Interim President: AAL Has No Plans To Change Mission

The Acreage Athletic League has been around for more than three decades and will continue its youth sports mission with or without the support of the Indian Trail Improvement District, AAL Interim President Tim Opfer told the Town-Crier.

“Whether we do it at Acreage parks, we’re going to do it anyway,” Opfer said recently. “We’ll find a place to play… [but] I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

The ITID Board of Supervisors oversees the local park system in the Acreage/Loxahatchee area, including Acreage Community Park North and South.

“I think [Opfer] has good intentions,” ITID Supervisor Richard Vassalotti said. “I hope there’s a change in direction, but there are a lot of people who are very, very unhappy.”

For a number of years, the AAL held a service provider agreement with ITID, giving it near exclusive use of the parks. However, after months of controversy, the supervisors voted in February to extend to the AAL a one-year “nonprofit athletic user agreement,” giving its teams first priority for field space while making room for other organizations, such as the Breakthru Athletic League.

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“I’m glad we’re at a place where, for the most part, everyone is fairly comfortable,” ITID President Elizabeth Accomando said at the time. “Residents and parents will no longer be coming to us. This separates us from that.”

Behind the scenes, though, tension simmered between coaches, parents, players and the executive board, which often was accused of incompetence and a lack of transparency.

Now, at least one sport — Acreage Adult Softball — served notice to the supervisors at a Dec. 10 meeting that it intends to break away from the AAL.

Acreage Adult Softball President Elizabeth McGoldrick told the supervisors that there is a “lack of structure on the executive board” and that the AAL “provides no support” to her 18-and-older co-ed league, despite keeping control over the league’s bank account.

Her softball league has “a great board, and we have it down to a science,” McGoldrick said later. “We kept reaching out to the [AAL] board, and we kept getting crickets.”

The softball league’s decision to separate from the AAL is not a surprise, Opfer said. “They’ve been wanting to do it for a long time,” he said.

The time is now, McGoldrick said. “We’re in the process of making the change,” she said.

That includes starting a spring schedule that will begin play in late January or early February to go along with the league’s usual fall schedule.

The AAL began in 1993 with a group of parents wanting to bring organized sports into the unincorporated, semi-rural enclave. With the guidance of the Acreage Landowners’ Association, the first AAL Executive Board of Directors was formed to oversee activities for some 200 young players, and the league incorporated in 1995.

Today, the AAL web site says that there are 2,000 registered players participating in tackle football, co-ed flag football, Acreage Elite flag and girls flag, baseball, basketball soccer and softball.

However, instability and in-fighting have plagued the AAL’s executive board in recent years. When Carlos Castillo was pressured to resign as AAL president in November 2022, Wendy Tirado, a board member since 2016, was named acting president and later elected to the position by the board.

Tirado resigned over the summer, and Opfer, the league’s technology specialist, stepped in to fill the void. Three executive board positions remain open.

In November, Ruben Paulo Tirado, a former coach at Seminole Ridge High School and with the AAL, was arrested on charges of lewd and lascivious battery and soliciting sexual conduct by an authority figure. Ruben Tirado, allegedly Wendy Tirado’s son, has pleaded not guilty.

The AAL “has hit a lot of speed bumps… and they hit a pretty big speed bump in November,” said ITID Supervisor Patricia Farrell, adding that she believed the arrest has had an impact across the district. “Parents are concerned.”

So are players, McGoldrick said. “It shouldn’t affect our [softball] league, but sadly it is. People see us as connected to the AAL.”

Opfer is quick to point out that the enhanced sexual offender notification system used by the league worked as it is supposed to.

“We were notified right away,” said Opfer, adding there is no indication of an issue related to Ruben Tirado’s time with the AAL, and ITID officials said there is no evidence of improper conduct on district property.

Still, it’s another jab to an organization that has taken its share of punches over the last few years, and it has put the supervisors back in the uncomfortable position of dealing with more AAL issues.

“We’ve spent so much time and energy on all this sports stuff,” Accomando said recently. “I know it’s important to a lot of people, but it shouldn’t be the focus of so many of our meetings… Giving permits for field space is all [the district] should be doing.”

Opfer said he understands that the AAL needs to make systemic changes, such as seeking more representation on the executive board from sports such as basketball, and delivering more transparency about the inner workings of the board. Part of that is an overhaul of the league’s “infrastructure” — it’s web site and e-mail communications.

More than that, Opfer said he hopes to rebuild the strained and sometimes broken relationships created when an AAL flag football faction broke away to form Breakthru in 2022. Breakthru has since become the AAL’s biggest rival for flag football talent.

Opfer said he’d like to see cross-league play or perhaps tournaments between AAL and Breakthru teams.

“I know there are still hard feelings on both sides,” said Opfer, but he noted that his daughter plays in the Breakthru league. “Both leagues have some challenges. It’s time we put our egos aside and build those relationships back.”