WHERE DO THE CHILDREN PLAY? CONGRESSIONAL SUPPORT NEEDED TO ENSURE KIDS HAVE SOMETHING TO DO AND SOMEWHERE TO GO AFTER SCHOOL.

Byline: Brad Sherman 

EVERYONE understands that after-school programs like sports and organized clubs are good for our children. It is also clear that we need to protect our open spaces, ensure our children have places to play and we all have places to walk, picnic and just relax.

A key bill before the House of Representatives, the Resources 2000 Act (House Resolution 798), can help ensure both these needs are met.

A recent Department of Justice and Department of Education joint report found that too many of our children do not have access to affordable, supervised and constructive activities after school.

In the face of studies showing that most juvenile crime is committed between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., with the largest number of offenses committed in the hours immediately following students' release from school, we must make sure that every child has a safe and enriching place to go after school.

Kids involved in supervised outdoor activities are getting and staying fit, they are learning the importance of teamwork, they are building their self-confidence and they are productively expending the seemingly endless amounts of energy they seem to have. They aren't sitting in front of the tube eating junk food, they aren't mastering the latest ``splatter'' video game and they aren't wandering the streets aimlessly looking for ways to burn off energy.

More than 80 million Americans participated in some outdoor activity last year. More than 18 million Americans played soccer, nearly half of them in organized leagues. More than 2 million of those soccer players are here in California.

The success of the U.S. women's national soccer team has already led to an increased interest in playing soccer among girls and young women - an interest that is only going to continue to grow.

Anyone who drives around the San Fernando and Conejo valleys will not be surprised by this. Virtually every patch of grass (and sometimes dirt) big enough to fit a couple of dozen kids and a ball is full from dawn to dusk.

While this is good news, there is also bad news. We are literally running out of places to play.

Officials with the American Youth Soccer Organization, with whom I recently met at the grand opening of their new national headquarters, tell me there is a significant shortage of playing fields nationwide.

USA Today recently reported that there is a nationwide shortage of soccer fields. Montgomery County, Md., has more than 1,000 youth soccer teams and only 100 fields. In Fort Lauderdale, Fla., there is a waiting list of 1,000 children to play in the AYSO league.

Soccer and baseball organizers in this area tell me that there are more children than opportunities, and more teams than space. What space there is must be fought for and reserved sometimes months in advance. Some girls' softball leagues in the Valley find it necessary to threaten legal action to get fields.

This is why I co-sponsored the Resources 2000 Act, which will provide for the permanent protection of the natural and recreational resources of the United States in the year 2000 and beyond.

Two elements of the bill will go a long way toward helping our young people. The first is a matching grants program of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The LWCF was established in 1964 and has been responsible for the acquisition of nearly 7 million acres of parkland, water resources, open space and the development of more than 37,000 state and local park and recreation projects. The states matching grants program has been an integral part of the LWCF since its inception.

Americans for Our Heritage and Recreation, a group made up of everyone from the Sierra Club to the U.S. Conference of Mayors to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association, puts it best, ``LWCF stateside matching grants have been used successfully to fund thousands of Little League, football and soccer fields, hiking and biking trails and other youth sports facilities.''

Unfortunately, Congress eliminated the funding for this important element of the LWCF in 1995, just before I got to Congress in January 1997.

The second important element is the Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Program Amendments, which provide for the development of new recreation areas and facilities - like soccer and baseball fields, parks and picnic areas. Like the LWCF, this program is a quality-of-life investment. Whether it is funding a new big city park, revitalizing a 19th-century landmark, or creating a soccer or baseball field, UPARR has been integral to healthy and safe community life.

This bill could fund projects like turning the western part of the Sepulveda Basin into parkland, hiking trails and sports facilities. Today that land is used as a farm.

The House Appropriations Committee gutted the funding for both of these crucial programs just before Independence Day - just as it has every year since the mid-1980s. The full House needs to reverse this mistaken decision and restore the funding when the legislation comes to the floor.

By investing in our urban and suburban public spaces, we create places in which we can all meet, play and relax. We also provide desperately needed areas for our young people to participate in after-school activities that keep them healthy, out of trouble, and learning sportsmanship and teamwork.

CAPTION(S):

Photo: Brandi Chastain is inspiring new soccer players, but will the y have a place to play?

Josh Estey