"I am excited to see a Mini-Pitch come to Ankeny. Adding a safe, free, lighted space for not only our members, but every person in Ankeny, is a tremendous opportunity for our community to continue growing. Soccer is growing at an incredible rate and a Mini-Pitch will only help the community continue to prosper. We are always looking for innovative ideas for our members and this definitely fits with that vision. The fact this project is being led by high school students and members of our club is fascinating and shows the character of the young men to tackle a project of this size."

- Kirk Artist, Executive Director at Iowa Rush Soccer Club

"Ankeny is proud to be home to over 40 parks and Northcreek Park continues to see increased traffic. The addition of a Mini-Pitch will assist the city in being progressive and help fulfill our goal of bringing infrastructure to the community. Investments are being made in the neighborhood to deal with the growing population of soccer enthusiasts, and we are happy to partner with like-minded organizations to make this project a reality."

- Nick Lenox, Parks and Recreation Director with the City of Ankeny

"We think that adding a Mini-Pitch to Ankeny is beneficial to the community since it allows kids of all ages to play soccer at a place where you don't have to worry about getting kicked off. It also gives an opportunity to kids that have never played soccer before to try it and improve their skill by the fast pace that futsal is. With Ankeny being as big as it is with approximately 70,000 people in the community, it will continue to grow and than more people are going to be interested in soccer with the mini-pitch that will be added to Ankeny’s community. "

- Beckham Rash, Haris Smajlovic, Lucas Durby, Cody Giron-Buster and Cayden Giron-Buster, Students enrolled in Orbis

"Orbis is a project-based experience for students to engage in authetic projects with their communities to make a lasting impact while developing the skills most necessary for their future success.... skills like leadership, problem-solving, project management, and collaboration. This particular project with Kick It Forward has been an awesome collaboration between many stakeholders who are all working together to create another positive, active, social opportunity for our community. We love win-win partnerships where all are benefiting!.”

- Chad Brooks, Obis Project Mentor at Ankeny Community School District

"The game of soccer has created so many opportunities for me. Life-long friendships, learning to overcome obstacles, problem solving, teamwork, time management--all those life skills I use every day can be attributed to soccer. We look forward to giving the kids in Ankeny the feeling of playing in a 'mini-stadium' and creating a positive ecosystem within the Ankeny community. Having the Obis boys lead this project, or as they like to call themselves, Footie Central Association, is awesome to see and a very inspiring story for other communities to emulate.”

- Matt Sahag, Founder, Kick it Forward