Parents:

A new coalition of local parents and soccer organizations wants to level the playing field when it comes to team sports.

“There’s 1,000 kids playing baseball and 4,000 kids playing soccer,” said Phillip Greenberg, regional commissioner of American Youth Soccer Organization 57. “We’re hoping the city will work with us to make a better place to play.”

The new group, Soccer Families 4 Newport Fields, wants Newport Beach to turn its latest park project — Sunset Ridge Park, at Superior Avenue and West Coast Highway — into an active sports park with more soccer fields.

The group also wants to work with city and school officials to develop more new soccer fields throughout Newport.

Newport Beach City Council members voted in May to spend $70,000 to have a consulting firm do public outreach and create a concept for the 12-acre Sunset Ridge Park. The park concept is scheduled for discussion at a public meeting in February.

More children in Newport Beach play soccer than all other youth sports combined, Soccer Families 4 Newport Fields claims. The growing popularity of the sport means teams need more space for practice time and games, Greenberg said. It’s difficult for AYSO and other groups to schedule games during some times of year, he said.

“Because we only have a few lighted fields in town, when dusk rolls around, then we have to quit playing. We can’t start at 6 a.m,” he said.

Newport Beach has 22 soccer fields it allocates by permit to youth and adult sports organizations. Local sports groups also work with Newport-Mesa Unified School District to use school district athletic fields.

Soccer teams are often at odds for playing time with softball and baseball, and other sports in the spring, said Jeff Braun, AYSO Region 97 commissioner. While many boys play baseball in the spring, girls who play soccer year-round are usually affected the most in the spring, he said.

“They are the ones who get the short end of the stick because there’s not really a secondary sport for them.”

For more information on Soccer Families 4 Newport Fields, visit www.soccerfamilies4fields.com.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at [email protected].