Can they see the light?

What started as a battle for space has mushroomed into a tussle for

towers for several youth sports organizations wishing to do business

in Costa Mesa.

The downward march to September signals the rapidly approaching

start of soccer and football seasons, along with shrinking daylight.

The fleeting hours of sunlight, which receive a kick-start when

daylight saving time hits in late October, are causing anxiety

ripples across Costa Mesa Pop Warner, a youth football league with

158 registered players this season, board member Ron Nugent said.

Nugent, along with parents and players, are wondering how teams

will complete the required minimum six hours of practice per week --

once the regular season starts -- for the final seven weeks once

daylight saving hits Oct. 30.

The first five hours are accounted for -- Pop Warner teams will

practice from 4 to 9 p.m. Wednesday nights at TeWinkle Middle School.

The remaining practice time and location remains undecided after

recreation officials issued Pop Warner teams practice time on Friday

nights.

One problem:

Per league rule, Pop Warner teams may not practice 24 hours or

less before games, held on Saturdays.

Nugent said league officials weren’t asked about the Friday

scheduling despite prior mention during public comment portions of

City Council meetings.

Ruth Raheb, recreation supervisor for the city, said an

application submitted by Pop Warner officials indicated the desire to

secure field space for Friday.

The number of Costa Mesa residents is crucial in allocating

precious field space to youth sports organizations in the city.

Soccer teams, primarily those affiliated with two American Youth

Soccer Organization regions (97 and 120), along with Pop Warner and

Costa Mesa American and National Little Leagues, inundate the city

with field space requests.

Demand has and continues to exceed supply, in requests for space

and time of day.

“We have a huge lighted-field shortage,” Raheb said.

Nugent said league officials have begun inquiries with the

Newport-Mesa Unified School District to possibly erect portable light

towers at school sites.

Attempts to switch days with other teams have failed thus far,

Nugent said. He has contacted Orange Coast College officials about

using their facility, but the $275 for a minimum four-hour block and

$250 for lights outpaces the league’s resources, Nugent said.

Nugent is worried the uncertain practice future could have

detrimental impacts for the league.

If teams don’t practice at least six hours during the season, they

forfeit the game and may be fined, Nugent said.

Pop Warner’s plight illustrates the growing need for facilities to

house young athletes.

In the fall season, Pop Warner competes with AYSO regions 97 and

120 for lighted field space. This season, 3,000 children from soccer

and football are vying for three fields -- Nos. 1 and 2 at the Farm

Complex and TeWinkle Middle School.

Region 120 contains about “99 percent” Costa Mesa residents, while

60 percent of region 97’s players hail from Newport Beach, said Jana

Ransom, recreation manager for the city of Costa Mesa.

Critics question why an organization with a majority of residents

living outside the city boundaries would garner greater field usage.

“The City Council has told us to consider [region 97 teams] as

Costa Mesa residents,” even if they live in a neighboring city,

Ransom said.

Group 1 users receive top priority when it comes to field

allocation in Costa Mesa. These are nonprofit organizations, such as

AYSO or Little League, which usually employ “everyone plays”

philosophies, Ransom said.

Region 97 teams play a bulk of their games at Kaiser Elementary

School, located in Costa Mesa, Ransom said. Portable field lights had

been used at Kaiser for several years, but the City Council upheld a

decision by the Parks and Recreation Commission in May to prohibit

the fixtures. Residents had complained the lights were too bright and

the field was too small.

In Costa Mesa, allotment of fields during both day- and nighttime

hours hinges on the number of Costa Mesa residents registered in each

sports league.

AYSO 120, with 1,800 Costa Mesa residents, receives 60 percent of

all available lighted fields followed by region 97 at 30 percent of

lighted fields and Pop Warner at 10 percent. Ninety percent of Pop

Warner’s 158 players reside in Costa Mesa, Nugent said.

Pop Warner teams currently practice Monday through Thursday at

fields Nos. 5 and 6 at the Farm Complex.

Kirk Norton, who coached the last two seasons in Pop Warner, said

space was at a premium on the grass last fall.

“It was tight as can be,” Norton, a three-sport athlete at Newport

Harbor High in the late 1970s, said. “We could not run kickoffs or

punts.”

With the help of friends, Norton said he raised $15,000 in hopes

of installing temporary lights at the Farm last season, but came up

short. Teams then moved to TeWinkle Park, but the facilities were

hardly plush, he said.

“There was one field that four teams were practicing on,” Norton

said. “There were no facilities for a snack bar, the bathrooms were

rough.”

TeWinkle Park, in prior years, has offered space for Pop Warner to

practice, but renovation at that facility will likely begin next

month. A third softball field will be added while the existing two

softball diamonds and baseball field will be renovated at the

facility, which houses mainly adult recreation leagues. Raheb said

soccer teams use outfield portions of baseball fields as “overlay” to

conduct practices or games.

Raheb said she received an inquiry from a Pop Warner coach about

installing temporary lights last season at the Farm fields, but

didn’t hear anything further.

Temporary lights have never been installed at the Farm Complex,

Raheb said.

Temporary lights can carry safety and noise concerns.

Chemicals can leak from the bulbs and, if the structures sit on a

school site, children may climb and try to turn them on, Ransom said.

But Raheb said advances in lighting technology have toned down the

noise and bright gleams that could irritate nearby homeowners.

“[The lighting] is much more directed, on a shorter pole,” Raheb

said.

Ransom said lighting a soccer field can cost $300,000.

Possible sites for temporary lights include pitches at Davis

School, and at Fairview Developmental Center. The latter is

state-owned land.

The Fairview property could hold as many as four soccer fields, if

state officials grant approval, Raheb said. Lease terms are being

finalized with hospital officials.

If state officials grant approval, work would then begin to fill

the many gopher holes that litter the property, along with leveling

and reseeding the field.

The fields would not be used this year, Raheb said.

Raheb is hopeful the school district would lease properties, such

as Davis School, to the city, to help install temporary lights.

Who would foot the bill for such lights is undecided, Raheb said.

Norton wonders where the money is for youth teams, which he said

are the building blocks of the future.

“We’re in one of the richest counties in the world and we can’t

afford to have real nice facilities for all the teams to practice and

play on?” said Norton, who advocates installing a synthetic surface

at Davidson Field to house youth sports games.

“We are 98% built out,” Ransom said of Costa Mesa. “[Land] will

have to be redeveloped or someone will have to put up the bucks to

influence property acquisition.”

ABOUT THE SERIES

Today is the fifth part of a six-part series the Daily Pilot is

producing as we examine youth sports in Newport-Mesa and how it

measures up in our changing culture. We will try to answer several

questions affecting youth athletes, parents and coaches in today’s

sports-minded society. Today is a report on the debate over field

space in the city of Costa Mesa.

The sports editor.