The boys’ soccer club runs their year from August to May of each year, with a fall season with games from September to November, and a spring season with games from February to May. Each May, we host a team party to recognize the players and celebrate their growth for the year, as well as thank the coach and parents for their support. Here’s how we celebrated this year…

Locations

Jacob’s team opted to host their party at a local park, Riverwalk Park. The large pavilion was already booked, so we booked a smaller one (pavilion 4) and opted to bring our canopies, tables, and chairs for additional room in the shade.

The park also has a large grassy area that we used to set up popup goals and hosted several scrimmages, including a players vs. dads and a players vs. moms game. The coach even facilitated a dads vs. moms game. The players loved it.

The park also has a splash pad, which the players loved for cooling off. Riverwalk Park was a great option for rosters larger than 12.

For Jonah’s team, we opted to host their end-of-year party at our neighborhood community pool. By the end of the year, we were down to 9 players and 2 of them live in the neighborhood, so we were comfortable with the amount of people attending. The ammenity has a large shaded area, so we didn’t need to bring as much with us.

Invitations

I used a Canva template to design the invitation. I replaced the open house information on the template with our party details and then added the soccer themed pictures and graphics. I really like to add splatter and faded elements to the background for interest and I like to drop shadow the photos for depth.

Here is the Canva template link to customize these with your own party details.

We shared the photo and created an event on the schedule in TeamSnap, our team’s communication tool.

Decorations

CENTERPIECES

Last summer, I learned how to make these really easy tissue paper pom centerpieces. Here is the Cricut Design Space project link to cut out the cardstock and images. You can customize it with your own club logo or design.

I ran out of tissue paper, so I ordered a set of black and a set of orange from Amazon, as well as 12” x 12” black cardstock. The cardstock comes with a matte side and an almost glossy side. I set the machine to the 80 lb cardstock option, but found when I put the matte side up, the edges did not come out clean. It wasn’t a big deal for that cut, I used scissors to clean it up and used the sheet anyway, but I was mindful to put the glossier side up for the remaining cuts.

BALLOONS

We already have balloon weights, so I ordered these soccer ball mylar balloons and this set of orange and black balloons from Amazon. I got a helium tank from Walmart and had the ribbon left over from another project.

I began with the mylar balloons, first to make sure there was enough helium and also to measure the ribbon for the remaining balloons shorter than the soccer balls. Then, I inflated 6 orange balloons, 3 black balloons, and 3 confetti balloons.

Since it was windy, we used additional ribbon to tie the ribbons together and prevent them from become too twisted. We used even more ribbon to tie the ribbon to the legs of the canopy (at the park) and to the rungs on the aluminum fence (at the community pool).

MISCELLANEOUS

Here are the additional items we ordered to match the soccer team’s colors:

Thanks & Gifts

WET BAGS

Since many of the players use cooling towels and have signed up for summer camps with swimming involved, it made sense to make them wet bags. Each bag was customized with the players’ numbers and displayed as additional decoration during the party.

I purchased these bags from Amazon and cut off the tags indicating they’re actually for diaper bags. Then, I designed the project in Cricut Design Space. For the black bag design, I used the font College Star Full from Dafont.

Back in February, the boys’ teams participated in a President Day weekend tournament. Since the forecast called for rainy, cold weather, we made these Soccer Salts as a favor for the team’s party back at the hotel after the first day of play. They were meant to help the players warm up and to help their muscles recover for the next day.

After learning that some of the players really enjoyed them and parents were refilling the original bags with Epson salts because they wouldn’t use them out of the “girly” bags they came in.

We updated the labels with Soccer Salts and passed out another set with the wet bags to the players.

GIFT BASKETS FOR THE COACHES

When we sent out the payment information for the $5 per person for pizza, we also offered to collect funds towards a giftcard for the coach and/or to collect items to be included in the basket.

The parents contributed to a gift card that matched each coach’s personality and needs. The older team’s coach got a giftcard to a favorite restaurant in a town they like to visit. The younger team coaches several teams and does a lot of driving, so we opted for a gift cards to different gas stations.

In addition to the items the parents provided, we included: