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Message from Scheduler

Dear U9-14 Coaches, Managers and Team Contacts,

The news PCJSL has to share is not good, but we hope to provide enough information that you will know how hard we’re trying to get our kids back on the soccer field – it’s just that there’s so much out of our control.

First, the bad news. We are not going to be able to start playing with our U9-14 teams on Sept 26 as planned.   The issue is fields and although the city of Tucson opened fields for practice back in August, they are still not allowing games or scrimmages on those fields.   When we ask about a proposed date for opening fields for games, they apologize, but will only tell us that they hope it is soon.

Initially, when we had concerns about the use of city fields, we thought the Pima County fields that ARE open would be enough when supplemented by KINO fields, which are also open for games.   Unfortunately, Kino didn’t come through for us and, in fact, hasn’t even responded back when we told them we would take the two fields that they offered for two of our three dates.   Even if we’d gotten those two fields, it wouldn’t have allowed us to play ALL age-groups – U9-19.

So, we’ve decided to start on September 26 with only U15-19 games, as we only have enough fields to play those games.   And the good news is that our field commissioner, Dave Cosgrove (with the help of several clubs with access to some fields), has started identifying fields that we could add to what we have in order to expand the age-groups and get everyone playing as soon as possible.   Please don’t give up hope – we are working very hard to make this happen!

At this point, I cannot promise anything, but by the end of this week (Friday, Sept 18) I’m hoping to be able to add the U13-14 teams to some full-sized fields we just acquired, but it will require the U15-19 teams to potentially play until 10 pm on Saturday nights.   There isn’t time to accommodate that adjustment by Sept 26 because we still need time to find referees for games, but I’m hoping it will happen for Oct 3 and Oct 10.   On Oct 17 (not originally listed as a play date), we will have full-sized fields to allow the U13-14 teams to play their third game and, if need be (because of plans that teams made because nobody knew we might play on Oct 17), we could likely schedule make-up games for the U13-14 teams on Oct 31.

For the U9-12 teams (which require two different sized fields – 7v7 and 9v9 – and have the largest number of teams), we are actively looking at options that will allow those teams to play soon, also.   It won’t likely be Oct 3, but we might be able to get started on Oct 10 and then extend the 3-game session into November.   Again, please trust me when I say that we are doing everything in our power to make some sort of soccer season happen before the end of 2020.

Also, trust me when I say that I have never been so excited to see a year coming to an end – bring on 2021!!!!!

Sincerely,

Maggie Barton

PCJSL Scheduling Coordinator

P.S. While you are waiting to hear about when your teams will get to play games, please consider reaching out by telephone or email to your city council person and/or the Mayor’s office.   City Parks & Recreation are telling us that they are following what the Mayor and City Council asked of them.

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