North County soccer league highlights safety concerns at city park

SAN DIEGO — The executive director of a large North County soccer league is raising concerns about the state of San Diego parks, particularly one in Black Mountain Ranch where many of his teams practice.

Peter Stogsdill says the city is not staying on top of maintenance that’s causing safety issues for players. For instance, he pointed to overgrown grass, weeds or patches of dirt that cover the city park.

"It’s just frustrating because we pay money to rent the fields and we have no idea where that money goes," explained Stogsdill, the executive director for San Diego Soccer Club.

The club serves well over 1,000 kids through a variety of programs. About 30 of those teams practice at Black Mountain Ranch Park where Stogsdill worries kids will be injured playing on the uneven fields.

"They have to move around to find areas that you can actually kick a ball and pass the ball in, so that makes it hard," he continued. "Parents are paying thousands of dollars a year to us to play club soccer and so they deserve better than this."

Stogsdill says broken sprinklers have been a consistent issue since the park first opened in the late 2000's.

As for the grass itself, he believes it's been at least a month since it’s been cut. A city memorandum of park/facility maintenance standards from 2018 notes mowing should be done weekly.

Stogsdill has seen other recent reports on maintenance issues affecting sports leagues at city parks and is hoping to hold the city accountable.

"All the parks we play at, we’re spending over $100,000 a year on fields easily, if not even more than that, and this is what we get out of it," he stated.

FOX 5/KUSI asked officials how often city parks are maintained as well as the state of maintenance at Black Mountain Ranch Park. Communications staff were not able to answer those questions by the time of publication.