DATE: Wednesday, October 29, 1997           TAG: 9710290650

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   40 lines

CLAMOR FOR MORE SOCCER SPACE SCORES POINTS IN CHESAPEAKE

The soccer vote came to Chesapeake on Tuesday.

On a rather routine meeting night, hundreds of soccer moms, dads and blue-shirted, ball-carrying kids filled the City Council chambers to ask for more Chesapeake fields for the world's game.

The request was met favorably by the council, which asked for a report on opening up city-owned land along Ballahack Road for fields. Mayor William E. Ward also asked the city staff to report back on allowing soccer to be played in Greenbrier's City Park, which is currently off-limits to any recreational sports.

The privately run and funded Great Bridge Soccer Association, Chesapeake Advanced Soccer Program, and the Chesapeake Select Soccer Club combined resources to ask for the fields. The council was swamped with letters over the past week.

All three programs currently have to share limited field space in Chesapeake with other sports. Most teams head to Virginia Beach to play games, and teams have become too large because of a lack of local field space.

Their message to the council: Bring our kids home.

``Things are in the works,'' said Councilman Peter P. Duda Jr., liaison to the Parks and Recreation Department. ``It's gonna take a little time, but we're gonna get there.''

Soccer is the fastest-growing recreational sport in Chesapeake. The Great Bridge Soccer Association has 1,134 children in its program, up from 692 in 1986.

The program currently rents seven fields from the city for practices and games. Two are regulation size. Often, youngsters are playing on baseball diamonds. The advanced program has no local fields.

``Practice space is what stresses us,'' said George Miller, director of the Chesapeake Advanced Soccer Program. ``I often have to go out and scout around for open fields, and we usually have to deal with guys hitting golf balls or something else.'' KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE CITY COUNCIL

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