Soccer programs staying put

Amid concerns over recreation plans, in the immediate past and foreseeable future, the Clovis city commission upheld a lower committee decision to keep local soccer organizations at their current locations.

The 6-2 vote will keep the Clovis Youth Soccer Association inside Hillcrest Park, and the American Youth Soccer Organization at its current location at 14th and Norris streets.

Commissioners Randy Crowder and Juan Garza, who voted in dissent, expressed concerns that when a parks and recreation master plan was originally presented in 2010, it called for moving both soccer organizations into Hillcrest Park and use the old AYSO space for two additional softball fields for Guy Leeder Softball Complex.

Crowder said he's contended all along that the city needs to hire a professional planner, instead of doing a piecemeal process with parts of the former Clovis Municipal Golf Course — closed last year and absorbed into Hillcrest Park.

"It bothers me that we're doing this by the seat of our pants without a design," said Crowder, a longtime homebuilder. "If you build a house off a napkin, it's going to look like a home that was built off a napkin."

Representatives from both soccer organizations said putting both organizations in the park would create many difficulties, most notably that centralized parking would require hundreds of participants in one soccer organization to cross the other organization's playing area and potentially interfere with games or tournaments.

Commissioner Len Vohs said keeping the soccer organizations at their current position, on a permanent basis, did garner support from the Clovis Softball Association at the Parks, Recreation and Beautification Committee meeting. He added that not giving the organizations a permanent place to play was "kicking the can down the road."

Brenda Aragon, who handles scheduling for the CYSA and helps husband Don Aragon in his duties as president, said the association's move to Hillcrest Park this spring has generated much more interest than would be possible at its previous location at Bob Spencer Park.