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Pop Warner Football Grows Into Field

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By GEOFF FOX, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 14, 2007

LAND O' LAKES - The cheerleaders were chanting, their feet kicking high in the air.

On the sidelines, a group of players sipped water under the blazing sun.

As the crowd watched, a member of the South Pasco Predators ran with the ball as a group of West Pasco Prowlers tried to tackle him on a freshly mown field.

Until recently, the Predators, who compete in Pop Warner youth football, practiced and played on a makeshift field on 6 acres at U.S. 41 and Central Avenue, near the Land O' Lakes Jail, where patrons could buy refreshments from out of a converted horse trailer.

Before that, the Predators' seven teams, from flag football to tackle, practiced at Pine View Elementary School before moving to Land O' Lakes High School.

Now, thanks in large part to the Central Pasco Sports Coalition, which lobbied and met with county leaders for years, the league has a permanent home on roughly 40 acres at the recently-expanded Land O' Lakes Recreation Complex.

'We're very excited,' said Joe Klaban, president of the Predators. 'We're glad we're finally here. Everybody's full of spirit and ready to volunteer.'

According to Klaban - and former Predators president Jill Kern - that kind of civic-minded enthusiasm drove the Central Pasco Sports Coalition in its roughly six-year quest for new fields.

Led by chairwoman Amye Cox, the group includes representatives from two youth football leagues, tennis and soccer leagues, and a skateboard association, among others.

The coalition began meeting with county officials in 2001, and the county eventually agreed that more fields were needed.

The expanded Land O' Lakes Recreation Complex - including several sports fields, a playground, a picnic pavilion, concessions and restroom buildings, among other amenities - opened to the public in late September. The project cost roughly $6.5 million.

Between 2001 and last month, though, the Predators were still without a permanent home. So the county let the league use the land near the jail.

On top of that, Cox said, the county lent workers to help clear and grade the field, and added a drainage system. Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative also installed lights at the site for free, fences and gates were donated, and volunteers kept the field clean.

Unfortunately for Kern, the former Predators' president, her oldest children moved onto different leagues before the Predators started playing at the expanded recreation complex.

'My younger son might be there next year, though,' she said. 'I was invited to the grand opening, and it's just amazing. There's soft grass everywhere. Before, we were running a concession stand out of a converted horse trailer. The new one has marble or granite countertops and cabinets.

'It's absolutely everything we wanted and more. When you finally get out there on a field with proper lights, it's amazing.'

Before the first Predator hiked the first practice snap on the new fields, Cox said, she visited the complex to observe what the coalition had helped accomplish.

'I stood there in the middle of 40 acres,' she said. 'It was just beautiful and spectacular. It's a jewel for Land O' Lakes.'

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 948-4217 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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