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Big Rapids board pauses amid tense dispute over city soccer field access
Summary
Two youth soccer groups — long-established Northland United and the newly formed Central Michigan Football Club — clashed at a Parks & Recreation meeting over access, club roles in maintenance, and allegations of player poaching; the board referred the matter to its programming committee for further study.
The Big Rapids Parks & Recreation Board heard competing appeals over who should be allowed to schedule and prioritize use of the city’s soccer fields, but did not take immediate action, instead referring the issue to the programming/recreation subcommittee for more study.
“My name is Sam Gry. I’m the media director for the Central Michigan Football Club,” Sam Gry told the board, saying the volunteer-run club has grown to about 135 players aged roughly 8U to 19U and asking that his group be allowed to share city fields so more local children can play. “One of the biggest barriers to access is cost…we keep all the fees to families to the bare minimum so everybody can get an opportunity to play,” Gry said.
Representing the long-established Northland United, Scott Pedigo described a different history and scale. Pedigo told the board his organization fields 500–600 players across many age groups and said Northland has handled line-painting, nets and other upkeep for years. He said some recent roster changes followed a denied appeal in league processes and accused other clubs of recruiting Northland players away: “they started roundabout ways…they started AYSO program to play these kids from our team illegally on theirs,” Pedigo said.
Speakers who described the community’s decades-long volunteer investment in the fields urged the board to weigh history and maintenance responsibilities. “We raised $20–30,000 with the permission of the park and rec department to level that out,” Sarah, a former board member and high school girls coach, said, describing donated fill, irrigation installation and local contractor work that helped make the River Street/Riverview fields usable.
Other commenters and Central Michigan representatives said the new club formed because some families felt unwelcome and testified that their priority is local access and inclusion. Board members questioned whether prior arrangements were written or informal; presenters said there were text-message agreements and long-standing informal practices but no binding city contract for either club’s exclusive scheduling rights.
Rather than resolve scheduling on the spot, board members and staff agreed to gather information and bring the issue to the programming subcommittee. The committee is expected to collect comparative policies, scheduling data and any relevant written agreements, and to return recommendations to the board at the May meeting. No formal policy change or vote on field allocation was made at the session.
