Mud has made a mess of youth soccer progress in Kootenai County.

Recent Facebook posts paint a dismal portrait of the decades-long plight of players.

"Fields are shut down for the remainder of the week. Games will be played this weekend," Sting Timbers FC posted Thursday.

"All Sting Timbers FC training is canceled tonight to preserve fields for the weekend," the club posted Wednesday. "Games at Skyway will go on as scheduled."

The tradition-rich, nonprofit organization which governs 40 teams comprised of 650 boys and girls has been held back by inclement weather — not just during the wettest October on record, but dating back to its inception 32 years ago.

Despite Mother Nature’s disapproval, Sting Timbers FC is still one of the more competitive clubs in the Northwest, earning myriad state championships — 24, the second most of any club in Idaho outside of Boise — while regularly pumping out college-level talent.

But the club formerly known as Sting Premier — it recently joined the Portland Timbers' Adidas-sponsored youth alliance — has even loftier goals. To reach them, it believes it can't practice seasonally or scramble for indoor space in such places as the unheated spaces of the Kootenai County Fairgrounds, churches or the hallways of schools.

Like the clubs STFC faces from metro areas, it, too, needs artificial turf fields and an indoor facility. It has relied primarily on Coeur d'Alene School District fields but isn’t allowed to use them in wet conditions due to cleats destroying the grass.

"Our inability to play year-round puts us at a major disadvantage to the clubs that do," said Mike Mongan, a Sting Timbers coach, board member and contractor.

This past spring the STFC board and others generated a plan to cultivate the needed facilities and soon worked out the logistics, including location, blueprints, fundraising efforts and permits.

Just a few months later, the club is on the verge of breaking ground on a 9.5 acre parcel on the corner of Prairie and Huetter soon to be dubbed "A Field For All Seasons." It will feature three full-sized turf soccer felds, an 80-by-180-foot indoor facility and ample parking.

Mike Thompson, the club's director of coaching, isn't surprised by the support it's taken to see the club's plan come to fruition, but he is taken aback by the swiftness of the process.

"I know the demand is here and I know how vibrant the soccer community is here," Thompson said. "When you bite off a project of this magnitude, it's hard to believe it's coming together like this."

Ideally, Thompson said, the project will be completed by spring 2017, but it will depend on how much fundraising is completed.

For the Field For All Seasons to be adequately funded, STFC will have to raise up to $1.5 million. It has already generated $300,000 in donations with a funding campaign spearheaded by Jim Faucher, who helped fundraising for the Kroc Center and Hospice House.

Construction will begin in early November on a section of prairie land located between the county's primary towns, Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Hayden and Rathdrum.

"It has good visibility right in the center of the county," said Matt Lyman, an STFC parent and financial adviser helping out on the project. "It's kind of a centrally-located area for them."

A house currently occupies the area, but the club plans to revamp it and turn it into the base for its offices.

It won't just be limited to youth soccer, either.

STFC wants the Field for All Seasons to be a community sports facility used for various sports, including football, baseball, softball and rugby. North Idaho College and local high schools have recently inquired about use of the facility once it's built.

"We're hoping it gets used by all the teams in the area," Lyman said. "We want to keep it busy all the time.”

Lyman said having more facilities, particularly those that can handle bad weather, enhances the region’s ability to host more tournaments, which bring more revenue to the area. STFC's annual Hot Shot Tournament in May, which attracts teams from around the Northwest and Canada, brings in an estimated $1.5 million to the local economy.

"A soccer complex will not only have a direct impact on our players but also on our community and local businesses," Lyman said.

For information on making a tax-deductible contribution and naming opportunities at the complex, contact Lyman at [email protected] or (208) 769-7095.