Soccer parents demand level playing fields

Adrienne Packer

Monday, Nov. 30, 1998 | 11:03 a.m.

They load their cars with squealing children decked out in muddy shorts, cleats and shin guards.

They slice dozens of oranges to replenish players at halftime. And they kick themselves in the legs in futile efforts to help their children boot the ball.

Soccer parents are a breed nobody should tangle with.

County commissioners and Las Vegas City Council members recently learned this lesson while fielding a flurry of phone calls from parents angry about their children having few places to play soccer.

Only three designated soccer fields exist in Clark County -- two in the city and one in the county at the privately run Sam Boyd Stadium, which parents say is a softball diamond converted into a makeshift soccer field.

That leaves youth soccer leagues battling over patches of grass to place 10,000 to 12,000 players. Meanwhile, miffed parents of soccer players watch more and more plans pop up for Little League baseball diamonds.

"The soccer moms have woken up, and they are mad," Marc Hechter, vice chairman of the Silver State Girls Soccer League, said. "There are two dedicated soccer fields in the city right now. In the county, we're basically using schools."

Hechter said that, for years, the soccer league and parents have been lobbying the county and city for more fields.

Someday, he said, a player will be seriously injured because the over-used baseball outfields transformed into temporary soccer fields are clumpy and too hard.

Hechter said soccer is one of the few gender-equity sports, but local governments tend to lean more toward male-dominated athletics when it plans for new sports facilities.

If local governments do not respond soon to the league's request, it may consider a more aggressive strategy to gain the attention of commissioners and council members.

"Is this a discrimination issue?" Hechter asked. "It probably is. The girls league has voted to begin soliciting legal advice to see if they have a legal claim."

Relief in the form of a major soccer complex may well be on its way. Where it would be built depends on who you ask -- Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone or Las Vegas City Councilman Larry Brown. Both preside over the northwest valley.

Two sites in the northwest have the potential of becoming major soccer centers. One is a 60-acre parcel south of Cimarron Memorial High School. The other is a 110-acre flood-control basin at Gowan Road and Tenaya Way.

Brown is trying to arrange for the basin to serve a dual purpose as a soccer complex. Work is under way on grading and seeding the floor of the basin.

But if Brown is successful with the basin project, Malone says he will push for the 60-acre parcel to be developed into Little League fields and basketball and tennis courts.

Brown, however, maintains that both sites should primarily serve to fill the need for soccer fields. He is optimistic that an arrangement satisfactory to both sides can be worked out.

"The city and county can absolutely work together," Brown said.

Because of a growth spurt that has lasted a decade, Brown said, the county and city parks departments are working feverishly to catch up. Clark County is crafting a master plan for parks, which the County Commission should have for review by early next year.

"There are two areas that have been neglected as far as youth athletics -- soccer fields and girls sports, which is growing as fast as anything around here," Brown said.

"We want to dismiss rumors that we're pro-baseball, or pro-this or pro-that. We just want to get everyone to buy in."

Malone said if the city fulfills the need for soccer fields in the northwest, he will address the need for more basketball and tennis courts.

"Soccer is becoming more prevalent, so we have to do what we can to meet those needs," Malone said. "People don't see city and county boundary lines. They only see there is not enough places for their kids to play."

Doreen Woodward, who is the mother of four soccer players who range in age from 16 to 4 years old, said that despite its popularity the sport simply does not get the respect it should.

The 10-and-under league, for example, was scheduled for night games on school nights throughout the season.

"We used to have only Saturday games; that's how much we've grown," she said. "You see football fields and baseball fields with lush green grass. Where are the soccer fields?"

She said toward the end of the season that games scheduled at E.W. Griffith Elementary School were canceled because of a renovation project. Construction crews installed a fence that dissected the field.

Woodward, who recently underwent knee surgery to repair damage sustained while walking across a soccer field, said she has heard the county and city discuss new fields before. She won't believe it until they are built and open.

"We have been promised the world," she said. "Our balloons have been deflated every time we turn around. At first we went with the flow thinking they will eventually go with us, but it never materializes."

Hechter emphasized the league would much rather work with local governments than file a lawsuit. But, he added, if the soccer community doesn't receive more fields by next season, league members will be prepared to battle elected officials.

"Soccer moms vote, football dads don't," Hechter said. "Soccer moms walk precincts; those are not the people to trifle with when they get mad."