Managing a balancing act

Over the past few years, there have been challenges -- just like

anywhere else in the county -- in allocating playing field time

fairly in Costa Mesa. Though the situation continues to improve,

challenges still await and exist.

On Thursday, City Editor James Meier sat down with Mike Barr, the

commissioner of American Youth Soccer Organization Region 120, which

covers most of Costa Mesa, to discuss these issues and challenges.

What’s the latest on the Farm Soccer Complex fields’ allocation?

Most of the issues that we’ve had in the past have been resolved.

The only outstanding things we’re still working on with the [Costa

Mesa city] staff is the Sunday play, maintenance. Really, we’d like

the fields to rest to keep the conditions nice and we appreciate that

and are trying to work with that.

We also have like to do an occasional training of some of our

coaches and referees on the Farm and staff’s current position is it’s

adults and they shouldn’t be out there. The allocation is clear that

it is a site for the kids. And we do appreciate that, but we feel

that training our volunteers is part of the benefit for the kids. The

Farm has all of the facilities we need -- restrooms, goals and fields

are already set up. We go to other sites and we don’t necessarily

have all of those accommodations. They made a nice facility and we

try to use it as much as we can.

Generally speaking, everything’s going pretty smoothly. The city

does use two of the fields for flag football on Saturdays and we

would sure like them to change that policy. We know it is a sports

complex, but obviously it was built for soccer in mind. We’d sure

like to get this field back for soccer.

You said you’d like the fields to be rested. Does anyone play on

Monday nights?

We use them for practices Monday. We do have games during the week

on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We do have some weekdays

scheduled, but a lot of people practice there during the week, too.

What is the season for AYSO?

Well, it’s gotten so large that we actually have two seasons. Our

main season is the fall; we’ll go first weekend after Labor Day

through, basically, Thanksgiving. Then we have a spring season that

runs mid-March through the end of May.

So what takes up those fields during the winter and summer?

We have some all-star teams, some advanced play teams that are

continuing play in January and February and we try to get them to

practice at other sites when we can. We want to have the Farm rest,

too, when we can.

One of the other issues with the city is lit fields and the Farm

has the lit fields that we so desperately need in the winter.

What can be done to resolve that?

Well, it’s really tough. If the weather’s the good and there’s not

a lot of rain, the city’s pretty good about letting us use it. But

I’ve had three meetings with the maintenance people and, if the

fields get soggy, the cleats tear them up, so it’s out of everybody’s

control.

In January, we work to get the TeWinkle Middle School site.

There’s lit fields there that we use. And TeWinkle Park, but they’re

in the process of redeveloping that area and the last plan I saw, we

were going to use that utility field because it’s going to be all

baseball or softball. AYSO and my predecessor donated $50,000 to the

city for more lights at TeWinkle and the neighbors there are fighting

it. The last I heard, it’s probably not going to happen. Staff’s

looking at other options, but it takes time. I understand that and

we’re trying to work with the neighbors as much as we can.

Are there any certain time restrictions?

Most of the coaches are done by 7 p.m. With the younger children,

I like them to be out of there by 5 to 6 p.m. at the latest. They

really don’t need to practice late. Some of the older kids, the high

school kids, can go to 8 or sometimes 9 p.m. We have the permits

until 9 o’clock at the Farm and TeWinkle. And, again, we’re trying to

work with staff so that when we’re not practicing, we’ll get the

lights turned off. And it just takes time. We’ve got 130 volunteer

coaches that we to communicate with as much as we can, but we always

have a few who we have a hard time getting in touch with.

What are the procedures for once practice ends. Say it ends at 7

p.m., what’s the procedure in getting the lights turned off?

If we can confirm that no coaches are practicing, I believe the

Farm is on a timer and they can contact the contractor and they can

adjust the timer and lights to go off. TeWinkle has a manual switch.

In the past, we’ve have neighbors and parents keep an eye out and if

there’s no one there, go over and turn the lights off. If the lights

remain on, the neighbors call the city and that’s just one more area

we’re trying to work on smoothing out.

What other jobs and tasks do you have as commissioner?

I spend a lot of time working with the cities as has been my

initial push. I think our relationship with the parks and recreation

staff is very good right now. Learning the job as much as anything.

Coordinating the board. Our board has 24 members; they all do

different jobs and there’s a lot of follow-up there, making sure jobs

get done. Recruiting coaches, setting up fund-raisers, registration

-- that’s a big part. Once those functions are done, it tends to

settle down a little bit.

At times, it gets a little bit crazy. When you get closer to the

start of the season. Everyone wants to know who their coach is and

why they haven’t called. “Well, they’re on vacation. They’ll call you

when they get back.”

