The Vineyard Football Association is celebrating its 20th year hosting Martha’s Vineyard’s premier adult coed summer soccer league, with the eight-week season set to begin on Tuesday, June 28, and games scheduled on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 5:30 and 6:45 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven.

Since 1991, the VFA has offered a unique soccer experience by populating five of its six locally sponsored teams (Coop de Ville, Monto Orthopedics, MV Celtic, Shirley’s Hardware and Sports Haven) exclusively by player draft. The remaining team (Atlantic Football Club) is a youth (high school aged) development team. Unlike most other adult sports leagues, the VFA founding fathers knew that team parity makes for better league competition, so each year new teams are formed, new relationships are developed and new champions earn the coveted Gilbert-Hammond Cup.

By eliminating the opportunity for teams populated with players of similar socio-economic backgrounds to enter the league, the VFA instead provides individual players a mechanism for voluntary integration around the beautiful game. Because soccer is the most popular sport in the world, with a single undisputed governing body in the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), it is one of the few institutions which can transcend borders, religion, economies, and politics. Soccer (or football as it’s called outside the U.S.) is played the same in Nome, Alaska as it’s played in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in London, England, in Kabul, Afghanistan and in Harare, Zimbabwe.

The VFA has “leveled the playing field” so relationships can be made which otherwise would not occur. A Jamaican landscape laborer plays defense in support of his goalie, an American orthopedic surgeon from Chilmark. A Brazilian carpenter receives a pass from a Polish HVAC technician at midfield. A British bartender scores a goal off a corner kick taken by a fellow forward, who happens to be in the copper business and is from Argentina. A veteran year-round contractor tackles the ball off his son, who is back from college for the summer. By working together for a common goal, people from all walks of life can learn about other cultures, become more comfortable around people who are different and accept the diversity that makes up our world. The VFA is honored to do its part to introduce lifelong friends in soccer.

The VFA 2011 Summer League games are 60 minutes. If you are an experienced and fit soccer player, registration is now open. For more information and to download a player registration form, visit online vineyardfa.com or pick up a player registration form from Sports Haven, located at 5 Beach street in Vineyard Haven, noon to 6 p.m. weekdays or Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more information, contact VFA president Neal A. Sullivan at 508-446-1961.