Initially a one-off, friendly match for a birthday celebration, several Arrowhead Elementary alumni have started meeting at the school’s field for practice soccer games. Throughout the summer, these practices have evolved into a way for the group to play soccer with each other recreationally during the offseason.
As practices at Arrowhead grew in frequency, the boys formed teams. These teams later evolved into the self-titled Arrowhead Football League, a non-school affiliated group that hosts public games every weekend on the elementary school’s soccer fields. The formation of this group has opened up a casual way for the friends to play under conditions similar to an officialized soccer match.
Junior Deion Komekotto (he/him), one of the club’s founding members, began playing soccer during his sophomore year. He said the league is a good place to have fun and play recreational soccer.
“We’re really just trying to have a place where people can play soccer, but doesn’t have to be for real stakes,” Komekotto said.
Komekotto also said he believes that soccer is a good team bonding experience to bring people together. The group’s choice of field is considerably smaller than other fields in the local community; however, the field’s location makes it easy for everyone to come to the matches. Since the fields are open to the public, the group often works around other attendees, but crossovers with other events are rather uncommon.
“Fields that people can rent out, there’s always something going on, and we don’t like renting places out, we just go to play,” Komekotto said.
The Arrowhead Football League currently consists of two teams of six players, unlike the typical 11 players in professional games. One team is captained by junior Gabriel Martins (he/him), and the other is captained by junior Brandon Enciso. Other players regularly trade teams based on availability and performance.
The group emphasizes weekly practices and organizes meet-ups on the Arrowhead fields on Wednesdays. Its thorough training regimen consists of a variety of drills led by team captains. The teams usually train on their own, but the league occasionally practices together.
“We do combined training — all of us, no hatred between one another,” Martins said.
In addition to players, other students are recruited in rotation to fill referee roles to mediate matches and photographers for replays and highlights. However, the group doesn’t have any intention of integrating any medical personnel. The league has also appointed students as team managers.
“They try to up the team’s morale in a way,” Martins said. “For the other team that lost recently, their manager is going to try to push them back up and hopefully get better results.”
The managers also play a major role in arranging starting lineups, substitutions and jerseys.
The group’s PR team helps to promote on Instagram. However, their Instagram account was recently deleted for unknown reasons. Junior Jin Park (he/him), currently centerback, said a new and revamped account is in the process of being created. Park said they are going to try to post game updates, schedules and player highlights.
The Arrowhead League’s current goal is to host weekly games on Sundays. They said that they hope to expand their student soccer teams and social media presence to further promote matches and attendance.
“I hope to see this league expand throughout the school,” Martins said.
The group of friends encourage all students to reach out to join or simply come watch the games, free of charge. Additionally, Komekotto said the club is in need of players.
“Anyone is welcome to join the Arrowhead League,” Komekotto said. “We need more players. We’re trying to have it be a big community.”
