Lacrosse league protests field cancelations
Annandale Youth Lacrosse, a program under the umbrella of the Annandale Boys & Girls Club, had already had a game schedule approved for this spring, then learned three of their dates were canceled without warning. The league is fighting back.
The league submitted their permit applications in September and were given a schedule on Feb. 15 that assigned their games to Annandale High School, said Chris Johnson, ABGC’s boys lacrosse commissioner.
Then on March 7, the Athletic Services Community Use Scheduling branch of the Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood and Community Services told Annandale Youth Lacrosse that three of their game dates – May 10, 24, and June 14 – were canceled without an explanation.
Those dates were given to the DC Divas, a women’s full-contact football program.
It seems someone at Fairfax County Public Schools overrode the previous decision,” Johnson said. “We want to know how this happened and why.” Lacrosse parents have mobilized to fight the loss of their field. They’ve sent emails to members of the Board of Supervisors and scheduled meetings with them for next week.
“The crazy thing is the DC Divas are an adult league based in Maryland and funded by a nonprofit in Texas,” Johnson said. They don’t meet the eligibility requirements for using school athletic fields. The fields are restricted to nonprofit organizations based in Fairfax County, and 75 percent of the players on their roster are not Fairfax County residents. They’re also selling tickets to their games at Annandale High School.
What’s more, Darryl Overton, the Hayfield High School football coach, who resigned after being accused of recruitment violations, is now the offensive coordinator for the DC Divas. “Nothing about this is kosher,” Johnson said.
Annandale Youth Lacrosse has about 200 players – boys and girls – in grades K-8. The kids attend schools in the Annandale, Falls Church, Justice, Woodson, and Lake Braddock pyramids.
To date, Annandale Youth Lacrosse has not been assigned a replacement field.
The cancelations not only affect Annandale Lacrosse, but also disrupt the master schedule developed by the Northern Virginia Youth Lacrosse League.
“For the life of me, I cannot understand how a Fairfax County nonprofit that serves the children of our community can be displaced by a professional Maryland sports team on a Fairfax County owned and operated field,” Johnson wrote in a March 7 email to parents.
“This is not an isolated incident,” he said. Annandale Youth Lacrosse, along with several other local youth organizations, faced a similar situation at Falls Church High School last spring. “Initially, we were informed that construction would prevent us from using the field, but we later discovered that the DC Divas were granted exclusive access to that same field.”
Annandale Youth Lacrosse had to finish the season on other fields. That was inconvenient as the goals, scoreboard, and other equipment had to be continually relocated, he said.
In an email to Supervisors Andres Jimenez (Mason), Pat Herrity (Springfield), and James Walkinshaw (Braddock) and Board Chair Jeffrey McKay, ABGC Lacrosse Commissioner Stacy Natoli requested immediate action to reinstate the previously approved permits.
It is clear that someone overruled the previous decision “despite the fact that these fields are taxpayer-funded and intended to support local community programming,” Natoli said.
She urged the Board of Supervisors to conduct “a formal review of Fairfax County’s field allocation policies, ensuring that nonprofit, community-based youth sports programs are not displaced in favor of external, professional leagues.”
On March 11, a county representative advised Annandale Youth Lacrosse that they can use the field at Annandale High School on May 10. The DC Divas, however, still have the other two dates.
17 responses to “Lacrosse league protests field cancelations”
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This is so wrong! I’m guessing that the DC Divas are paying for the field use, and the Lacrosse league doesn’t. If that’s the case.— and I honestly don’t know if it is — than you can see what’s happening. The county is after the money and not servicing county taxpayers.
You aren’t wrong, but how should Fairfax County pay it’s bills?
Every year when the real estate assessments and associated tax rate are released, it seems like everyone is up in arms about taxes. The Government cost money to operate. How should It be funded?
Land Grant and state colleges for example, like UVA and VT, subsidize the costs for instate students by overcharging out-of-state students, and have in instate/outofstate enrollment ratio of 45-55% So, you basically have 50% subsidizing the other 50%.
There are also the fee-for-service models for various things, which seems to allows government to charge only the users of whatever service for it’s costs, and maybe alleviates some people’s concerns about the government “making them pay for services they don’t use.”
And also, the whole private-public partnership set of scams, whereby the infrastructure or service is essentially privately operated, and the private entity reaps the profit.
But, none of these really address the problem. If DC Divas will pay for the use of these fields, and the ABGC won’t/doesn’t, and the taxpayers won’t/don’t-want-to, what are other options?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m fine paying my taxes. And I have no problem saying that we should pay for these fields for the relatively exclusive use and benefit of the community. BUT Many of us aren’t and don’t. It’s the same thing as across the river. But obviously worse at the federal level.
