Face off at Wallingford Field

If you or yours are one of the many members of the Seattle Youth Soccer Association (SYSA), you may want to check your schedule. The city has withdrawn Wallingford Field as a site for soccer practice and games for the Fall season, apparently with very little notice to the organizers and players.

In a letter to Tim Gallagher, Parks Superintendent, and Tom Rasmussen, City Council Member who chairs the Parks Committee, Duncan Munro, President of the Woodland Soccer Club, a SYSA club, explained the situation and appealed the decision:

I am writing in my capacity as President of Woodland Soccer Club to voice my frustration, and that of our 400 families impacted, in recent decisions from Seattle Parks and Recreation eliminating the use of Wallingford Playfield for Seattle Youth Soccer Association (SYSA) sanctioned practices and play in Fall 2009. If there was anyway to overturn this decision for the 8 weeks of our Fall 2009 season it would help enormously.

In July we were informed by the SYSA fields liaison, Phoebe Russell, that our club would be allocated Wallingford Field for practices and games in the Fall of 2009. We went ahead and planned practices for 50 teams of U6 – U8 players and games for 8 weekends involving four other SYSA clubs.

On Monday this week we were informed, without any prior consultation, that this field had been withdrawn from use in Fall 2009 because there is an immediate need to perform ‘turf-work’. We have dedicated at least 100 hours of volunteer time to planning and scheduling our Fall 2009 activities here and we now have to scramble to reallocate before the season starts on September 12th. […]

Woodland Soccer Club is one of 14 volunteer-run clubs that are members of SYSA. We currently have 852 players getting their soccer juices going for another season of soccer. In keeping with the philosophy of SYSA, we run programs that are non-ability based providing opportunities for all children to participate. In contrast to the majority of athletic activities which are sadly designed to exclude the less developed athlete, SYSA
and our club make a concerted effort to include all kids.

Woodland Soccer Club worked hard to support the Parks Levy via donations, lobbying community groups and placard waving and advocacy in a door-to-door campaign. Our collaborative outreach to Friends of Wallingford Playfield, Wallingford Community Council and Friends of Greenlake (you and I met there during our advocacy for conversion of Lower Woodland in Fall 2008) has made us a respected member of the community with a hard-earned reputation for finding the best solutions to issues.

I live very close to the Park and I fully appreciate the great work Parks does to maintain this field. I believe that as a consequence of the fact that Parks does not officially permit any scheduled athletic activities at this Park other than our program and the use of the field by Hamilton Middle School, it has paradoxically become the most over-used field in the neighborhood.

Every single day there are adult groups playing frisbee, rugby, soccer and volleyball on this field. Because no ‘field-closed’ signs went up in November this use continued in winter and damaged the field to an extent that I have never seen in the 10 years I have lived here.

I believe that Friends of Wallingford Park are opposed to scheduled activities there. I absolutely respect their desire to have open space available to all the community but I firmly believe that the current approach is hurting not helping the maintenance of this field.

I greatly appreciate your work with athletic organizations and recognize that we have made huge strides in providing capacity for all sports. I look forward to continuing to
work with you moving forward.

The club is encouraging its members to send polite messages to Tim ([email protected]), Tom ([email protected]), and Richard Conlin ([email protected]) and to cc: [email protected] in support of Duncan’s appeal.

9/1 3:57 pm update: The issue has been resolved! Read here for more info.