NeighborhoodNettm

Why Won't Mr. Meadors Give A Soccer Youth Count?
What Is Mr. Azeltine's Concern?

November 5, 2006

It's the end of the campaign about the Soccer Bond Issue. A question which has never been answered is how many soccer youth there are in Johnson County. It seems like a straightforward question, but the Johnson County Park and Recreation District (JCPRD) has been either unable or unwilling to answer it. This article addresses these topics:

JCPRD Various Estimates of the Number of Soccer Youth

The answers to the simple question of how many kids play soccer given by JCPRD in the last few months have been:

  1. 46,000 (There are fewer than 95,000 students in Johnson County. So this would mean almost 1/2 of all students are playing soccer.)

  2. 40% less than 46,000 (or 30%, take your pick), which would be 27,600 (or 32,200), because JCPRD explained by 46,000 it actually meant participants, not youth.

  3. Thousands

  4. Tens of thousands (20,000 or more, presumably)

JCPRD, when first pressed, stated that youth and participants were two different numbers. If one youth "participated" twice, that was counted as 2 participants. Using this double counting (or triple or quadruple counting, who knows?), JCPRD got its numbers back up again.

JCPRD's Newest "Youth or Participants" Counts

Here is the most recent response from Mr. Meadors, Director of the JCPRD, to NeighborhoodNet. Note how he muddies the waters by combining youth and participants:

"You seem to miss the point that the actual # of youth or participants that play soccer in Johnson County is 46,000 or more. That is a real number. That number is as critical if not more so in determining the demands on the County’s soccer facilities. Because some of these children play both spring and fall leagues we volunteered to define as tens of thousands so that our reporting would record single individuals. It is the 46,000+ youth/participants that have to be scheduled for practices, league games and tournaments. This reporting is consistent with JCPRD annual indicator reports as is the general practice of other park and recreation agencies."

NeighborhoodNet is beginning to think the actual number of youth who play soccer in a given year is so low compared to JCPRD's original statement, that it embarrasses JCPRD. Maybe that number is well under 20,000 and the "tens of thousands" is wrong, too. Now, that is still a lot of kids, and it is reasonable to take into account how much effort it is to coordinate such a large number of individuals.

What is not reasonable is for a public official who should have the answer to a straightforward question to either not have the answer or to refuse to divulge it.

Facts On Johnson County Youth Counts

What is known is that the Kansas Department of Education says that there are 93,316 students in Johnson County. That is for 2005-2006 school year, counting all public and private students from kindergarten through high school. What % of those each year are playing soccer? If one in five children is playing soccer including kindergarteners through high school seniors, that would be 18,663.

Another fact is that the Heartland Soccer Association, on its website, states that it includes 600 teams with 11,000 youth players. It also states "Six Clubs make up the Heartland Soccer Association:

  • Blue Valley Soccer Club
  • Olathe Soccer Club
  • Overland Park Soccer Club
  • Northeast United Soccer Club
  • Southwest United Soccer Club
  • Kansas Premier Soccer League"
The only other soccer organizations listed by Kansas Youth Soccer with addresses in Johnson County are The Premiership, Kansas United Soccer League, and Shawnee Soccer club. Do they among them have 9,000 soccer youth not included in the 11,000 for Heartland, to get up to Mr. Meadors "tens of thousands"?

Honesty and JCPRD

In an email from the Secretary of the Board of the JCPRD, Mr. James Azeltine to Mr. Michael Meadors, Director of JCPRD, Mr. Azeltine asks Mr. Meadors to call Mr. Azeltine before sending anything to NeighborhoodNet, because NeighborhoodNet might "play word games and twist the meaning".

What irony:

  • Mr. Azeltine is the official who stated the soccer land in question is zoned for mixed use, when in fact it is zoned rural and Master Planned mostly for residential.

  • Mr. Meadors is the person who told the Kansas City Star the Olathe site had only 62 acres when in fact it had 148 acres.

Here is the email:

"Michael,

Please call me before you respond (again) to Mr. Phillips. I get the feeling that his questions are not geared toward obtaining more and better information, but rather to play word games and twist the meaning of responses that are meant to be useful. We need to be confident in the accuracy and completeness of the information that we have posted on our website. If not, we should revisit it on our terms and for the benefit of the general public, not just for Mr. Phillips and the campaign against Question 1.

Thanks for all of your hard work and professionalism.

James Azeltine"

Johnson County Code of Ethics

NeighborhoodNet suggests Mr. Azeltine and Mr. Meadors should worry less about NeighborhoodNet and more about telling the truth to the public. NeighborhoodNet also recommends they both re-read the Johnson County Code of Ethics, particularly the first lines of Standard 901:

"STANDARD 901: AT ALL TIMES DISPLAY THE HIGHEST LEVEL OF INTEGRITY IN PERFORMING HIS OR HER DUTIES AND NEVER KNOWINGLY NOR NEGLIGENTLY MISLEAD OR ALLOW OTHERS TO MISLEAD THE PUBLIC OR OTHER GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.."

Mr. Meadors and Mr. Azeltine: How many of the fewer than 95,000 youths in Johnson County play soccer?

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