}