Where will little Johnny play? And how long will he or she be able to play there?
Those were two of the critical questions being asked of Indian Trail Improvement District supervisors when they held a Monday, Jan. 13 workshop on the future of youth athletics in the Acreage/Loxahatchee area.
“We can’t go season to season,” said Andi Schloesser, director of marketing and social media for the Acreage Athletic League (AAL). “We want to know that two, three years from now… little Johnny [who is] playing on the peewee team is still going to be here playing on varsity.”
The all-volunteer AAL has been the provider of youth sports at ITID parks for some 30 years. The organization currently provides leagues for baseball, basketball, co-ed and girls flag football, soccer, softball and tackle football.
The AAL has long operated under a service provider agreement (SPA) with the district that has given it exclusive use of many ITID parks and recreation facilities. After several years of complaints to ITID officials about how the organization was being run by its executive board, supervisors allowed the SPA to expire in November.
ITID President Elizabeth Accomando said this week she had hoped the workshop would be a “think tank” about a range of ideas for youth sports and the use of the district’s 11 parks.
However, the workshop and the Wednesday, Jan. 15 regular monthly board session quickly boiled down to whether the AAL would continue to hold a special position in the district, or if the district would shift to a permitting system for field time — especially at Acreage Community Park North and South — that would be open to any youth sports organization.
“It’s important that we have a home base. Acreage Community Park is our home base,” said Stacey Cichewicz-Marino, a member of the AAL’s executive board.
Though Supervisor Betty Argue suggested that the AAL should at least get priority as the district’s “legacy sports provider,” Schloesser said that’s not enough unless it’s in writing. “Us keeping the service provider agreement gives us the security we need.”
ITID Executive Director Burgess Hanson said that it may feel that way, but in reality, the board can cancel SPAs at any time.
The main benefit to the district of moving to a permitting system is that “it puts us at arm’s length from everything,” said Hanson, giving the district a different legal standing if it were sued over an injury or other incident related to youth sports.
“I’m against a service provider agreement because I believe it puts us in harm’s way,” said Supervisor Patricia Farrell, who has been an outspoken critic of the AAL. “I think we need to sever [the relationship].”
ITID Attorney Frank Palin said the AAL also would benefit from a shift to permitting because it would no longer be functioning “as a division of district government” and would not be subject to state records and disclosure laws, which if not handled properly, can result in civil or even criminal penalties.
This week, however, Argue remained unconvinced that moving to a permit system would benefit either the district or the AAL.
“It will create chaos. It’s going to be a free-for-all,” she said Wednesday, suggesting the move would cost the district money because it would require the hiring of at least one more parks and recreation employee to handle permitting.
“Just from a logistical standpoint, this is very far away from how we’ve always functioned,” said Argue, who recently began her third four-year term on the board. “I don’t think [some board members] understand the impact this is going to have, or the magnitude of work this is going to add to the staff.”
Argue, whose children participated in several AAL sports, said putting other sports organizations such as the Breakthru Athletic League on equal footing “defies the whole idea of a community league. It’s a slap in the face to the [AAL] volunteers.”
Breakthru was formed in 2022 as an alternative flag football league that has grown from an initial 279 players to 431 this past fall, Dawn Hollandsworth, a member of the league’s executive board, told the supervisors.
“There is a need for two leagues,” Hollandsworth said. “But we are happy at Friedland Park. We have no desire to move to Acreage Community Park.”
Samuel Friedland Park is a Palm Beach County Park located on Hamlin Blvd. in the northwestern area of The Acreage. Some AAL sports also play games there.
At the subsequent regular board meeting, supervisors agreed to issue a special permit to allow the AAL to schedule its spring football league that begins March 1.
Accomando said she hopes the SPA permit issue will be decided at the board’s Wednesday, Feb. 19 meeting.
“We’ve spent so much time on this already. We have to put this thing to bed,” she said Wednesday, adding that the AAL leadership “deserves to know where they stand.”
