Soccer brawl: Youth sports shift sparks controversy over field use

Soccer has caused a stir in West Hempstead, and some residents feel they’ve been kicked in the face.

The West Hempstead Chiefs Soccer Club lost enough members over the summer to disable two teams — and while the sudden exodus in itself created drama, it was a school board vote on field use by an “out-of-town” team that caused a real commotion.

Last spring, a Chiefs coach pulled his son out of the organization and relocated to a Franklin Square-based group. A number of parents followed suit and relocated theirs as well, leaving the U9 and U10 boys teams — for kids in third and fourth grades — with only a handful of players, thereby rendering them unable to operate. The remaining boys were placed in teams of older or younger boys.

While it was “disheartening,” the Chiefs managed, according to Loraine Magaraci, a member of the Chiefs executive board.

At the Dec. 7 West Hempstead Board of Education policy meeting, the board adopted new language in its policy on use of district facilities to say that teams eligible to apply for a field-use permit must have a membership that is 80 percent West Hempstead residents. The previous policy had required 80 percent of an organization’s membership to be West Hempstead residents.

It was at the board’s Dec. 21 public meeting that tensions arose. With a 5-2 vote, the board approved a permit submitted by the former Chief’s coach who had pulled his son out of the organization. His team, although part of a Franklin Square group, was made up mostly of children from West Hempstead. The former coach is Tony Brita, a member of the West Hempstead Board of Education who was among the five voters who approved the permit for his team.

Magaraci and members of the Chiefs board were outraged by the vote. In part because of the internal drama Brita’s exit had caused, but primarily, they claimed, because he was voting on the issue in a manner they considered a conflict of interest. What angered them most, however, was that the board would approve a permit for an out-of-town organization — especially on the heels of the sudden policy change.