LEXINGTON PARK, Md. – A last-minute decision by the St. Mary’s County Parks & Rec had parents and athletes furious this weekend, but Parks & Rec is standing by their decision.
The Southern Maryland Eliminators are a girl’s Field Hockey Club in Great Mills. Their opening day games were scheduled for Saturday, September 9th, but 48 hours before game time, the team received two emails informing them their games were canceled.
The first email stated:
“Pax Raiders homecoming will feature games on Field 1 for most of the day and Field 8 through the morning. Parking will be an issue for your families, along with Park capacity for amenities. At the directive of Arthur, along with working at the Sheriff’s office, in the best interest of Park Operations to try and relocate you or reschedule you. I understand this is last minute and not ideal, but as I mentioned, due to the recent events at Lancaster Park, operational success is of the highest priority.”
The recent events mentioned in the email refer to fights that broke out at a youth football scrimmage game between the Pax River Raiders and Peppermill Pirates.
On Sunday, August 20th, at Lancaster Park in Lexington Park, several police units from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office and Maryland State Police responded to fights involving dozens of people, including players, coaches and bystanders. Officers had to use pepper spray to break up the crowd.
Director of Recreation and Parks Arthur Shepherd spoke to The BayNet and said the decision to move the Eliminator’s games had nothing to do with the fights.
“The decision was strictly related to park capacity,” said Shepherd.
Shepherd tells The BayNet that the Raiders homecoming game historically draws large crowds, so trying to accommodate both teams simultaneously would have exceeded capacity. He said for scheduling purposes and crowd size, it made the most sense to move the Eliminator’s games. That’s what was discussed in the second email sent to the team. It said:
After reviewing the scheduled activities for Saturday, September 9, Recreation & Parks has made the decision with regard to public safety to cancel other youth sports activities at Lancaster Park. A large attendance is expected for the Raiders Homecoming, and this will affect both parking and on-site amenities to the point where other sporting events will not be able to co-exist during the football activities.
Some of the Eliminator games were moved to later in the day but were canceled due to storms. Other games were rescheduled. Regardless, some parents were still upset and shared their disappointment on Facebook.
“Southern Maryland Eliminators has had the same fall schedule for five years. We have had ZERO behavioral issues from our families, players, or coaches in all of that time. We have a lot of players who are heartbroken to find out that they won’t be able to play their sport as planned. It’s a poor example to set for our children. Do better St. Mary’s County,” posted Megan Dyson.
Another Eliminator mom encouraged people to contact the Parks & Rec department and asked everyone to flood Facebook with photos of the girls playing.
“They have known about the schedule for how long now…and they wait til three days before to kick us to the curb!?! Let’s keep it real, It’s all about who would walk away quieter,” posted Christie Heard-Rawlings.
Shepherd says this weekend, the Raiders have an away game, so the entire park will be used by the Eliminators.
“This will give them a great opening day atmosphere,” said Shepherd.
The Eliminators Club tells The BayNet that in past years, both field hockey and football were able to play at the same location and time, even when football hosted their homecoming event.
“This was why it was so surprising to learn Recreation and Parks was canceling our games. With only 48 hours notice of the cancellation, having to reschedule nine games felt overwhelming. But the most frustrating part was disappointing nearly 250 athletes and their families who were excited to kick off the season. We are working with Recreation and Parks to ensure that this will not happen again,” said The SOMD Eliminators Board.
The Eliminators games will be played this Friday, September 15th, at Lancaster Park.
Contact our news desk at news@thebaynet.com
If the football event was the event with the historical problems, the county should have cancelled the football event. Sounds to me like punishment for the girls when the boys are the problem. Perhaps, it’s the parents that are the problem. Either way, they cancelled the wrong event. Hope they can get the girls back to playing.
Arthur needs to be fired immediately! Why punish the kids who aren’t causing problems and do not regularly need cops or pepper spray to carry out their events peacefully.
My thoughts exactly, punished the wrong teams!
Well raiders been there for almost 15 plus years. I’m pretty sure you guys would react the same if someone punched your child.
In my opinion, an officer should be present when Lancaster is at capacity but what we get is one park employee on a gator cart which is obviously not sustainable when cops are being called every other practice. Not just during a scrimmage, fights are breaking out on practice nights between football parents as well. With football being the money generator for R&P, who do you think is going to prevail here but why should that mean tolerance for misbehavior?
I digress, it’s never too early to remind girls how unimportant they are and that men will continue to have a domineering presence in all aspects of their lives, like sports for instance.
This post doesn’t even add up to what they are saying. During Raider games do you tell people they can’t enter the park because of capacity? NO! you never stop someone from entering a public park weather for an event or not. We pay our taxes and we have a right to the parks at the same time.
What the parents should have done or do next time this happens is to go to the park bring all your family and show that the 2 can both play.
Grow up St. Mary’s!
Arthur has retired and come back- parks and recs pays LOW-low. No one wants Arthurs job and no wants to be a supervisor for county. Too many crazy parents and extremely poor working conditions are why Arthur is still employed and jobs sit vacant. County should do better than seeding fields- which is about the only thing they do well.