The Arlington Soccer Association in Virginia, which has existed for over 50 years, is making a uniform change for its upcoming fall season: ditching white shorts.
“Our travel leagues that we play in, our home uniform is all blue and our road uniform has been all white, but we’re gonna switch starting this fall for the 2023-2024 season,” said Jerome Boettcher, the association’s Director of Communications and Engagement. “We’re going to have the white tops for the road games and then we’ll have blue shorts.”
There are about 9,000 players who participate in Arlington soccer, starting with children as young as 3 years old. The uniform change will affect more than 1,0000 players in the association’s travel teams, which begin with children in fourth grade.
“We heard a lot of feedback from our players and from our families … and we heard from them that with the white shorts … they can be pretty revealing,” Boettcher said, adding that some thought that the shorts were too “see-through” and “stain very easily.”
“We want them to be comfortable,” he said. “We don’t want them to stress about this. We want them to be able to perform at their highest level.”
Boettcher also referenced a recent trend among female soccer players to replace white shorts with darker colors including the Orlando Pride of the National Women’s Soccer League and the England and New Zealand women’s national teams. All three teams cited period concerns for the switch.
In response to the uniform change, one of the association’s teams showed its support for the decision, saying in a tweet “Our laundry bill thanks you!”
Thank you ASA for switching FROM white shorts. Our laundry bill thanks you! @arlingtonsoccer @ASATravelSoccer pic.twitter.com/T4vCFcYboV
— ArlingtonGirlsRed2008 (@ASAGirlsRed2008) June 7, 2023
The Arlington Soccer Association is one of the largest clubs in Virginia.
Besides the recreational program and travel program, the group operates community-based programs, such as bringing soccer to Title 1 schools in the county. The program reaches kids in other schools with after-school programs.
It also operates TOPSoccer, a program that brings soccer to middle and high school children with special needs.
The new uniforms will be unveiled next week.
