by
posted 02/09/2019
Club,
It has been a wet start to the 2019 season. I know how frustrating it can be to have sporadic practices and continuously getting canceled. I can only remember one other year that it was wet this consistently half way through February.
The additional time we had at Mather for January was actually an anomaly. Elk Grove soccer played on Stonehouse field in late November after some wet weather and tore it up pretty bad. I was notified at that time that some PG Lacrosse teams would be displaced for as long as RMA decided it took for Stomehouse to recover. Elk Grove Soccer agreed to pay for field time at Mather for as long as RMA felt necessary for Stonehouse to recover. We booked the extra hours at Mather through February, however, RMA felt that after January, Stonehouse had recovered to the point that teams could not practice if the field was dry. Subsequently, and per our agreement, Elk Grove Soccer would no longer pay for us to use Mather.
PGLAX simply has never budgeted enough money for all teams to practice on turf fields. The rate for a turf field with lights is 95.00-110.00 per hour. As you can imagine, raising the registration fees in order to cover the hours needed would put the cost out of reach for many families.
I have reached out to some of the youth coaches and we are attempting to get them some field time during the next week on the turf field. We have set days and times per our contract and I realize these days and times my not work for some families.
In any case, please be patient with your coaches as they try to deal with weather and field issues. I honestly hate to complain about rain. Unfortunately, this is the nature of a lacrosse season and I promise you almost all other clubs in NCJLA are dealing with the same issues.
-Rob Brown
