Some youth teams may have no fields

AUSTIN (KXAN) - The Central Austin Youth League , which covers 55 teams and about 700 youngsters, is not in compliance with a new city of Austin code, and may not be able to use their ball fields this year.

"Took it really hard. I used to play ball on these fields. It's real saddening to see, you know, the uncertainty to know whether our kids are going to play ball this Spring," said Marcos Chapa, head coach for the t-ball team, 'The Crushers.'

Late Wednesday night, parents got word about the situation. The new ordinance, passed last summer by City Council members, requires that all organizations must be a 501(C)3, to be able to use city parks.

Of the 19 leagues within the city of Austin, the only organization that has yet to file the nonprofit status with the Internal Revenue Service is the Central Austin Youth League even though the city's Parks and Recreation Department started briefing the leagues about the change in July.

"We didn't know this was coming. Kind of got thrown upon us," said David Rodriguez, cice president for the CAYL. "And we feel like we've done what we need to do."

League officials said they filed the nonprofit paperwork in December, and that it could take up to six months for the IRS to approve the status.

"We just kind of need more time," Rodriguez said.

A note was recently sent out by the Austin Parks and Recreation Department's athletic office advising the league that they "must remove all belongings from the property" at the Roy Velasquez Complex, and that the department will now be taking registrations for spring baseball and softball.

"This is something for our kids. They enjoy doing this. It's going to be hard to lose this. It's going to be hard to replace it because we don't know where else to take it to. So, it's going to hurt all of us, actually," said t-ball parent Tracy Mata.

"It's hard when you get uniforms in order because there's no way to take them back once you pay for it and they're being made. A lot of people are going to lose," she said.

A petition is currently circulating within the organization to try and keep the league together for the upcoming season.

But even with the concern, the city's Athletic Office staff said they will do what they can to keep the league going through the season, either by offering the City of Austin Recreation Centers to program sites, or allow other youth leagues to expand.

The CYAL president, Alex Serna, declined to talk to KXAN News on-camera because he is also a maintenance worker for the city's Parks & Recreation Department.