Another group of parents have approached the Vernon Hills Park District
with complaints about the Cougars Youth Athletic Association.
Tim Nockels and a few others attended the Sept. 18 Park Board of
Commissioners meeting with a petition asking for an in-house baseball league to
be resurrected. The group says the Cougars program has decayed due to
mismanagement.
The nonprofit became a legal affiliate of park programing in 2011,
which essentially means the group coordinates certain sports and gets use of
fields for reduced prices instead of having a Cougars league and park district
league competing against each other.
Park officials, however, have no authority over the Cougars other
than revoking use of fields.
A group of parents approached the Park Board of Commissioners in
January asking to start a new baseball team for 12- and 13-year-old boys that
would be separate from the Cougars. The parents said continued mismanagement
led to most of the children withdrawing and going to the Buffalo Grove or
Mundelein park districts.
At the time, park commissioners advised the parents to keep
working with the Cougars because administrators cannot provide an equal rental
rate and a new team would get all the leftover time slots.
Nockels, who was not part of that group, said on Sept. 18 that the
traveling baseball teams seem to get most of the attention and resources
compared to the in-house league that plays in Vernon Hills only and with local
children.
“We don’t want to travel throughout Lake County,” Nockels said.
“We want recreational leagues here at home where our kids can play with their
friends. It also allows us parents to volunteer much more easily.”
Nockels also said that in recent years, instead of coaching his
son’s team, he umpired due to scheduling issues with league officials. He said
his happened close to 50 percent of the time and the constant problems led to
more and more parents signing their kids up in other leagues.
Fellow parent Jeff Canalia shared his own experience.
“I won a contest through Major League Baseball and was allowed to
donate $3,000 to a youth club,” Canalia said. “I chose the Cougars, but my kids
don’t play travel ball so I asked for the money to go toward in-house baseball. They
bought catchers gear for all in-house and travel teams. They could have bought
more bats or something with the money the used for travel team catchers. I
wanted my kids to benefit from my prize.”
Canalia said he thinks the Cougars organization neglects the
in-house leagues but keeps them barely alive so the fees can supplement
improvements to the travel program.
“Cutting through all the crap, you want the park district to take
some of these leagues back, right?” asked Dave Doerhoefer, vice president of
the Park Board. “Have you tried asking the Cougars to change?”
Canilia said he’s never heard back from Cougars leadership, and
Nockels said the administrators he’s spoken with have been “nonresponsive.”
Bill Polisson, new president of the Cougars in-house baseball
league, was in attendance for the meeting.
“I’ve only been president for one year so far and we had no
problems with umpires or field scheduling last year,” Polisson said. “I can’t
address what may have happened in the past, but I will say things are
coordinated very well right now.”
Polisson did admit that registration for in-house teams is
dropping, but he said the same is happening with other sports.
“We can’t make people sign up,” Polisson said. “Our problem with
numbers is not unusual. Enrollment is dwindling everywhere.”
Park commissioners agreed to not get involved, but encouraged
Polisson to keep improving some of the organizational problems.
“A lot of feedback has come our way saying there’s a major lack of
communication,” Doerhoefer said. “It seems like you’ve already gotten started
on that. Another thing that would clear things up would be a little more
transparency when it comes to the money.”
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