Saratoga News Sports complexes at schools don't make sense By Nick and Karen Seroff We recently attended the meeting at Blue Hills School, which was held to discuss the development of Azule Park into playing fields for AYSO and possibly Little League. As parents with three sons who either have played or will play soccer in the future, parents of Blue Hills students and residents who would be impacted by the park development, we would like to express our concern over the plans of AYSO and the city of Saratoga. It was interesting to note that the fields that would be created by the various plans had changed from "practice fields" to soccer fields such as those at Congress Springs Park, which are used for games, practices, fall and spring soccer, clinics and camps. The nature of a development such as this could not help but negatively affect the residents of the Greenbriar neighborhood with incredible traffic, noise and safety issues. While we originally supported the development of practice fields in conjunction with a park at Azule, we would not think creating a Congress Springs type athletic park would be appropriate for a small neighborhood park in Saratoga. This type of development would be more suited to an area such as the Heritage Orchard property in Saratoga, adjacent to the Saratoga Community Library and city offices. That parcel is many acres, which are currently unused and cost the city significant funds in maintenance. Several other smaller park areas, such as Azule and Kevin Moran possess the same historical orchard trees, and the city could establish smaller heritage orchards there where they can be appreciated by city residents in a quieter setting. The current Heritage Orchard has a potential for plentiful parking, is centrally located and could even be rented out to nearby private schools or groups to generate income. The area is on the corner of two major roads and would present no major impact on residents since it is not adjacent to any neighborhoods. In addition, it could be developed to accommodate the large number of additional sports participants that AYSO predicts they will have. In regards to that subject, we think that if our Saratoga AYSO has had to turn away Saratoga residents in the past few years, perhaps they should consider limiting registration to Saratoga residents, rather than allowing players who live outside the city. Our children have had a significant number of players on their teams who live as distant as Fremont or Scotts Valley. If Saratoga AYSO wants to include players from outside Saratoga, they should require a surcharge for out-of-area players, like many other sports leagues do. These fees could assist in maintaining the city's facilities. Other sports, such as Little League, have boundaries to restrict the number of participants, why not AYSO? Residents of Saratoga have expressed a desire for more athletic venues. This is a wonderful idea, but we need to use our city resources wisely. Why create problems within the small elementary school neighborhoods when we have a perfect piece of property that would fit the bill sitting unused? Let's stop trying to fit a multifunctional sports complex into an elementary school play yard! Nick and Karen Seroff live on Seagull Way in Saratoga. [ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Saratoga News, December 16, 1998. ©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.