- AH
- Gabriel Rapier
Thirty-six-year old Gabriel Rapier grew up in the Central District, where soccer was a big part of his life—until, one day, it wasn’t. “Soccer was too expensive,” Rapier says of joining private teams, which can charge hundreds or thousands of dollars per season.
Now there’s a type of street soccer—a more affordable option—gaining popularity in Seattle thanks to Rapier, a former librarian who’s returned to his childhood neighborhood with futsal (pronounced FOOT-sol). It’s a five-on-five game that’s popular worldwide, with a smaller, heavier ball, on a handball-size court. Rapier has been approaching schools and after-school centers in an effort to bring everyone into the game, including kids in the Central District and Rainier Valley for whom private outdoor soccer teams are too expensive.
Futsal is “amazingly popular,” says Leschi Elementary principal Rhonda Claytor, who brought Rapier on as a playground attendant (meaning the kids now play futsal at recess). And this year, Rapier worked with the city to transform one half of a dilapidated, largely unused tennis court at Judkins Park into a gleaming, gray-and-lime-green futsal court. With donated cans of paint, Rapier painted the whole thing over the summer, and he hopes it’s the first of many futsal courts around the city.