Some suggestions on youth soccer

I crossed the street alongside a grandfather who just wanted to watch his 6- or 7-year-old grandchild play soccer on a Saturday morning.

The game was at the High Noon soccer facility near Mayfield High School and the Field of Dreams. We arrived at the fields at the end of a very wet week in Las Cruces.

The unpaved main parking lot adjacent to nearly two dozen tiny soccer fields was muddy, with standing water in many places. Cars were parallel parked in front of and behind rows of vehicles parked horizontally in the uneven lot.

That lot is difficult when it is dry. After a heavy dose of rain, it is a nightmare.

Traffic flows one direction in and one direction out, and during the break between youth soccer games, it can take 20 minutes just to find a parking spot or get out and resume other weekend activities. This Saturday morning, the muddy conditions made it much worse.

Cars were parked up and down the street, some extending nearly into the flow of traffic. Parents and grandparents were desperately seeking somewhere to safely leave their vehicles so they could catch at least part of a game.

What made the scene more perplexing was the completely empty parking lot directly adjacent to the one being used for youth soccer. Since it runs alongside the Mayfield High softball practice field and other school facilities, I assume the lot belongs to Las Cruces Public Schools.

That lot was mostly dry and plenty large enough to handle overflow parking. But it was behind locked gates, completely inaccessible to all those families looking for a safe place to leave their cars for an hour.

Maybe there is a reason it can’t be used. Maybe it is simply an oversight or something that hasn’t been discussed. But it sure seems like something could be arranged between the soccer folks and the school district to support families trying to enjoy Saturday morning soccer.

It would certainly be better than asking grandparents to park across the street and take the “Frogger” approach through a maze of arriving and departing vehicles just to get safely to the fields.

And while I’m on the subject of youth soccer, let me spend one more moment on my soapbox.

I watch a lot of games in which my granddaughters participate, and I understand that having 6-, 7- and 8-year-old boys and girls competing against each other isn’t that big a deal. In Las Cruces, however, players who are 12 and 13 years old also play in co-ed leagues.

I am all for the development girls can get from competing against boys. But when an all-girls team goes up against an all-boys team in those older age groups, I wonder whether we are creating an experience that will eventually drive many girls away from the game. And that seems unnecessary.

If there are enough boys and girls playing to support separate programs, why are they still combined at those ages? Is it simply a matter of, “That’s the way we’ve always done it,” and no one has pushed for a change?

Just as there may be a relatively simple solution to a locked parking lot sitting empty next to families searching for a place to park, perhaps this is worth another look, too.

Sometimes supporting youth sports doesn’t require a major investment or a new program. Sometimes it just requires the adults involved to look at what is happening and ask whether there might be a better way.