Last September, the Rev. Ruth “Mother” Goodwin and dozens of other Brookland residents staged a protest on a soccer field at John Burroughs Elementary, preventing D.C. Stoddert League youth soccer games. Goodwin, an advisory neighborhood commissioner, gave the following rationale: “No one has ever come to John

Burroughs to even offer to teach our children to play soccer” (“Kicking and Screaming,” Oct. 3, 2003). D.C. United’s community-relations honchos read Goodwin’s words and sent a letter to her last fall offering to put on a “Kicks for Kids” clinic at Burroughs taught by United players and other volunteers. The team never received a response, says Doug Hicks, its vice president for communications. But the letter wasn’t lost in the mail: At an April 28 advisory neighborhood commission meeting, Goodwin brought up the letter and introduced a resolution to formally rebuff the team’s offer, which the commission adopted. “They aren’t interested in soccer,” she told the commission. “They just want that field.” Hicks says D.C. United’s offer stands. —Mike DeBonis