2021-09-29-REC-min-att - Laserfiche WebLink

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w uir l;iii IN IN 31 IN i I September 29, 2021 Lexington Recreation Committee, We would like to bring to the committee's attention some issues regarding scheduling of athletic fields that affect usage by Lexington United Soccer Club(LUSC). We believe these merit attention when considering overall field capacity planning,field allocation, and coordination between town departments. As a reminder, LUSC provides soccer opportunities at diverse levels for Lexington children in grades K- 12.The club typically has 1300-1400 children enrolled each season, almost all of which are Lexington residents. This season we have 51 travel teams (4t"-8t"grade), 18 in-town teams (3rd-4`"grade) and 45 teams in our Saturday Diamond program (K-2nd grade). We believe LUSC's programs represent an important feeder for the LHS soccer programs as well as providing important recreational outlets for Lexington youth. Most LUSC teams have two weekday practices in the 5.30-8.30pm timeslot. Access to fields in this timeslot is critical to a functioning program, especially the turf fields that are much more resilient to weather and heavy use.Typically, LHS uses the fields until 5.15pm, allowing youth sports such as LUSC to have access from 5.30pm. We believe we have a cooperative relationship with the LHS Athletics department and we share common goals. In previous seasons, LHS has occasionally scheduled games on the Lincoln 2 lighted field,typically once or twice. With that background we would like to note the following issues: 1. Increasing use of turf fields by LHS on weekday evenings This season, LHS has scheduled use of Lincoln 2 through the 5.30-8.30pm period on six weekdays. This is a significant increase that impacts our field access, especially later in the fall when only lighted fields can be used. From discussions at the Sports Advisory Council convened by the Recreation Department,we understand that this increase is in part due to a shortage of match officials,so that games have to be scheduled back-to-back instead of in parallel. In addition to the impact this season, we are concerned that this trend will continue to increase in the future. 2. Encroachment of LHS games into LUSC permitted time With LHS use ending shortly before 5.30pm, we have experienced multiple instances of LHS activities running over and eating into LUSC's permitted field time. As an example, on Friday September 10, LUSC's teams were not able to access Lincoln 1 or Lincoln 3 until about 6.15pm due to LHS games over-running. While the reasons for this are understandable (visiting team's travel was