Some of our advance-play teams play other teams in Orange County

and we have to coordinate that schedule along with the other

commissioners in the area and allocate fields for their play time.

That takes some time, putting the teams together and getting the

fields for them.

Commissioner also has to attend a couple of meetings -- a national

meeting AYSO holds.

Is field allocation a problem throughout the county?

Definitely. I think one of the big problems, talking to other

organizations -- Little Leagues -- is fields are tight. Nonprofits

who have a lot of volume tend to use up a lot of the fields. I know

that’s the cooperation we have with the city of Costa Mesa. They’re

very good at trying to get us the fields that we need, but where they

come back to us is they’ll have other organizations and private clubs

and adult leagues that want to come in and use the facilities also.

And they’re not necessarily Costa Mesa programs that come into this

area and try to use the fields. It’s definitely an issue.

From our perspective, we’d like to see as few outside

organizations as possible because we need the fields to rest, too.

They don’t want us to dictate the rest period; they want to manage

that and I appreciate that too, but our program is a Costa Mesa

program and with volunteers, we do not necessarily have the control

of all of our volunteers as we would like. We work on it and the

problems change from year to year, with different coaches. It’s

always a moving target, but one way we recruit our volunteers is you

get to practice where you want. We have these fields and the coaches

get to decide.

One of the things the city has requested is to try and figure out

a way to schedule practices with coaches and, honestly, I don’t have

the time this year. I’m still learning the position and we can look

into doing that, but, again, if we have 14 kids who need a coach and

this guy says “I need to practice here; it’s the only way I can do

it,” you see the dynamics get a little bit crazy when you have 130

coaches to juggle.

It never seems there’s enough fields. Is soccer too popular?

I believe Costa Mesa has enough fields to support our program

along with Region 97 -- Newport Beach -- which also has a

considerable number of Costa Mesa residents. Tony Anish, who’s the

commissioner of Region 97, uses two or three fields in Costa Mesa for

his program also. I think that with what the city has available and

the number of kids playing, I think Costa Mesa has enough. Again, the

question is when the outside organizations come in, that’s when

there, we feel, becomes a conflict.

The Costa Mesa and Estancia high school programs play at the Farm.

They came to us and asked if they could use the fields because we

have the permits. And, absolutely. Those are Costa Mesa schools and

kids. We’re trying to support those programs, too. They support us

with fund-raisers we do in tournaments. We make donations to their

program for that support. That kind of overlap we have no problem

with. We think that’s great and important.

When clubs from Huntington Beach and Orange and Cerritos come in

and get permits on the fields, that’s when it becomes a hot button

for us and our board.

So there definitely are groups from as far as those cities?

In the past, someone could come in and pull an application if the

field’s available. I do not believe there is a requirement of Costa

Mesa residency. The difference is AYSO here is given the fields. We

do not have to pay for them because we are Costa Mesa. The outside

programs do have to pay for fields. Like I said, it’s been an issue

for our past board members.

But I have to stress we have very good rapport with the city right

now and it continues to improve. The allocation process is pretty

new. It’s only been in place for a couple of years. It’s new for the

staff members, too. So there is going to be a learning curve. It’s a

six-month allocation and they ask us to be very specific. It’s very

hard when you don’t know how many teams and coaches you’re going to

have. I don’t want to have a permit for a field and have it sit

empty, especially if somebody local wants to use it. We’re all just

doing it for the kids to play.

Now, with you as a Newport Beach resident, what drew you into

Region 120? I live at the end of 19th Street by Talbert Park and my kids go to

Victoria Elementary School and my oldest daughter goes to TeWinkle,

so everything I do is in Costa Mesa. And I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

There’s a lot of great people and volunteers. They drive the program.

Any final thoughts?

AYSO is the largest youth organization in the country and it

continues to grow. The backing we get from national helps smooth out

some of the work for volunteers, but there’s always going to be

challenges when you’re dealing with volunteers. We’ve got 1,400 kids

in our program, about 1,100 families and 150 to 200 volunteers

running the program, so it’s a lot of people doing a lot of work. We

would help that all of the people who benefit appreciate all of the

work all of these volunteers do, not just me, but everybody -- the

coaches, the referees. There’s a long list of volunteers. Many don’t

have kids in the program.

The other thing I’m trying to do is work very closely with Costa

Mesa National Little League, because we share the fields with them.

We feel working together we can resolve many of the problems that are

being raised at TeWinkle school. We’re working with the same kids and

on the same problem, so we work together.

The other thing we’re trying to do is get more of the kids on the

Westside more involved in our program. There’s a club at Rea

Elementary School that we’ve been having conversations with to get

them involved in our program.