Friday Night Lights
By Irvine City News staff
One of the most happening spots in Irvine on Friday nights in the fall is the Orange County Great Park. The parking lots are packed near the lighted fields of the South Lawn, where hundreds of kids from K-8th grade play flag football in the Matt Leinart League.
The emphasis is on community fun in the NFL-affiliated league, where both boys and girls of all skill levels enjoy games of competitive, confidence building, non-contact football. Eight games take place at once, as each of the four fields is divided in two. So 16 teams may be playing at once, creating a colorful and exciting scene as players don replica jerseys of real NFL teams.
The gridiron action at the Great Park serves as a preview of how exciting it will be as the phases of the 175-acre Sports Park debut.
Irvine is already an incredible center of youth and adult sports, and that status will only increase as the new Sports Park amenities open. Currently the city offers youth and club softball, soccer, baseball, basketball, football and lacrosse on its fields and community parks, as well as top-level swimming and diving at the Aquatic Center, and swim teams at community pools.
Irvine has Rangers, Colts, Dolphins, Tigers, Pythons, Nomads, and Slammers, among other teams in youth and adult sports leagues, including 25 Irvine-based, nonprofit youth sports organizations.
The city’s parks and recreation department already manages 41 soccer fields, 48 ball diamonds and 87 tennis courts in community and neighborhood parks.
Irvine’s amazing park system, which includes 19 community parks, 39 neighborhood parks and the Orange County Great Park, was No. 8 in the U.S. earlier this year in the Trust for Public Land ranking. The ranking is based on access, amenities, size and investment in each city’s park system. New York City was No. 7, just one point ahead of Irvine.
We’ll bet that ranking will only rise as the Sports Park acreage is added to the already impressive open space and park inventory.
parkscore.tpl.org/
rankings.php
cityofirvine.org/
parks-facilities
The emphasis is on community fun in the NFL-affiliated league, where both boys and girls of all skill levels enjoy games of competitive, confidence building, non-contact football. Eight games take place at once, as each of the four fields is divided in two. So 16 teams may be playing at once, creating a colorful and exciting scene as players don replica jerseys of real NFL teams.
The gridiron action at the Great Park serves as a preview of how exciting it will be as the phases of the 175-acre Sports Park debut.
Irvine is already an incredible center of youth and adult sports, and that status will only increase as the new Sports Park amenities open. Currently the city offers youth and club softball, soccer, baseball, basketball, football and lacrosse on its fields and community parks, as well as top-level swimming and diving at the Aquatic Center, and swim teams at community pools.
Irvine has Rangers, Colts, Dolphins, Tigers, Pythons, Nomads, and Slammers, among other teams in youth and adult sports leagues, including 25 Irvine-based, nonprofit youth sports organizations.
The city’s parks and recreation department already manages 41 soccer fields, 48 ball diamonds and 87 tennis courts in community and neighborhood parks.
Irvine’s amazing park system, which includes 19 community parks, 39 neighborhood parks and the Orange County Great Park, was No. 8 in the U.S. earlier this year in the Trust for Public Land ranking. The ranking is based on access, amenities, size and investment in each city’s park system. New York City was No. 7, just one point ahead of Irvine.
We’ll bet that ranking will only rise as the Sports Park acreage is added to the already impressive open space and park inventory.
parkscore.tpl.org/
rankings.php
cityofirvine.org/
parks-facilities