Kick It Forward is positively disrupting the soccer community

3/5/2025

The soccer community in Iowa is a strong one. There is a sense of belonging that spans generations of players who chose to play the game over Iowa’s more popular sports like football, basketball or wrestling. People like Ben Brackett and the members of the Kick It Forward (KIF) team want to continue to grow the game of soccer in the state.

Brackett played soccer growing up while attending Valley High School, where he won a state championship, and at Brown University. Brackett knew fellow members of KIF, including Blake Siberz and President and Founder Matt Sahag, from his playing days. Sahag started KIF in 2012. Brackett joined around 2017 after some life changes.

“I like to say we’re positive disruptors to the soccer community. We try to shake things up and do it just a little bit differently than it’s been done,” Brackett said.

Coaching was his way of giving back to the community, but after noticing a troubling trend in the soccer world, he decided to join forces with his friends. 

“You probably have some idea of how commercialized sports has become, especially in the past five-plus years. It started to feel like it was defeating the purpose of why we were doing it (coaching). All three of us have full-time day jobs. We just decided to do this (KIF) instead of where we were spending all our time, like playing or coaching in our off hours. Now we’re trying to do different things,” Brackett said.

Some of the ways KIF is positively disrupting the soccer community are through free youth clinics, setting up high school and adult tournaments, afterschool programming and extensive coverage of high school soccer.

“We do a game of the week and play of the week. We go to the state tournament and do post-game press conferences with the kids, and try and cover all the games, and do game recaps and stuff,” Brackett said. “If you grew up here, the Register was all over it back in the day. Every high school soccer game had a box score. I mean, I get it, things have changed a lot, but this is our way of trying to highlight it and use social media for a positive use.”

Another way KIF aids the growth of soccer is through the construction of mini-pitches that are popping up all over the state. KIF is now up to 50 total pitches with nearly 40 located in Iowa. 

“Our first one was at Berlin Aquatic Center, across from North (High School). Basically, we convinced the city to give us a space. We raised the money in a pretty funny, grassroots way. We did an eating contest and raised like $40,000 and then found some partners,” Brackett said.

Brackett had met with the city several times before finally being able to convince them to provide the space to build. Since then, the opportunities to place a site have come from several directions. Recently in Newton, it went through the Parks and Recreation group, then the city, and rounds of fundraising. Other times, the Krause Group has come calling and offered to fund 10 pitches as long as KIF can find the sites. 

“It’s amazing how many people say no when you say we’ve got a gift for you,” Brackett said. 

For those who accepted and are in locations that the group has pushed to get built, the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. 

“Originally in our 10-pitch project with Krause Group, Meredith Middle School was one of our sites. The administrators are like, ‘This is awesome. The kids play all the time. They go out at lunch, they play, they show up early to school and they play, they stay late and play. We love it,’ ” Brackett said.

By the end of the year, every Des Moines Public School middle school will have a mini pitch. 

Brackett says a lot of the success of the programs comes from connections made through soccer. 

“Krause family members played soccer with KIF members, and DMPS administrators played soccer growing up. These people didn’t have access to the sport they enjoyed in their youth, and this is their way of allowing today’s youth to have plentiful access to the game,” Brackett said. ♦