Leo Moss Memorial Field
As outlined in our Development Plan, the first project we will complete in this capital campaign will be the installation of the Leo Moss Memorial Soccer field, which will provide Sewickley Area Soccer with its own dedicated facility for the first time in its history.
Dear Friends and Families of QVRA,
As you may know, our parent non-profit organization Quaker Valley Recreation Association (QVRA) has worked very hard over the course of several years to develop youth sports fields at the James P. Bouchard Family Park, located over 37 acres at the intersection of Fern Hollow Road and Camp Meeting Road in Bell Acres, where today baseball and softball families enjoy watching their children play in a picturesque setting.
In order for Sewickley Area Soccer to continue its commitment to support the development of our community’s youth through the game of soccer, we have started a fundraising effort to build a Leo Moss Memorial Soccer Field in this park. In 2022, a separate fund – the Quaker Valley Recreation Facilities Development Fund (QVRFDF) – was founded in order to focus contributions on field development starting with the Leo Moss Memorial Soccer Field.
In 1976, just after the Pittsburgh Steelers won the Superbowl for the second time in the city’s history, a small group of parents led by Leo Moss (1930-2012) founded Sewickley Area Soccer. Much like the Steelers and their success in Pittsburgh at that time, little did these Sewickley parents know that so many years later Sewickley would become one of the biggest soccer towns in the state of Pennsylvania, with a flourishing community youth soccer organization and highly successful local public and private middle and high school soccer programs.
It’s been said that Leo’s time spent overseas as a younger man in the U.S. Navy and later in the Peace Corps with his young family provided him exposure to the world’s favorite sport. Those of us who had the pleasure of knowing Leo Moss and his late wife Lois remember Leo as a kind and thoughtful man. His wife Lois was warm and welcoming and had a great sense of humor. Together the Moss’s owned and operated the United Men’s Clothing Store and Soccer Shop on Beaver Street in Sewickley, where for nearly 20 years boys and girls alike found all the soccer apparel a kid could need, which, back then, was often a pair of tight shorts and white cleats.
Much has changed since then, both in the sport of soccer and in the Sewickley community. SAS has continued to grow gradually each year. In 2022, we experienced our highest number of youth registrants in the past 30 years. This likely reflects the growth of soccer in the United States as well as the continued success of our local high school soccer teams. But more importantly, this increase in registrations lays bare the crucial need for additional field space for our young, developing players.
Through his founding of Sewickley Area Soccer 47 years ago, Leo Moss touched the lives of thousands of parents and children in our community, and many in our community continue to support soccer in very significant ways. Recently, long-standing SAS supporters Dr. Joel and Mrs. Maria Swanson made an initial pledge of $100,000 to fund the Leo Moss Memorial Soccer Field. We hope that you will join us in this project of developing well needed field space to ensure the continued success of the sport of soccer in the Sewickley area for generations to come.
For more information about Leo Moss the founder of SAS, please visit www.sewickleyareasoccer.org/leomossfield
Sincerely,
Noah Rahm
President, Sewickley Area Soccer