The new soccer complex at the Baldwin County Recreation Department hosted its first soccer event Saturday, as the All-Star teams from five surrounding area counties — including Morgan, Baldwin, Butts, Putnam and Walton — competed in the U-10, U-12 and U-14 bracket All-Star Tournament.

Soccer players, coaches and onlookers deemed the event a success, and expressed excitement about the potential for the new complex to host additional events at the new facility in the near future.

“This was the first tournament held at the new facility,” said Old Capital Soccer League President Tim Taylor. “Everything went great. We couldn’t have asked for anything more. Everything ran smoothly, we had plenty of parking and plenty of space for everyone to do what they needed to do.”

“We had a lot of comments on the facility, about how nice it was,” added Taylor. “Even though we had lots of rain Friday, it was very nice and wasn’t that muddy.”

In the U-10 bracket, Baldwin County and Morgan County faced off in the final game, and the Morgan County U-10 team walked away as the All-Star Tournament winner in the division, said Taylor.

In the U-12 bracket, the Baldwin County team fell in the semifinals and the final matchup between Morgan County and Butts County ended with Morgan County upsetting the Butts County team, said Taylor.

In the U-14 bracket, the final game between Baldwin County and Walton County ended in defeat for the Baldwin County team as the Walton County All-Star team was declared the winner in the bracket.

Taylor noted that despite the weather, the turnout was great for the event.

“I was really pleased with it and the turnout we had. It looked like we had probably between 1,000 and 1,200 people there throughout the day,” he said.

The addition of the soccer complex to the Central Georgia community should bode well for fostering soccer as a sport in the area, said Taylor.

“It’ll be a big impact for the community and I think soccer is growing fairly well in the community,” he said. “We’ve had very good turnout with everything that we’ve done so far and everybody is impressed with the complex.

Additional uses for the facility are already being planned for as early as spring, said Taylor, and the facility is hosting a tournament this weekend with the GMC Bulldogs, Gatewood Academy, Jones County and Baldwin County teams competing.

“I think the community is going to do real well. We’re already setting down dates for early summer and late spring tournaments for the facility and we already have two camps set up for the summer.”