With soccer field space at a premium in Fairfax County, the Reston Soccer Association (RSA) donated $23,000 to Reston Association (RA) last year. The bulk of the donation went to field improvements to the recently renovated Lake Newport Upper field.
Last week, the RSA cried foul after the unexpected loss of that very same Lake Newport soccer field to adult teams, some of whom are not Reston-based.
After an Aug. 25 RSA board meeting, a letter endorsed by the RSA Board of Directors, was e-mailed to Larry Butler, RA parks and recreation director, complaining about the loss of the Lake Newport Upper field on Sunday mornings during the upcoming fall soccer season that kicks off on Sept. 6.
"This change came with no prior notification or discussion of the impact this would have on the youth players in Reston," wrote R.J. Dunn, director of field administration for RSA.
Dunn declined to comment on the situation, other than to say that representatives from RSA would be meeting with RA and the RA field scheduler on Wednesday. RA's scheduler, Mike McNamara, was on vacation last week. R.J. Dunn’s wife, Jay Dunn, president of the 1,600 player league, also declined to comment about the switch, other than to say the events have "been frustrating."
In an interview on Thursday, Butler said that the misunderstanding had essentially been resolved. "The immediate heat that came about from something that occurred here has now been quelled and everybody is going to get to play their games at generally the fields they want this fall," Butler said, sounding relieved. "We’ve got everything resolved for this fall, which was my main concern."
Butler said that the "oversight" occurred in his office. "The scheduling for this adult group on two time slots ran into the times that Reston Youth Soccer had wanted so we got that resolved. We will be meeting with Reston Soccer [this] week to discuss the whole thing and future scheduling issues, but from an immediate standpoint, we have the scheduling resolved."
Butler explained that one of the adult teams recently assigned to Lake Newport will be moving over to the Lake Fairfax field for three weekends this fall.
DUNN'S LETTER STATED that the upper field is used only on Saturday and Sunday for four under-14 National Capital Soccer League (NCSL) and Washington Area Girls Soccer League (WAGS) travel teams and the Reston Premier boys and girls teams.
"Of the eight time slots available on Sundays for the Lake Newport Fields, six are now allocated to adult soccer leagues and two for youth soccer," Dunn wrote.
In his letter, Dunn went on to complain that a majority of the players who stand to use the newly renovated Lake Newport field do not hail from Reston. The Washington International Soccer League has only one team from Reston and that league was awarded two of the Sunday morning time slots, Dunn wrote, adding that the one 26-person Reston-based team is made up 16 Reston residents and 10 non-Reston residents. In addition, the other nearly 100 adult players who will use the field on Sunday morning reside in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and other parts of Virginia, Dunn said. "Our players' parents pay over $5,000 per year to Reston Association in fees," Dunn wrote. "These youth players deserve a priority consideration for field usage."
Butler disputed the figures. "We just got a look at the distribution and essentially the adult team that is using the field is a Reston team, so there are some inaccuracies there," Butler said. "Our challenge is to provide fields to those Reston-based teams who request them and we try to do it equitably. What they question here is the equity of what we did and that is what we will discuss [this] week.
"The bottom line is that our fields are for all the, shall we say, proper users and it is true that Reston Soccer donated a little more than $20,000 to improve that field which certainly the association appreciates," Butler said. "But, we are not in the business of selling field time to the highest bidder. Reston Youth Soccer uses many of our fields, but that field happens to be the premier field. Their interest is to maximize their use of that field."
IN HIS LETTER to the parks and recreation director, Dunn explained that the Sept. 3 meeting between RA and RSA representatives would detail the decision process to allow a second adult league to use the Lake Newport field on Sundays this fall. Dunn also said he wanted to know why RSA was left out of the decision-making process that "resulted in a major disruption on our youth players," a disruption that resulted in the loss of all morning time slots for Reston’s Premier boys and girls teams.
According to the letter, at least 10 NCSL/WAGS games had to be rescheduled because of the decision, three games were moved out of Reston and RSA "now has a very limited availability of time slots for rescheduling games at Lake Newport Upper Field."
In addition to the $23,000 donation to help restore the Lake Newport field, according to the letter, RSA also donated $5,000 to RA to improve the Allread Field, a field they say was damaged by adult soccer teams playing on closed fields. "Reston Soccer Association members personally go out to these fields and chase teams off these fields on weekends when they are closed," Dunn's letter read.
Judy Impellizeri, commissioner of the under 13/14 RSA league, said it was her understanding that RSA would be given priority for the Lake Newport upper field after the $23,000 donation. But Impellizeri says there is a simple solution to the soccer field crunch: lights. "We don't have lighted fields, therefore the use of our fields is very limited during the day especially during the fall. Reston and Fairfax County really need to make sure there is more lighted space," she said. "If they would just light more of these fields, like Stratton Woods, it could resolve some of these issues for everyone's benefit. Fields are available, but if lights were put up, they would be much more available for everyone."