Two groups of sports enthusiasts are trying to get the attention of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) on the perennial issues of poor conditions at playing fields, and the demand for spring ice at the arenas.
Kate Turner, a founding member of a Spring Ice Committee made up of parents and players in hockey and figure skating, told Coast Reporter they’ve already had a preliminary meeting with the SCRD about a three-year commitment to spring ice, starting in April 2017.
“Their suggestion was that our committee put together a proposal and bring it to the SCRD board,” Turner said. “We’re not trying to ruin anyone else’s plans. There’s a huge demand for the dry floor as well, but we’d like to see all our sports on the Sunshine Coast succeed, and this is really, really necessary for hockey and for figure skating.”
The group has set up a Facebook page called Sunshine Coast BC Spring Ice, where they’re collecting stories from people about what having spring ice would mean to them and their families to help make the case to the SCRD.
Turner said she’s confident they’ll find a way, even though past efforts didn’t work out. “We have a better plan in place,” she said. “What we are asking for from the SCRD is a three-year commitment. In the past they’ve given spring ice for one season and they’ve said it failed. The reason why it fails for only one season is because you need to give associations and those user groups time to build their membership. You can’t expect something to be a success right off the bat.”
Turner explained that Sunshine Coast athletes who need to get into a spring program on the Lower Mainland have to make those arrangements as early as October, meaning they can’t take advantage of a last-minute decision to have spring ice on the Coast.
Grant Marshall, meanwhile, has pulled together a group to push for improvements to playing fields managed by the SCRD as well as the Town of Gibsons and District of Sechelt. The SCRD’s playing fields include: Lions Park in Pender Harbour, Connor Park, Cliff Gilker, Mary Anne West and Shirley Macey. The Town of Gibsons has fields at Brothers Park. The District of Sechelt manages fields at Kinnikinnick, Picadilly, and Hackett parks.
Marshall, whose whole family is involved in soccer, said concerns about fields have been building to the point where he felt he had to do something.
“Being the president of the men’s soccer association, I hear a lot of the complaints. Having a nine-year-old involved in youth soccer and being a coach of his team, I hear more complaints,” he said.
Marshall took to Facebook, and got what he called an “overwhelming” response. About a dozen people showed up for the group’s first meeting on Feb. 9.
They’re still in the early stages of trying to find out just how the current field maintenance budgets of the SCRD, Sechelt and Gibsons are spent.
Marshall said, however, there’s already a sense the Sunshine Coast is below par compared to other places.
“I don’t care what community you go to in B.C., you’re going to find a lacrosse court, which we don’t have anywhere on the Sunshine Coast, and you’re going to have a least one all-weather field for soccer that’s lit,” he said. “And you’re going to have some form of good playing surface not just for soccer, but lacrosse, field hockey and baseball or softball.”
Marshall pointed out that the field at Lions Park in Pender Harbour is now widely acknowledged to be the best on the Coast. Getting it to that level wasn’t easy – or cheap. The field opened in 2009 after five years of planning by community groups and the SCRD. The final cost came in at about $1.3 million.
Marshall said he knows the SCRD is looking for grant money from various sources to upgrade other fields, and the new group wants to know more about the plans for the future before doing anything. “If the only way we can have one good field with lights is for me to go out and raise a million dollars, then I guess that’s what I’m going to have to go do,” he added.
Marshall and others with the Sunshine Coast Community Soccer Association and the Lacrosse Association were due to appear in front of the SCRD’s community Services Committee on Feb. 18. Marshall said they might try to postpone that.
The issues are also likely to come up at the regular field users meeting, which is set for Feb. 23.
