Field Work Report

Sylmar Park Recreation Center

For my fieldwork report I went to Sylmar park recreation center on Sunday March 10, 2013. This fieldwork report isn’t about the whole park, its just about the private soccer field that this park has. This is the soccer field where I always play soccer on Sundays with my dad at 8 in the morning. The soccer field is private because there is a huge fence around the whole soccer field. This means it isn’t a field where everyone can play, the only people who can play on the field are those that are registered. But people can go inside to watch the games. The soccer field as a matter of fact is right next to Sylmar High School. The soccer field is not the best looking soccer field, the grass is nice but the only problem is that the field consists of a lot of holes. These holes are dangerous because a player can get hurt, but people like to play there anyways. When people are playing games the sound you hear is people running, players yelling at other players, the referee blowing his whistle and the people watching the game either talking to each other or making fun of players on the field. The smell that you get from this soccer field is mainly the grass, but there are people who sell food outside of the field, so you also smell the hot dogs that people are making. People that are not from around there would either view this place as ghetto or as entertainment.

The people that are at this place are those that are going to play or just to watch. Obviously this means that their interest in this place is soccer. The cool thing about this place is that everyone knows each other because every Sunday the same people and the same teams are there at the soccer field. Anyone can tell who is regular because a lot of the people there are known by their nicknames. For example my dad’s name is Arnold, but at the soccer field they call him Plazita, and they call me Plazita Jr. At this place no one will ever know who Brando is, but if they were to ask for Plazita Jr, they would say, “Oh he’s over there.” What I really like about the people who are at this place is that they are friendly to anyone. It doesn’t matter if they are “regular” or new to this place because no matter what they will always greet anyone who is there. The thing about this place is that everybody is friendly to one another and the last thing that they would want is to make someone feel unwanted or not welcome because soccer is a sport that unites everyone. I would say that it’s tradition for my father and me to always play soccer on Sundays at this park. We play with a team called Tikal, we aren’t the best team in the league but what matters is that we have fun. After our game, which finishes around 10 a.m., my dad and I buy hot dogs and watch the other two teams that play right after us. It’s funny because there is never a time where I don’t laugh at this place, the people that are there are funny because they are always making fun of each other or of players playing in the field, it may seem offensive but like I said everyone there are friends and they all get along. This place is much better than the place where we use to play in because the soccer field that we play in now actually has grass, and the old field that we played in was pure dirt. It’s amazing because I remember when I use to go watch my dad play and now I think it’s an honor to be allowed to play with him in the same team because my old man is really good at soccer.