Morgan Hill can boast having some of the finest sports facilities in Northern California. Through the foresight and dedication of community leaders, city council members along with city parks and recreation staff in the 1990s and early 2000s, we have three world-class facilities: The Aquatic Center, founded in 2004; the Centennial Recreation Center, 2006; and the Outdoor Sports Center, 2007. Together with our community parks, these three facilities make Morgan Hill a true recreation mecca.
As you might guess, the value of the OSC ranks highest in my mind. The reason for this, of course, is that while all three facilities provide superior facilities to Morgan Hill residents, the OSC has become a tremendous tourism economic engine in the past two years. Under the Morgan Hill Youth Sports Alliance’s management, the OSC is bringing more and more people into Morgan Hill to stay in our hotels, eat in our restaurants and shop in our stores. Having the opportunity to make a positive contribution to Morgan Hill’s youths while helping our community prosper has been an enjoyable experience for me, MHYSA president Jeff Dixon, the MHYSA board members and too many supporters in our community to name.
Still, this enjoyment sometimes presents challenges, most of them stemming from the history of the OSC and how its value has been perceived over the years. After the soccer fields were built in the 1990s, the California Youth Soccer Alliance played a big part in keeping the fields maintained and, after it became the OSC, they stayed on to maintain the grass fields. It was known as a “soccer-only” facility. City staff members faced the challenge of how to realize the full value of the OSC as a dedicated multisports facility for local sports leagues, schools and other athletic organizations while finding the necessary financial means to do so. In short, they needed a mechanism to ensure superior playing fields for Morgan Hill children while increasing revenue. After running the OSC for two years in partnership with CYSA and using a model they developed with the YMCA to run the CRC, the city found one. They sent the Request for Proposal for a single OSC operator in February 2010 and, after a rigorous competition, MHYSA took over operations in July 2010.
As operator of the venue, we have faced our own challenges since then, not the least of which is the common misconception of the OSC as a community park.
“It is not an uncommon situation,” Dixon said. “Communities throughout the U.S. have had similar problems as they introduce dedicated sports facilities. As implied in the title, dedicated sports facilities, like the OSC and Aquatic Center, are not open to everyone as community parks are. They require an additional level of control as well as increase fees and requirements to use. Still, we created a community-access program this year with our Red Tailed Hawk Program and hope to do more in Year 3. We look forward to making the OSC a value for the individual athlete as well as the sports leagues.”
The OSC has always required a permit to use, even before MHYSA took over.
After all, community sports leagues’ access to the OSC is one of the primary reasons why MHYSA pursued the OSC opportunity. To ensure our success, taking a page from city staff’s book, MHYSA quickly formed Home Field Partnerships with the Morgan Hill Raiders and Orchard Valley Youth Soccer League. This year, we also established a long-term partnership with CYSA District 2. All of these partners, together with other local users, will ensure the OSC is enjoyed by local sports leagues and their families for the foreseeable future.
Four leaders of youth sports leagues recently shared their thoughts with me. Rich Phillips, president of the Morgan Hill Raiders, said, “Having the OSC available to the local community and making it possible for the Pop Warner Raiders to move their league there is the best thing to happen to our program in 20 years.”
When asked for his thoughts on working with MHYSA, OVYSL president Chris Monahan said, “Our home-field partnership brings our two organizations together and allows us to build off each others’ strengths, as well as provide long-term additional practice and game space to our local soccer-playing children. As a result of this positive step forward, OVYSL utilized the outdoor sports complex almost twice as much as last spring. This gave many competitive and recreational teams a chance to practice and play at the complex.”
Brett Hoffman, president of the Morgan Hill Mavericks Lacrosse Club, said: “Late last year when our boys varsity Mavericks Lacrosse season was in the early planning stages, MHYSA went out of their way to provide our club MHOSC field access for the 2012 season. (MHYSA) had anticipated our call and effortlessly helped us preschedule regular practice times throughout the upcoming spring season and worked hard to schedule us into their already jam-packed OSC spring calendar. In years past, we hoped to be able to schedule some of our club’s home lacrosse games at the MHOSC. This season, MHYSA worked closely with us to make sure we received the dates and times needed to host all of our home games at the MHOSC. Lacrosse is a still a relatively small sport in Morgan Hill but the MHYSA treated our team and our players like we belonged at the Sports Complex.”
Rodney Robinson, CYSA District 2 commissioner, believes the OSC is in the best shape it has been in for years. He opined, “We are looking forward to our partnership with MHYSA at the OSC. It is going to be a successful arrangement for both organizations.”
Robinson expects CYSA to have upwards of 20 weekend events in the next fiscal year.
Such testimonials are heartening. MHYSA is dedicated to putting “more kids in more sports.” The primary purpose for taking on the OSC contract was is support of this specific goal. Developing the OSC as a tourism economic engine will only increase its value, and partnerships will be the way to go. We have succeeded with marketing partnership with DBH Marketing at San Jose State and the San Jose Earthquakes this year.
Later this year, we hope to continue this streak with prospects such as COPA Univision and a Rock and Roll Oktoberfest, as we continue to deliver value to our community.
