Water volleyball players have revolted over proposed schedule changes set to take place April 1.
The Project Wide Advisory Committee was faced with an overflow room of angry water volleyball players Monday morning during a budget workshop at SeaBreeze Recreation Center.
The conflict has pitted the Group volleyball players against the Division players, who both want the coveted 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. playing spots at sports pools.
Division players complained that they have endured the “eye rolling” of Group players who have deemed they are “not good enough” to play with them. The Division level players claimed the Group players are cliquish and snobby. Division players said they offer a system in which everyone is welcome.
However, at the PWAC meeting, Division players were clearly outnumbered by the angry Group players.
Sheila Reynolds said she and her husband left a retirement community in Arizona to move to The Villages. She said they had to “fight” for pool time at their retirement community in Arizona. For years, she considered The Villages much more accommodating than the Arizona retirement community she left behind. Until now.
Reynolds accused the Division players of pressuring the Recreation Department to give them the coveted 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. slots now enjoyed by the Group players.
Reynolds and others said giving the prime slots to the Division players doesn’t make sense, since the Division players “can barely fill” the pool.
“Everyone is leaving Division for Group play,” Reynolds told PWAC members, who oversee amenities south of County Road 466.
Recreation Direction John Rohan defended the new summer schedule and said his department tries to meet the needs of all of the residents who want to use the sports pools in The Villages.
“There are lots of different programs that are scheduled at those pools,” Rohan said. “We try to balance, to some degree, utilization of those pools.”
He said that Group players “did not lose any hours” although he admitted some of the slots were shifted.
Manny Millor of the Village of Collier is a pool ambassador at the Rohan Sports Pool.
He said that the Recreation Department apparently did not consider the mammoth traffic problem at State Road 44 and Morse Boulevard when making the schedule change at his pool.
He said moving the Group play water volleyballers from the 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. slot on Tuesdays, Thursday and Saturdays to the 3 to 5 p.m. slot on those days will worsen the daily 5 p.m. backups experienced at the roundabout near the Rohan Recreation Center.
“As you know that intersection is horrible,” Millor said.
He said adding 84 water volleyball players to the mix several times per week will make it much worse.
“Wait until they open the Walmart,” he added.
Jack Matekanski said water volleyball players were blindsided when the summer schedule was rolled out by the Recreation Department.
“What happened with John Rohan, there was no explanation, other than pure vindictiveness,” Matekanski said.