The music boomed, the metal fences rattled, spectators cheered and the most skilled soccer players in Concord rose to the top. On Friday night at Keach Park, dozens of kids, teenagers, and young adults flooded the court to play a futsal tournament organized by Samba X Player Development.

The primary purpose of the hard-court soccer matches is to bring the community together for outdoor fun, but it’s also grown into a way for players to work on technical skills by getting a lot of touches on the ball in tight spaces. 

Samba X is a club-neutral soccer training company created by Concord native and former UNH and Austin FC defender Chris Pinkham and his youth soccer teammate, Spencer Nowe, who’s the assistant coach for Merrimack Valley’s varsity boys’ soccer team. However, the idea for street soccer was not theirs.

Pinkham noticed local kids playing on the courts and started joining regularly, and eventually the movement snowballed. He told more people to come out, and they shared the opportunity with their trainees at Samba X.

“It got to a point where we had so many people, we’re just like, all right, we have to actually section this off properly,” Pinkham said. “We thought we had like less people to start off with, and now it’s just like we never left from last year, so it’s just really cool to get everybody together.”

Last fall, they hosted a similar youth street soccer tournament to celebrate Halloween at the Tri-town Outdoor Ice Rink in Hooksett, but this new program is meant to expand upon that.

It’s grown immensely, and Pinkham and Nowe expressed how grateful they are that people in the community are starting to recognize it’s value and support it.

The street soccer at Keach has three divisions: middle school, elementary school and high school, and up. It started two weeks ago and will run until the end of the summer, offering opportunities for young ballers to showcase their skills.

Dedieu Lukuse, from Concord High, has been playing at Keach for many years now. He’s trained with Samba X consistently for a while, and was excited to get back on the court Friday with so many of his good friends, he said.

“I think what Samba’s doing is really up in the community, because usually we’re all inside with nothing to do. But the whole community is here; we have like 100 people here, and it’s really good for the community. We’re all together,” Lukuse said.

The common language of football has brought together players from different corners of the state, and concentrated them on a tiny square, dimly lit by two lights as the sun set, all to become champions for a week. 

According to Nowe, it’s done wonders for Samba X, and inversely, they’re happy to keep growing the sport that they love. 

“It’s been nothing but positive feedback from the parents, players, it’s just a free event to bring everybody together. If you love the game, we're here to help you out,” he explained.