MPRB heeds call to keep long-established sports teams intact
Flag football at Shingle Creek Park. Photo by David Pierini
By David Pierini, Editor
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will amend new rules for youth sports to allow organizations to field their own teams.
In a letter dated Feb. 28 to youth athletic programs, park Supt. Al Bangoura said MPRB will develop a new league for already established teams, like those at the Northside’s Hospitality House and the Little Earth Nation in south Minneapolis.
During a Wednesday meeting of MPRB commissioners, Bangoura said park officials will meet with organizations next week to present a draft of how the new teams’ league will operate. The draft will include input the board received during talks with organizations that began in December.
The park board faced unexpected backlash when it announced late last year that it was moving to a centralized sign-up system that would prohibit organizations from registering teams. Community centers serving specific cultural groups have competed in park leagues for decades.
“While details need to be determined, we are fully committed to providing a structured environment that supports all youth participants,” Bangoura wrote.” Our goal is to maintain the opportunities for both individual resigration and pre-formed teams, ensuring a fair and inclusive athletic environment for everyone.”
Groups had planned to protest during the public comment period at the March 5 board meeting. Instead, they welcomed officials’ willingness to amend the new system and celebrated how different groups across the city united to fight for the change.
Last year, MPRB registered 806 teams with 10,261 total participants in 11 sports for ages 5-18. Of those teams, 81 were organization-established teams with 925 athletes.
In North Minneapolis, Hospitality House has a volleyball team, five basketball squads (boys and girls), and two baseball teams. Sojourner Truth Academy has two soccer teams.
“The numbers are fluid; they change from season to season, sport to sport,” said MPRB’s Director of Athletics Jack Bartsh. “But in talking with a number of the current groups, we feel confident the league will have success. We’re really happy with the direction this is going.”
Bartsh and Commissioners Billy Menz and Charles Rucker have been meeting with local organizations to hear concerns and develop details for a separate league or division for established teams.
When groups began complaining, Menz acknowledged that coaches had been listening to his concerns about how centralized registration negatively impacts longtime youth teams.
“We are going to end up with an incredible solution,” Menz said. “The community has held this Board accountable for the issue.”