C.C.S.A. U11 Girls Terriers web site 2002:04:09
Another message about Fields from Doug MacDonell, President C.C.S.A.
The following was sent to the city Councilors:
My name is Doug Macdonell and I am the
President of the Coquitlam City Soccer Association. Ours is the largest sports
organization
in Coquitlam with approximately 2,500 registered players – 2,300 of them
children. We play out of
many girls playing the sport as we have boys. A recent review of our
organization revealed we have 586 active volunteers filling
recognized positions within our Club.
Our Club is getting increasingly frustrated
with the lack of cooperation we are receiving from the City with regard to
proper fields and
facilities that are not being provided for soccer in our community. Other
sports, particularly baseball, are being afforded extraordinary
cooperation in pursuing their goals of providing proper facilities for their
sport. Coquitlam City Soccer applauds their efforts as we
truly want what is best for the children of our community. CCSA is not looking
for handouts. In fact we’re big proponents of involving
user groups in the funding of these facilities.
Are you aware that CCSA hosts the largest non
competitive annual soccer tournament in
representatives from our City to come for a photo opportunity and every year we
get the same response. Nothing. This year, two
phone messages and an e-mail to Mayor Kingsbury were ignored. Our local MLA,
Richard Stewart attended and even refereed one
of the games.
Soccer is important to us and we feel even more
important to our Community. We are not going to stand aside while other sports
and
interest groups take all the usable space in central Coquitlam. We want to know
where you intend to provide space for us to develop
a soccer complex. Coquitlam City Soccer wants to develop a site where we can
pursue our goal of building two or three artificial turf
fields complete with facilities.
The Coquitlam City Soccer Association could
very well be the poster Club for gender equity. It is truly the only sport in
Coquitlam
where girls and boys play in the same number. Does this matter to you at City
Hall or is it just something to talk about in committee
meetings?
We’ve been very patient and tried to work
within your framework of committees and user groups. We find we’re falling
further and
further behind and are losing ground to everyone else.
We’re very serious about being heard. I’ve
attached a letter I sent out which will get to all 4,800 adults in our
organization. We’re not
looking to be confrontational or to receive more than anyone else. We want to
work with the City to achieve our goals but at present,
it does not appear our goals will be met.
Doug Macdonell
President CCSA