'I Am A Lunatic for Soccer.' Fisher Meadows Pick-Up Games Score Big in Avon.

The Farmington Valley is a mecca for soccer, from youth recreation, travel and premier club competition to school teams and adult leagues. 

But George Oks, 52, of Ukraine and a 30-year Simsbury resident, observes a dwindling interest in soccer among American adults. Yet, as a longtime soccer player, he remains as passionate about the game as ever and plays in an Avon pick-up soccer league.

"What kind of puzzles me is soccer is the most important sport among kids in the U.S., but when they grow up, they're not into soccer," Oks said.

However, come to Fisher Meadows in Avon on a Tuesday or Wednesday night and you will find a quite different scenario. A melting pot of teenagers and adults from Valley towns and foreign countries like Germany, Italy, Vietnam, and Brazil gather to play pick-up soccer. Oks used to bring his son nine years ago to play when he was 13.

Avon resident Ben Colman formed the informal pick-up league and gets a permit from Avon Parks and Recreation Director Glenn Marston for the men to use the big fields. The pick-up games are Tuesdays and Wednesdays and start around 5:30 or 6 p.m. Anyone interested can show up and players bring either a white or dark shirt to divide up into teams. The group usually plays for about two hours, sometimes until the sun goes down.

Joao Godoy, 46, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, found out about the pick-up games through Colman. Interest in the pick-up league particularly booms during popular tournaments like the World Cup and Federation Cup, he said. People come to play and talk about the games and their favorite teams.

"The last World Cup it was so full," Godoy said. "It brings them. It's this really interesting meeting place if you're a soccer head."

He informally calls the league, Pelada, a Portuguese word for pick-up game. 

"This brings people from the neighborhood and town all together," Godoy said. "It's amazing how soccer is growing."

Godoy was kicking the soccer ball around at Fisher Meadows one day with his kids when Anh Le, 21, of Vietnam, came up and asked if he could play with his family.

"For us, this was like a magic word," Godoy said. "We like to include everybody and we recruited him."

Now Le plays regular pick-up games with the league and is in charge of sending emails out every week to a growing list of interested players to remind them of the games. 

Le just graduated from Tunxis Community College in Farmington last Friday, earning an associate's degree in general studies. Until he leaves to study engineering at the University of Louisville in the fall, you can find him at Fisher playing a lot of soccer. His uncle exposed him to soccer in Singapore when he was a kid and he moved to Kentucky for part of high school. His soccer team won the state championship in 2008.

"I'm a lunatic for soccer," he said. 

Oks, a Cigna information technology employee, recruited his Ukrainian friend Joseph Aferzon, who played on the Ukrainian junior national soccer team for two years, to come and said "it's a lot of fun." Aferzon is a brain surgeon at Hartford Hospital. 

"I never quit," Aferzon said of playing soccer. "I'm a die hard."

Oks said that he likes it better than going to the gym. He used to pay in an organized, competitive Simsbury league.

"You will hardly see any arguments here," Oks said. "We're working folk so we can't get hurt." 

While Oks said younger players might be faster, the older players might have more skills. 

Women are welcome too and girls have played in the past.

"We don't discriminate against anybody," Oks said. 

Different countries' signature styles of play are evident on the field, according to Oks. Some grew up playing pick-up soccer in the streets and excel in footwork. 

The pick-up league draws people of various ages, professions, cultural backgrounds and "all walks of life" to play soccer, said Dave Edgar, 48, an Avon resident and member of the 1981 Simsbury High School state championship-winning soccer team.

Edgar said he hadn't played soccer since high school and saw the men playing pick-up one day while at his son's high school soccer game at Fisher Meadows. 

"I was apprehensive at first, but these guys are great," Edgar said. "They're comedic. There's all levels of talent from guys that look like they played in the European leagues to guys who kick the ball around with their kids and that's all they had."

Edgar, a marketing manager for a private insurance company in Pennsylvania, brings his sons, Evan, 17, a junior at Avon High School and junior varsity team soccer player, and Ryan, 20, who is currently studying at Mount St. Mary in New York. 

"It's just awesome," said Edgar, who grew up on soccer in a Jamaican family. "It's a wish come true to see them fall in love with the sport and want to play it." 

Ryan Milligan, 26, a Canton native and Avon resident, said that he enjoys having an opportunity to play out of college. Milligan is also in the insurance business and works at Chubb in Simsbury.

"I come here a lot and I really enjoy the fact that it's free," Milligan said. "There aren't many opportunities to play soccer once you exit the collegiate state."

Simsbury resident Jim Poppa, 46, an assistant principal at Avon Middle School, said that the league has grown in the past few years. 

"It's a great experience," Poppa said. "It doesn't matter what your background is. It's the love of the game."

If you're interested in playing, you can either show up at Fisher Meadows for the Tuesday or Wednesday games or email Le at anhln_299@yahoo.com.