This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
MANTI - It's no Madrid. It's no Milan. It's no Manchester. But in Manti - yes, that small town in central Utah - soccer is a matter of life and death.
No, the town's toddlers are not necessarily dribbling balls or flinging headers before they're out of diapers. But they do play soccer at the city cemetery.
"Soccer has grown so much, we just needed a place that we could play," said Michelle Francks, Manti's city treasurer and former director of youth sports, including the Manti Youth Soccer League. "There was part of the cemetery that wasn't platted out yet. It seemed like a good solution, so we decided to put the field there."
Soccer moms and dads have to navigate their cars and minivans through the small cemetery roads. Fans can almost smell the flowers decorating the graves. Forwards on breakaways have to battle not only a goalie but also dozens of headstones in the background.
The field - in its first year - sits adjacent to grave sites, some within 15 yards of the goals.
For years, Francks said, parents had to drive their kids 25 miles north to Mount Pleasant for most games. The soccer boom - more than 160 youngsters play in this town of 3,300 - made a Manti field a must.
"We looked at several options, and the cemetery was the only one that really worked," Francks said.
No one has complained about the field's home, she said, but plenty joke about it.
Like, perhaps, it gives new meaning to "sudden death" or "burying" an opponent.
"It sounds funny, but we play at the cemetery and we love it," coach Marsha Nielson said. "It's been a joke among the kids that we play with the ghosts."
Soccer mom Christi Timmons laughed when she heard about the field.
"One day I saw the goals up and thought that it was funny," she said. "That same week I got a call saying our next game was in the cemetery."
Timmons' 7-year-old daughter, Ashlee, had a different reaction. "We're going to be stepping on people's heads," Ashlee said.
Rarely, however, do soccer balls reach the gravestones. "Maybe with the older kids, but not at our age [group]," Nielson said.
Manti's soccer experiment has worked so well, Nielson said, that the town may place additional fields in other parts of the cemetery.
"So far it hasn't freaked anybody out," she said. "Everybody has been respectful, and we don't have to drive out of town for our games."