Youth sports scheduling disrupted by unprecedented fall showers
FOREST HILLS, N.Y. - The unprecedented rain the city has seen this fall has culminated in a scheduling nightmare for youth sports.
Volunteer Boris Tsiglnitsky is in charge of the soccer and referee schedules for Forest Hills Youth Athletic Association.
It's a headache for parents forking over a few hundred dollars for their child to participate.
"It’s very frustrating — it’s a lot of shufflin and then coming down here and getting soaking wet, soaking wet… just have the games canceled," mother Robyn Saling said.
"Our younger divisions they only play on the weekends, so they are literally only three games, and we are in the middle of October— we usually almost about done," Tsiglnitsky said.
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Tsiglnitsky has been involved with the FHYAA in some capacity for almost two decades now and says he can't remember a fall like this.
"It’s every weekend… we haven’t had a single full weekend of games and because we have grass hills with him sometimes it’s not about the rain but just the condition of the field. We have so much water it’s a mud ball," Tsiglnitsky said.
The non-profit league consists of almost 60 teams and roughly 800 children participate across all the divisions.
So, one rainout can impact the schedules of entire families, but many have taken a wet autumn in stride.
"A lot of them have been rained out. But luckily, we have a great league, great officials— they’ve been able to coordinate some things during the weekdays and teams are really excited to play—the girls, they just want to play ball, it’s been really fun," father of Elise and soccer coach Christian Ellis said.
"Luckily, I have a good team. they’re really great to play with. and they’re also my best friends," Elise said.