User:Andrewkoper/sandbox

The Corktown Pheasants are a soccer team in the Detroit City Futbol League (DCFL), known as "neighborhood soccer" in Detroit. Neighborhood soccer is an adult, co-ed, recreational league where the teams are based on neighborhoods in Detroit. It is the 6th division in the US soccer pyramid.

The Corktown Pheasants are one of the thirteen original teams from when neighborhood soccer started in 2010. The Pheasants represent the Corktown neighborhood in Detroit. Corktown is the neighborhood immediately west of Downtown that got its name by being settled by many immigrants from Cork County, Ireland during the potato famine in the mid 1880's.

When Sean Mann started neighborhood soccer, it was before the many, many billions of dollars had been invested in the heart of Detroit in the 2010's, and its goal was to "bring together residents of the city via the beautiful game of soccer." Participants used the game to get to know people in their neighborhoods, in other neighborhoods in the City, had a lot of fun with it and the league grew via word of mouth in ensuing years. Neighborhood soccer had 32 teams and approximately 800 participants in the summer before the Covid pandemic.

Neighborhood soccer's main season is all summer long. The Copa Detroit is an all-day, end-of-season tournament to determine the best team. Players on teams have to do volunteer work in the City to be able to play. Detroit City FC handles a lot of the administrative tasks of the league. Neighborhood soccer teams play indoor soccer at the DC FC Fieldhouse in the winter.

The Pheasants first captain was Ben Steffens. The all-time leading goal scorer is Matt Milia. The all-time caps leader is Andrew Koper. Several of the co-owners of DC FC played on the Pheasants together. Alex McQuiston designed the team's logo (he also designed DC FC's logo).

A pheasant was chosen as the team's logo because there were blocks in Detroit where many houses had been torn down, long grass was growing in the lots and wild pheasant lived there, and because it was ironic and funny because most sports teams have fierce animals like bengals or lions as their mascots.