Open Letter to the Town Board

Dear Jan,

Once again, I urge the Town Board to take action now and build two fields at the Amsterdam property. This spring, dozens of our teams have been impacted on more than half of the weekends by games and events at the High School. More teams have had to practice on fewer fields and for shorter periods of time. In some instances games and practices have been canceled. Most of the field losses are covered in advance in our season field allocation and we are able to schedule around them. However, at the beginning of the season, high school coaches hold practices that are not scheduled at the time of the field allocation letter. During the season, there are the occasional “make up” games for competitions that have been rained out. Additionally, there are events that aren’t on the calendar at the start of the season, but which are programmed for the fields, such as the recent Olde Tyme Carnival on May 21^st, and the upcoming Alumni Lacrosse game on June 5^th. Although the advance notice given by the Athletic Director is sincerely appreciated, no amount of notice can alleviate that we have nowhere else to play these games.

We all want our schools to have a robust program with diverse activities for the community seven days a week. Nonetheless, the adverse impact of the resulting schedule conflicts on the recreational sports programs like AYSO needs to be addressed. If two fields are built at the Amsterdam property, recreational sports’ dependence on school fields will be diminished and we’ll be better able to meet current demands for field use. Let’s build the Amsterdam fields now as a first step to eliminating field shortages for the thousands of kids that play recreational sports in New Castle.

Sincerely,

David Perlmutter

Regional Commissioner

Chappaqua AYSO