Norwalk : Picketers Want Permanent Ban on Adult Soccer Games

A group of 20 picketers last week demanded that the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District board permanently ban adult league soccer games from school fields in their neighborhoods.

The board had temporarily suspended soccer permits at its previous meeting after residents complained that players and fans were urinating in public, drinking alcohol during games and littering on school grounds. The board will take up the matter of what to do next at its Jan. 6 meeting.

Protesting residents at the Dec. 19 school board meeting waved signs proclaiming that the soccer games made their neighborhoods into “Norwalk’s Largest Public Toilet.”

“I feel like a prisoner in my own house every Sunday,” resident Marina Honodel said. “They sit on the hoods of their cars and make comments at us if we go out.”

In a later interview, soccer player Rigo Grimaldo said that team members try to clean up after the games, and that much of the trash is there before players arrive. “These are people who are trying to get away and relax,” he said. “There are some out there who give us a bad name. But that’s just a handful.”