(First and third photos by Matthew J. Clark)

Local youth soccer players, families, and supporters gathered one week ago for a special screening celebrating women’s soccer. Event organizer Christine Clark sent this report:

Last Sunday (Oct 6th), Highline Soccer Association hosted a free film screening at the historic Admiral Theater to help raise funds for scholarships for their HSA Select players. The featured film was COPA ’71, a documentary about the long-forgotten story of how Mexico City hosted the first-ever Women’s World Cup Soccer tournament in 1971.

It’s an incredible and important documentary of how these pioneers helped create women’s soccer today. Interviews from players along with a historian bring this true event back to life thanks to Directors Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine and Executive Producers Serena and Venus Williams and Alex Morgan.

Over 200 people of all ages packed the Admiral. Jessica Pierce from Junction FC was also in the audience and made a very special announcement after the film – saying that Junction FC has big news in the near future that will further empower women in soccer in our community!

(Christine Clark and Jessica Pierce)

HSA Event Promoter Christine Clark said that “After seeing this film a year ago at SIFF, I knew it would be important for many more to see. I am a huge supporter of girls and women in sports and happy to help keep that movement moving forward. COPA ’71 has such an important message, so I was thrilled with our turn out and hope, in turn, all will tell their friends to see.” If you’d like to view the film, you can stream it on Amazon Prime, YouTube, Apple TV.

HSA would like to do a big shout-out to the Admiral Theater for their kindness and help with this event. Danny Ramos and partner Shoshana were fantastic.

If you’d like to make a donation to support youth soccer and give athletes a chance to play, you can donate to HSA via Venmo: @HighlineSoccerAssociation