People want their government services but don’t want to pay for them, and many have been led to believe that the government can deliver these services for alot less, maybe even for free.
Even if I agreed with you, I would ask you to reflect on the fairness of “selling” the field to the highest bidder after you have made the sale to someone else? The kids were on the schedule already and they yanked it with no alternative offered. They already have to fight for scraps of grass to practice on, let ’em have some turf for their games already!
Secondly, the NVYLL is strict about participation of local kids whose parents pay their taxes to fund the turf. If this was the St. James or something, I could see your point, but I don’t think we want or need to undermine an important aspect of our community that is already under siege by other cultural and economic factors. Recreational youth sports should be embraced by everyone who wants to live in a healthy society.
You also can’t explore this story without looking at the actors involved. FCPS and the coach already have a distasteful scandal under their collective belts with no accountability for the trail of wreckage left behind at Hayfield. This is not a revenue move by FCCPS, it is likely a nepotism\favoritism move. These are corrupt people spitting in our faces and telling us it is raining. The question is, does this community have the courage to call them out and stand up for their youth?
Annandale Commissioner here. We do pay to use the fields. We have to apply for permits like everyone else and do so early (September). Once our fields are confirmed, we get charged a bill based on our final roster numbers, number of fields and number of dates we are allocated.
all the youth community leagues pay to use the field
Someone will now be looking closely into the financing behind DC Divas.
Wow. This is atrocious. The members of the County Board of Supervisors should request to see all the emails and documentations of these decisions. Which employee is skirting the rules to offer field space to a non-county entity? And to kick off a local non-profit! This is outrageous.
This is so wrong. It just shows money talks. People please wake up and hold these politicians accountable. Stop voting based on the letter next to their name.
Can someone clean house at the park authority? Between this and the pickleball fiasco, there needs to be a clean sweep.
The need to balance field with for paying leagues with local nonprofit leagues is understandable, but this is not the way to go about it.
I will say that the Fairfax Co. Park Authority and NCS have been very cooperative. Their hands are tied. They have an extremely complex job and not everyone gets what they want, but they have to make the hard decisions. This was not one of them. It was out of their control.
So, the local nonprofits like Annandale Boys & Girls Club pay no fees to the County for use of the athletic fields for lacrosse, soccer, T-ball, etc?
How much $$ are the DC Divas paying to use this field? Is the County receiving a portion of the Divas ticket sales? Are we talking $50, $500 or more?
We do pay permit fees for the fields.
While the Annandale case sounds more complex, a similar field use issue arose for the 400 Fort Hunt/Mount Vernon families and in Alexandria in Spring 2024. Last year staff at Carl Sandburg MS decided mid-spring to revoke the long standing field permits of Fort Hunt youth lacrosse for two weekends during the height of our youth lacrosse season in May. This left our families and the NVYLL scrambling to find field space. The always gracious Fairfax county permitting office was powerless to enforce our permits and push back on the school staff. Despite the revocation, Fort Hunt Lacrosse and our families still had to pay for the time we lost on the Carl Sandburg turf. The miscommunication between the county and Fcps staff is a real problem for community groups like ours. FCPS staff are not accountable to anyone. Policymakers need to fix this inefficiency in the county field use process. Please reach out for more details.
Park Authority does not schedule fields that is for use that is NCS. That said ABGC has a legit gripe if they were bumped. Would like to know which fields got pulled.
John, its in the article.
This spring, they were kicked off Annandale HS turf. You can see the DC Divas website is advertising their home games on Annandale HS stadium turf.
Last spring, they were kicked off Falls Church HS turf and told the field was being renovated, but then permits were given to DC Divas for those same dates.
DARRYL OVERTON’s involvement is sketchy. Is someone doing him a backdoor favor?
The volunteer commissioner is heavily implying that some higher ups over NCS’s head (in the County? in FCPS? unclear) pulled rank and got a favor for this team.
Perhaps it’s time to exercise our rights as citizens of the community and begin circulating petitions calling for the removal of supervisors who don’t support the people they were elected to represent.
Money and Fear, the two great motivators for politicians. They got their money, twice in this case, perhaps it’s time to push back with a little fear. Our community comes first or you don’t have a job.
On a side note, it’s laughable that organizations like the DC Divas and WFA who champion equity and inclusion could treat youth sports so unfairly, not very inclusive to boot the kids of the community you want to play in off THIER fields.
But when you hire a coach who was involved in one of the biggest, if not the biggest cheating scandals in Virginia high school sports history, I guess you can’t expect much self awareness or fairness from such organizations. Can’t say they’re not living up to their name sake, Divas be divas.
Who did you vote for? The politicians are a symptom of the problem. The voters are the problem.