For the second consecutive year, soccer players from Durango High School and Fort Lewis College worked together to cleanup Durango. This year was bigger and better than last year.
Last year, it was the Durango High boys soccer team and the FLC men’s soccer team working together to clean up the Animas River Trail.
On Saturday, around 70 members from Durango High School’s boys and girls soccer programs and FLC men’s and women’s soccer programs worked together to clean up the Animas River Trail and surrounding parks.
“I really want to get back to the days where Fort Lewis was like our local club like in small towns in England,” Durango High boys soccer head coach Sean Ackerman said. “They're on the up-and-up, and so are we, for boys and girls in both schools. So, we can just grow together and help support each other. It's massive for the community.”
The group split in half on Saturday, with one half going north on 32nd Street from the high school and the other going south. Members from the four teams cleaned six parks. It took about two hours from organizing the groups at the beginning and then getting together to take a group photo at the end.
It’s been a busy summer of community outreach for Ackerman. He organized the program’s first alumni game on July 19 at Durango High School. Ackerman thought it went great, with about 28 former players showing up to play, ranging from 1989 graduates to 2025. The game raised $760 for the boys soccer program.
FLC women’s soccer head coach Damian Clarke has also been busy this summer, traveling to Costa Rica with the men’s soccer program and preparing for the upcoming season.
Clarke, and some his players, weren’t too busy to show up on Saturday and help the community.
“It’s certainly important for our kids to recognize the community at large is what creates so much of the excitement around our sport,” Clarke said. “Our girls don't necessarily always get to see it and understand it the same way that the high school kids do. The high school kids get to grow up with their parents around it. But it's neat when all four of the teams are on the trail together and people walking down the trail recognize that it's a joint effort.”
Clarke wants a connection with his girls and the community. He doesn’t want the college to be known as the school up the hill; he wants his girls to be involved in the community and available.
The 2025 FLC women’s soccer roster does have a Durango graduate on it with Adde Neiman. Clarke said he’s also recruited past Durango stars like Carter Neiman and Emery Miller; he knows when the team is fortunate enough to get a talented Durango player, it ties the community together.
Clarke also knows that a lot of the most successful FLC soccer teams, including the national title teams on the men’s side, have included Durango kids.
Who knows, maybe a connection forged cleaning up the community could lead to more success for the FLC programs with Durango talent.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
