Young football players in Cloverdale are feeling the pinch.
Over the last two years they’ve had 30 minutes shaved off their practice time—twice! Now the kids are down to 1.5 hours, which isn’t really 1.5 because of the set up and take down time needed for football practices.
After 30 years of running the same practice times, the city has chopped down their time and given it to soccer, says Yeera Sami, president of the Cloverdale Community Football Association (CCFA).
Sami has been running CCFA programs out of Cloverdale Athletic Park (CAP) since before there were even turf fields there. The CCFA even paid to have turf put in the end zones of the football field back in 2004.
“They’ve taken our time away,” said Sami. “We’ve been running three-hour practices on this [synthetic] field since 2004 and before that, we’ve been here since 1992.”
They’ve been practicing on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. for nearly 30 years. After CCFA dropped one of their football programs a few years ago, they gave up the 8 to 8:30 window and settled on 2.5 hour practices. That’s how it had been until the pandemic when Sami’s numbers dwindled.
“They took a half-hour away in 2022—5:30 to 6—so we only had two-hour practices,” noted Sami. “We did that for two years, when our numbers were low, but as registration has picked up, we requested that half-hour back.”
Not only did the youth football players in Cloverdale not get that half-hour back after COVID, as the football season started this year, the city pinched another 30 minutes from the kids and now Sami can only run practices form 6 to 7:30 p.m.
“The reduction of football’s fall practice time on CAP #1 has a very negative impact on our teams in preparing for full-contact games,” Sami explained. “We have made suggestions to accommodate both soccer and football for 15 minutes at least for this season.”
Sami said he’s made no progress with city staffers despite repeated attempts to find a solution. One idea would see the soccer kids get started on a warm-up field that is right next to CAP #1 and is not in use, but Sami said city staffers won’t budge.
He’s since reached out to Mayor Brenda Locke and some city councillors to see if they can intervene to find a solution. He’s just waiting to hear back. But while he waits, he says, the season continues to dwindle away.
The Cloverdale Reporter reached out to the City of Surrey, didn’t hear back by press time.
Sami said city staffers told him the reduction in practice time is because the city moved to a new national standards allocation model for required practice time for various sports. But, he says, Football Canada has no national standard. So, he’s confused as to where staffers got the numbers they’ve applied to CCFA for field allocation.
Sami said the field squeeze has consequences the city doesn’t realize: it takes football 15 minutes to set up before practice and 15 minutes to take down after. Thus his 1.5-hour practice melts into one hour.
“Ask anyone in football if you can do what needs to be done in one hour,” explained Sami. He said there is also the question of safety and competitive issues because he is running out of time to properly prepare the athletes to face other, well-prepared teams.
J. Sehrai, a concerned parent of an athlete playing with CCFA, reached out to the Cloverdale Reporter via email to express concerns about the reduction in football practice times.
“While I am not fully aware of the details behind this decision, I do know that this football program is one of the few truly community-based initiatives that remains accessible and affordable for our children,” wrote Sehrai. “The football community, along with Mr. Sami, has dedicated countless hours to developing this sport, providing opportunities for both boys and girls to pursue their athletic dreams and potentially even competing in the LA 2028 Olympics.”
Sehrai said the heavy chop on weeknights to just 1.5 hours significantly impacts the quality and effectiveness of their kid’s football coaching and training.
“This reduction not only affects the development of the players, but also undermines the dedication of the coaches and the spirit of the community,” Sehrai added. “This program is more than just a sport; it’s a pathway for our kids to engage, grow, and aim for something bigger.”
Sehrai called the continual shaving away of time from football “ongoing neglect” and said it was “disheartening” to see that happening under the city’s eye.
“I believe it deserves more attention,” Sehrai concluded, adding the community needs to “shed light on the importance of maintaining and supporting accessible sports programs like (CCFA).”
Spring Flag Football
Sami, said he’s being pinched in the spring season too. He feels like CCFA is not getting a fair shake from city staffers at the beginning of the year either, though Sami was quick to add the mayor’s office and all the city councillors he’s spoken to have been “very helpful” and have shown an interest in getting the issue resolved.
“For our spring flag season, we do not get any time on the five full-size fields at CAP, even though we invested in CAP #1 football field capital project,” Sami reminded. “The only field at CAP which we receive time on [for spring] is a small grass practice field along 64th Avenue.”
That grass field, Sami said, isn’t even the size of a full field. He added the field might accommodate two teams, but is too small to accommodate 13 teams.
“It’s disappointing to see both grass soccer fields #4 and #5 hardly being used in the evenings while football must improvise,” Sami noted. Both #4 and #5 are full-size soccer grass fields, but are allocated to soccer and used at their discretion. He said they often sit empty.
Sami knows there is a shortage of fields in the city, but he says common sense could solve a lot of the issues.
“This is simple,” he added. “We have the solutions; they just need to be implemented.”
