GRANITE QUARRY — The Piedmont Soccer Club had successful tryouts, with over 250 kids making an appearance over the two weekends.

However, club founder Daniel Matangira said that large number has presented the club with a good problem, because the club did not expect that good of a turnout and do not yet have enough funding for supplies, field expenses or scholarships for players who cannot afford the club fees.

“We are really appealing to our general community for help, because some of these people, they can’t afford to play. After all, we are our brother’s keepers in the community and we want to keep all our resources, our efforts, everything local. We want these kids to play local,” said Matangira, who started the club along with fellow former African professional player Mohamed Eliwa.

He said that some parents and other members of the community have already offered to pay for scholarships for some of the players and Ashlee Dangerfield of Ashlee’s Embroidery has offered her company’s services to the club as well.

For now, however, the club is gearing up for its summer camps, which will be hosted on the YMCA fields, said Matangira.

They will be hosting the camps with the help of several local coaches who offered their services to the club in Greg Alexander and Mackenzie Whitley. Alexander is a counselor and assistant soccer coach at West Rowan High School while Whitley is the head girls soccer coach at Erwin Middle School.

When Matangira and Eliwa set out to start the Piedmont Soccer Club, they said they knew that there were many talented soccer players in the area that were either exporting their talents outside of the community or were simply unable to play club due to the travel expenses associated with playing with a Charlotte or Winston-Salem club. Both Whitley and Alexander said that viewpoint mirrored their experience in coaching at local schools.

“There are incredibly talented soccer kids in Rowan County who do not have access, time, money, they’re working or they don’t have knowledge of the club scene. And, the local club scene is 30 to 60 minutes away,” said Alexander. “The idea with this is we don’t lose those local talents to clubs outside of our county when we can create something like this and keep them here.

“I’ve definitely seen, at the high school level, fantastic kids who just haven’t had the privilege of higher level coaching or playing against kids who are better than them. They’re always the best ones on the field, and that’s just not how you get better.”

Whitley shared a similar story, adding that in her role as a middle school coach she often came across kids who had never had an opportunity to play the sport until Erwin.

“There’s a soccer IQ that comes with just playing more that comes with playing more that new players just don’t have. If you can make a ton of progress (during) the season, obviously it matters because that’s what your season is all about, but at a competitive level, it doesn’t change the fact that you still can’t compete with teams who get to play year round,” said Whitley.

Chloe Goho said that she already started a booster club for the team, and she had begun signing some parents up, though some of the parents “don’t always know” they’ve been conscripted. Goho’s grandson Riley has joined up with Piedmont Soccer Club.

Even with all of the assistance that the club has already received, Matangira said that he and Eliwa were still working to connect with companies and benefactors from throughout the community to help them with the needed expenses. A few of the largest needs he pointed to was a permanent home for the soccer club and more manpower for coaching and other needs.

Matangira also praised some locals who have already provided or pledged their assistance in Goho, Dangerfield, Greg Edds, David Post, Judy Klusman, Jason Walser and Karla Foster Leonard.

Anyone interested in helping out or learning more can visit the Piedmont Soccer Club’s website at piedmontsoccerclub.com or by visiting the club’s Facebook page.