Vandals deface youth soccer fields

Angelique Flores

HUNTINGTON BEACH -- School, city and soccer officials are wondering

who’s responsible for the vandalism of a soccer field at the former

Meadow View Elementary School -- damage that will cost more than $4,000

to fix.

Last week, AYSO coaches found a large patch of dead, yellow grass and

soil where there had been more than 1 1/2 acres of a plush, green grassy

soccer field. Most of the playing space is now unusable.

“There’s the work and cost to fix it, and then wondering why someone

would do this,” said Mike Green, field coordinator for AYSO. “What else

do we have to face?”

While police have no witnesses to the crime, according to Sgt. Janet

Perez of the Huntington Beach Police Department, they are investigating

the vandalism.

Residents who have long opposed the fields because of the traffic and

the noise they create, said they don’t know who did it either.

“Anything’s possible,” said Sterling Wilson, a resident whose backyard

faces the school’s fields “You need to take action to create action.”

While other schools see their share of vandals, Ocean View School

District Supt. James Tarwater said he has never seen this much damage

inflicted on one campus.

AYSO members aren’t the only ones bothered by the incidents.

“If they’re vandalizing the school, when are they going to start with

the residents?” Wilson said.

Since AYSO moved in last year, they’ve seen incidents of broken glass

and nails spread across the parking areas. Locks to gates and sports

equipment storage bins have been cut off and stolen, and they have had

glue poured into the lock tumblers. Trash was removed from trash bins and

spread around the school building area.

“It’s sad to see something like this happen,” he said.

AYSO renovated the rundown soccer fields in 1998 with the help of a

youth sports grant in cooperation with the Ocean View district. The

soccer club’s region has already spent more than $85,000 on installation

and maintenance costs for the facility, which usually runs $20,000 a

year.

The damaged field will need to be replanted, and players won’t be able

to play on it for at least three months, after the regular soccer season

ends. Until then, games will be squeezed onto other fields around the

city where the rest of the 150 teams play. Because of a crunch for space,

these locations are made available on a week-by-week basis.

Over the past year, the soccer league has been battling with a few of

the residents over noise, traffic and parking problems, and the city and

district received many complaints about these issues.

“Living by a school, I knew there would be issues during the week, but

not of this magnitude on the weekends,” said Wilson, who has contacted

Tarwater with complaints about the noise, parking congestion, speeding

and trash.

However, not all residents are bothered by the parking and noise.

“It gets really busy, but I’ve never had any problems,” said Wendela

Cook, who lives across from the school.

“Everybody wants fields to play on, but nobody wants them in their

backyard,” said Ron Hagan, the city’s director of community services.