Austin FC donates soccer mini-pitch to Uvalde community

AUSTIN, Texas - Austin FC unveiled a major donation to the Uvalde community this week in hopes this grieving community can use soccer to help them heal.

The Uvalde community has been recovering from a tragedy for the last several months since a shooting killed 21 people at Robb Elementary School.

The 4ATX Foundation, the non-profit arm of Austin FC, has been committed to showing up for the Uvalde community.

This time, it's in the form of donating a mini-pitch.

What 4ATX does to create a mini-pitch is locate an underutilized space like a parking lot or older tennis or basketball court.

They take the unmaintained space and turn it into a state-of-the-art mini-pitch that will last in the community for decades.

These are hard surface pitches, like of like Futsal style soccer, you can play 4 V 4 5 V 5 smaller fast-paced games.

The goals are made from chain link metal and the pitches are equipped with lights so that these communities can enjoy the pitches at any time of the day.

This represents a $100,000 investment in the community.

"We’ve seen as an organization that soccer has the power to heal communities, with mini-pitches, we’ve seen through the 5 mini-pitches that 4ATX Foundation has already built across Austin. that where there’s a safe space to play. Young soccer players and families will come together and they’ll be in community with one another. They’ll be active and just experience the joy of soccer and being together," said Kaitlin Mauro, executive director of 4ATX Foundation.

This is the sixth mini-pitch that Austin FC and the 4ATX Foundation has built across Austin and Texas.

Earlier this year, the foundation also opened a fall soccer camp in Uvalde for over 700 young players at no cost to their families.

Players also honored the victims of the shooting in Uvalde at a match during this last season.