There will be football played at Art Wright Stadium this coming Friday night at 7 pm. But, it’s not the football that has players wearing helmets and shoulder pads. This football is played on ‘the pitch’, has corner kicks and a round ball.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association has declared soccer the “Official Sport” for Friday night August 21st and are calling the event “Friday Night Futbol”. The event is being sponsored by Columbus Crew FC, the Major League Soccer Team in Columbus.
Wadsworth Boys Soccer Coach John Johnson, who also is the head of the Ohio High School Soccer Coaches Association, says teams from across the Buckeye State are gearing up for the opening of the season.
“Friday Night is the first official night that we can play games” said Johnson. “It was supposed to be Saturday the 22nd, but we asked the OHSAA to allow soccer teams to start on Friday ahead of High School Football”.
The Wadsworth Boys Soccer Team will open their season on Friday night against the Garfield Golden Rams out of the Akron City Series.
There are plenty of activities planned for Friday Night. “It will be youth night, alumni night, the pep band will be there, we’ll raffle off a couple of tickets to a Columbus Crew game, school is in session and we hope to make it a real special night. We always draw big crowds on Friday Nights when the football team is not playing.”, said Johnson.
This year’s Boys Soccer team at Wadsworth should be a good one. “We return 10 starters from a very young team last year. We will simply be more experienced” said Johnson. In 2014, Wadsworth was 6-8-3. In the Suburban League, Wadsworth finished in 4th place at 3-3-1.
