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By Daniel Evans

The Suffolk Youth Athletic Association (SYAA) will be allowed to convert a storage building into an indoor practice facility after the city council unanimously approved a conditional use permit at its Jan. 15 council meeting.

The property, located at 432 King’s Fork Road, was rezoned to general commercial, with the only allowed use being for indoor recreation. 

Geoff Payne, who has served on the SYAA for 35 years, said the nonprofit organization serves 1,300 children who play sports, from softball, baseball, field hockey, and soccer. He noted that the SYAA is probably the largest volunteer sports association in the Mid-Atlantic region.

“SYA’s philosophy is simple. We want all kids to play of all abilities at the lowest possible cost,” Payne said, noting that includes a special needs program.

But, before the council’s decision, the SYAA had a problem. When it’s cold outside, as it is during the winter months in Suffolk, the program has nowhere to practice while surrounding communities do.

“We lose our kids to Virginia Beach because in winter, especially when we have the weather we’re having now, we can’t do satisfactory training outside, so we need an indoor facility,” Payne said. “We have hundreds of kids leave our organization, take all that money, and go to Virginia Beach and spend it there. We need to change that. We need an indoor facility.”

Several other speakers who work with the SYAA and its student-athletes also supported the rezoning.

“I assign over 10,000 games per year, and again, I could not do this without the support of SYAA,” said Karen Arnold, a senior referee with the Tidewater Soccer Referee Association. “Outdoor training is very limited. With this new facility, it will actually expand our training and improve it for over four months of the year when we cannot do it with the weather.”

Mayor Michael Duman said his kids probably played in the first games of SYAA.

“So obviously I’m wholeheartedly in support of this, and I’m also in support of the city doing whatever we can to assist you because I do know how crowded just got it out there, and the number of kids that you’ve been able to serve is really amazing with the volunteer organization,” he said.

The SYAA notes on its website that it takes approximately 25,000 volunteer hours to run and manage its programs annually.