SUN VALLEY : Neighbors, Soccer Group Cite Problems

Littering, drinking and noisemaking in a Sun Valley neighborhood have set a local Neighborhood Watch against a youth soccer group, although both sides say they want to solve the problem.

Paul Bobek, head of a Sun Valley Neighborhood Watch, said that when the youth soccer group started playing at the Sun Valley Middle School on weekends, several problems in that neighborhood increased. Bobek cited parking problems, public drinking, as well as diapers and beer cans being strewn on neighbors’ lawns.

Tony Alcala, who started the Sun Valley Youth Soccer Group after waiting three years for the school district’s permission, said the trouble is not caused by his group, but is a long-standing problem caused by weekend trespassers at the school. He started the soccer group to give the kids an alternative to drugs and crime. The youths play Saturdays and the adults who teach them play Sundays.

Emilio Garcia, the middle school principal, said he did not know who was causing the problem, but that the soccer group takes good care of the field and school grounds. “On Monday mornings, the campus is exceptionally clean,” Garcia said.

On Thursday night, Councilman Richard Alarcon held a meeting between the two groups.

“It’s just a problem of a lack of communication,” said Alarcon spokesman Arturo Gonzales. Alarcon’s office is trying to arrange further meetings between the two sides.

Bobek said Alcala has worsened the problem by defining it as whites who object to a Latino activity. He said Alcala came to a recent Neighborhood Watch meeting and said whites should move out if they do not like how the community is changing.

“That’s a lie, I never said that,” Alcala said Friday.

“I’m Hispanic,” said Vickie Aguilar, a Neighborhood Watch member who lives near the school and supports Bobek. “There is no prejudice at all. We just don’t want all the noise from the men.”

Aguilar said she does not have any complaints about the youths playing soccer, but that adult players block driveways with their cars, drink beer and urinate on neighbors’ lawns.

On Friday, both sides expressed regret that the issue threatened to split apart the community.

“We want to keep our community together,” Bobek said.

Alcala, who lives a block from the school, said soccer players and the adults in the group park their cars on the school grounds. They also are required to clean up the school property after playing. He said they also hope to organize neighborhood cleanups.

Alcala added that he is the first person to call police when he sees someone drinking or breaking the law.

“There’s a lot of things we can do as a community,” Alcala said. “I think it’s a waste of time. We could be using all this energy to do other things instead of fighting.”