At a Town Hall to discuss field space and other Parks & Recreation amenities, County Chairman Corey Stewart received input from community leagues and hinted after the meeting at plans for new county facilities.
Purpose of the Meeting
Prince William youth league coaches, parents and children met in the auditorium of the A.J. Ferlazzo government complex building in Woodbridge Wednesday evening to discuss the need for more field space, lights and facilities for youth sport leagues with supervisors and Prince William Parks & Recreation staff members.
Parks & Recreation Director Debbie Andrews ran the meeting as an open forum for citizens with a three-part structure. Andrews asked citizens to first vocalize the needs of their leagues, then suggest how to fund new initiatives, and lastly, offer what their league could do to help solve the overall problem.
Citizens voiced their concerns that current facilities were insufficient and discussed options to improve upon existing facilities, better utilize existing facilities and open some new ones.
“It’s taken a long time for us to get into this situation. We’ve had a ton of population growth,” said one soccer parent. “The problem is not rocket science - a lack of quality fields, infrastructure, lights, parking, restrooms. How do we get beyond that? It’s going to be a difficult solution. It’s going to require all of us partnering up with the schools.”
The Concerns
Parents brought up various points about the inefficiency of the current field use system. Many fields sit idle, when teams need a place to play. High-school fields are not open to use by community leagues, and other fields are considered booked, even when no one is using them.
Coaches and parents explained that while they understand school athletic directors want their fields to be properly maintained, they felt it was much more feasible to optimize the games at existing fields before incurring the expense of new fields.
Citizens further vocalized that although they pay field maintenance fees, they do not see the fields maintained to their liking. Some suggested it would be more cost-effective in the long run to install turf fields, which require less maintenance.
One father said it would be safer as well, as football players sustain more head injuries from crashing into the hard ground than into each other.
Parents also made the point to the supervisors that an investment in better fields is an investment in the county. Parents said their fields are clearly substandard in comparison to those in Fairfax and Loudoun.
“It’s an embarrassment when you bring Fairfax down to Prince William County,” one parent said.
Those counties also capitalize on their fields by holding tournaments that attract teams from around the state, and bring in money for county businesses such as hotels and restaurants, parents noted, and they work collaboratively with their local high schools.
Growing Popularity of New Sports
While the county was designed with football, baseball and soccer fields in mind, sports like lacrosse and rugby have been increasingly growing in popularity without having the necessary field space allotted to them.
The largest turnout of parents and coaches at the meeting came from two youth lacrosse leagues: Prince William Lacrosse Club and Brigade Youth Lacrosse in Gainesville.
“ is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. with a 37 percent growth each year,” said Brigade lacrosse parent Theresa Henry.
Henry explained that Brigade Youth Lacrosse already has over 800 members; they have been yielding players to Fauquier leagues because they lack the field space to start new teams.
Lacrosse parents agree the most pressing problem is field space. There are not enough Park Authority fields so they have had to privately rent out church fields - or more accurately field “areas” - since they are unmarked and without amenities.
Mid-county citizens involved in Prince William Lacrosse Club shared their frightening stories of their children playing on a substandard Independence Hill Field too close to the county landfill.
“We literally play on a dump at Independence Hill,” said one young man. “I literally find chicken bones everywhere. Wildcats, Grizzlies, they have amazing facilities lights, no mud patches every two feet.”
Ryan Tice, who coaches both youth and high school lacrosse at Woodbridge Senior High School said a sport will never be truly competitive without a feeder system for younger children.
Sports with smaller memberships, like rugby, said they were also unable to accept new players because they lack the field space.
Unlike field sports, swim leagues have made maximum use of existing facilities but the hours have been getting both excessively earlier and later to accommodate more teams. One swim mother said that even she was surprised to learn there were now 38 swim leagues in the county, but to accommodate them, swimmers practice from 5 a.m. to as late as 11 p.m.
Established sports, like football, soccer and baseball, were still short of field space, and with daylight savings time, said that lights would help them make better use of existing fields.
Brentsville District Youth Baseball, a Cal Ripken, Babe Ruth League in Nokesville, noted that while they have a “majestic” field along Aden Road, they have no lights, and thus they have lost some players to the Gainesville leagues.
Solutions
Ryan Tice, lacrosse coach for Woodbridge Senior High School and youth teams told the supervisors they needed an overall strategy. He wanted to hear ideas from supervisors; he suggested an integrated system to monitor what fields were available. He also agreed that high schools should put their fields to use.
Rugby Commissioner John Jacobs asked that Parks & Recreation design more multi-use fields, an idea to which everyone seemed receptive.
One gentleman suggested the county team up with corporate sponsors to fund new fields that could take on a corporate name such as “Dick’s Sporting Good” or “Verizon.” The sponsor would get increased visibility and the county would get a quality field.
One man suggested that instead of buying a bond the usual way, the county seek citizen investors. He said that since government bonds are a safer bet, many people would prefer to invest in them than in the stocks.
Some parents said they would be willing to pay nominal fees to a commission that would use the funds to build a new field each year to provide better amenities while trying to distribute them fairly across the county.
Stewart's Plans for New Facilities
After the meeting, Stewart hinted at a plan to work with corporate, public and private sponsors to build an indoor sports complex, similar to the Michael & Son Sportsplex at Dulles.
He also said he is “hopeful” that high schools will work with the county to open up more field space, but that he also understood their hesitancy to do so.
“We are sensitive to schools' concerns associated with maintenance costs,” he said.
Stewart said the Board of County Supervisors are also in discussion with the School Board about these issues. He also told citizens that the School Board is interested in solving these issues, but they are just working with more “urgent” concerns at the moment.
Stewart said he is looking both to short- and long-term answers to providing more field space and facilities. He said it might involve a referendum, however, he specified that on the other hand, a referendum might not be needed, and there is some money to work with in the short-term.
Stewart said he is interested teaming up with a corporate sponsor for an indoor track and field facility, but he does not see that as an answer to all new facilities, saying it probably would not work for an aquatic center. Stewart had said last weekend, that he believes new amenities work to attract new businesses to communities.
Supervisors Pete Candland-R, Gainesville; Frank Principi-D, Woodbridge; Maureen Caddigan-R, Potomac, John Jenkins-D, Neabsco.
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