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• teaching credentials. He played with Valley Little League and learned a lot, <br />but feels there is a problem since players are leaving to other city leagues. <br />We need to keep players here in Santa Ana. If we have a Pony League, kids <br />would play here and stay in the Santa Ana Unified School District. <br />• Jamie Contreras indicated he is a coach for Valley Little League. He is <br />concerned that kids are leaving, because we don't play year round. If baseball <br />is not allowed to play year round, kids will go to travel ball. <br />• Harvey Contreras indicated he is the President of Valley Little League. He <br />supports both the Little League and Pony League programs. We need to keep <br />kids in the baseball program. There are not enough fields in Santa Ana and <br />other sports have priority in September to December. Santa Ana has 39 <br />fields and it is difficult to share the fields all year long. <br />• Mark Mulkein indicated he lives in Santa Ana and has seen kids play in <br />Northwest Little League and Pony League. The leagues have outreached to <br />the community. Little League provides recreational play and fairness. He has <br />talked to some of the residents and indicated the community supports the <br />transition to Pony League. <br />• Peter Zapata indicated he is President of Santiago Little League. Most <br />important is to teach the kids the fundamentals of the game. Pony needs to <br />run some clinics for each of the leagues. He has coached in both Pony and <br />Little League and indicated it boils down to how kids are being taught. <br />• Ron Foster of District 30 indicated right now there are 5 leagues and there is <br />• no Northwest Little League. It comes down to preference and the level of <br />coaching. <br />September 29, 2012 minutes approved as presented. <br />• NORTHWEST LITTLE LEAGUE PROPOSAL <br />• The Santa Ana Pony Baseball proposal was distributed to the PREY <br />Committee by Carlos Nava. <br />• Councilmember Tinajero indicated he has been part of both Little League and <br />Pony League. In Fountain Valley both Little League and Pony share a park. <br />Pony and Little League has different rules. Pony is strict on starting on time. <br />The average team per league is 6 teams, but the numbers have decreased to <br />1 or 2 teams per league. If players want to improve they have to go outside of <br />Santa Ana. Change is difficult. Little League has a great concept but need to <br />change with the times. We need to provide options for the kids to choose. <br />Need to have a park where all the fields are used by the league. <br />• Councilmember Sarmiento indicated he is in support for kids having options. <br />Kids have talent and need options to thrive and be successful. The basic <br />fundamental issues are: 1) Lack of fields; 2) Year round sports on the field; <br />and 3) the introduction of providing a new layer of options. <br />• Gerardo Mouet indicated staff prepared a handout and will be monitoring field <br />usage. At this point there is not a problem of providing the fields. <br />0 <br />PREY Regular Meeting Page 3 October 29, 2012 <br />13A -3 <br />