Tucker Field helping launch next generation of Shelby soccer players
By David Jacobs
Improvements to the grass field at Shelby's Tucker Park could help bring home games to town as interest in the sport grows, the Shelby Youth Soccer Club's leader says.
Scott Krietemeyer, president and club founder, said the playing surface is too uneven for official matches.
Krietemeyer said the current field has room for one under-age 10 (U10) field, but if the entire area were leveled, enough space would exist for two U12 and one U8 field.
“If the whole property was leveled up… we’d have a lot more space to work with,” he said of Tucker Field, which is just south of downtown Shelby.
He pointed to painted lines on the field that he describes as "fairly unlevel."
"So it did not meet the criteria to have home games," Krietemeyer said. "That's the No. 1 thing that I'm trying to get accomplished for the club in as close to the near future as I can is to get home games for all of our teams."
"That would be a big step up for our club, in my opinion,” he said.
Initial article: Shelby board looks to improve Tucker Park field, add soccer space
Previous schedules show the Shelby youngsters traveling to locations such as Lexington, Ontario and Clear Fork.
Krietemeyer expressed gratitude for the use of Tucker Field.
Shelby Youth Soccer is running seven teams this year — boys and girls from age groups 8U through junior high.
"I've got a total of 88, 89 kids playing this season," Krietemeyer detailed. "Our first season, we started with 50 kids...so in less than two years, and we've just about doubled our roster. I have had to turn a couple of kids away with max rosters."
"But I want to continue to expand the club and field as many teams as possible — boys and girls, U8 (age 7 and under) through junior high," he added.
The Shelby Board of Park Commissioners heard similar concerns about field conditions earlier this month.
Jerry Marshall, Shelby’s parks superintendent, mentioned that the field could possibly be plowed and leveled out by a farmer and reseeded. No decisions were made or cost projection known.
The board is also reaching out to Shelby's Community Improvement Corporation (CIC) about the possibility of using open space at the former Skiles Field.
Shelby park board member Dave Keinath is leading this outreach with the support of another longtime board member, Ralph Rosinsky. An update is anticipated at the May park board meeting.
Krietemeyer likes Rabold Park as a longer-term option.
“There’s a lot of space out there," he said. "There's already parking, there’s already bathrooms, there’s a pavilion. They can get out of the rain."
He said he has mapped out the Rabold area.
"There's definitely room out there around the dog park and there are two sand volleyball courts," he said. "...But with a couple of tree removals and a little bit of leveling out there, we could easily put four fields out there, which would be perfectly adequate for girls and boys U8 and U10.
Marshall also mentioned Rabold in remarks to the park board.
"But we just don't have room out there,” Marshall said. “I can't have them do (soccer) on Saturday and Sunday if we've got a pavilion rented, and they’ve got 15 cars out there for soccer going on.”
Keinath, however, questioned whether there would be a scheduling conflict at Rabold.
Shelby Youth Soccer fields teams for both boys and girls.
The club, founded in fall 2023, was inspired by a conversation with Krietemeyer's daughter, then a student at Shelby High School.
“She came home one day and said, 'I'm going to play soccer for Shelby,'" Krietemeyer recalled of the conversation seven years ago.
"In my head, I said, ‘No you’re not — there’s no soccer in Shelby,’” he said, noting that his daughter graduated from Shelby High School in 2023 and is now 20.
Krietemeyer credited Keith Swisher with starting the high school soccer program around six or seven years ago. It was designated a varsity sport at Shelby High School in 2021.
“After two years of watching Shelby High School play, I decided there's definitely a need for a youth program," Krietemeyer said. "Knowing nothing about it, I jumped in and started a youth program so that we could become competitive at the high school level."
He described that as the main goal.
"If you don't have feeder programs from your youth sports into your high school sports, you might win a couple of games, but you're not going to compete with your Lexington, Ontario, Madison -- clubs, teams that have been around since the '80s," Krietemeyer said.
He described Shelby’s youth teams as building toward competitiveness with more established programs.
“But I can tell you right now, the girls that I have playing at the U12 and junior high age—who’ve played for three or four seasons and started with Swisher’s Whippet soccer league—are getting fundamentally better," Krietemeyer said.
He expressed confidence in the program’s trajectory, particularly the development pipeline feeding into Shelby High School.
“You will see a good rise in the girls program in the next two to three years, hitting the high school (level),” he said.
Shelby Youth Soccer has grown from 50 to nearly 90 players across seven teams from U8 through junior high.
Some of the players are already competing at higher levels.
“I’ve got 10 girls playing travel club right now—some with the Wooster Strikers, some with the Panthers — who are competing at the actual club level, playing travel outside of our club,” he said. “So, I mean, we’re growing, and we’re getting there.”
He also noted that seven girls, ages 11-13, are currently playing in a state league. “They’re loving it and want to continue to play,” he said. “We just need a place to do it at.”
Krietemeyer emphasized the importance of local support, listing businesses as key contributors and highlighting the club’s board for helping with administration, field setup, and maintenance.
Tucker Field is currently used for U10 girls and U10 boys for practice-only and provides greenspace for the young players.
"Having this field space is great," he said of Tucker Field. "It just needs to be more leveled out in order to have home games. Plus we have to do something about parking and bathrooms. All that stuff, right now, my club provides...We pay for all that stuff.
Running a soccer club is expensive, he said.
"But we've got a great amount of supporters within the city of Shelby, which can be found on our website -- all of the businesses that donate to us," he said.
His ties to the Tucker Field are also personal. “I played here when I was maybe 8 or 10 years old through the Shelby YMCA back then,” the 47-year-old said.
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