Youth Soccer Coach Slams Cost of City’s Master Plan

A youth soccer coach in Killeen, Texas, delivered a few choice words about what the local parks department paid to create an open space master plan.

“It took them $127,000 to come up with this report,” Raoul Daniels, an engineer and volunteer of the youth division of the Lions Club Soccer Club, said Tuesday of the master plan, according to KDHN. “If they gave me the same amount, I would have had three sites done.”

To emphasize his point, Daniels showed a picture of a multiuse sport site that he and his business partner created for an elementary school in just two weeks.

On Feb. 8, Daniels questioned the city council when it approved the Parks Master Plan.

“Since arriving to Killeen permanently a year ago, I tried to utilize my experience in the local community but to little avail,” Daniels said during the Feb. 8 meeting, “Continually frustrated, I’ve been attempting to answer these questions: Why is sports in Killeen so disorganized? Inefficient? And seriously underperforming? And who are those that are responsible?”

Daniels has been managing, coaching and refereeing soccer teams since 1983, and he says the city council has repeatedly ignored his advice. Daniels also alleges that the council does not provide enough oversight of the parks department.

Executive director of Killeen Parks and Recreation, Joe Brown, disagrees. Brown says the says the city has held discussions with youth sports teams and that implementing new football and soccer fields is part of the plan.

Daniels was asked whether he could use his experience in developing a site in Austin to help maximize the benefit of the Killeen fields.

“Of course,” he said. “I have my master’s (degree) in this and I have contacts in Europe, I am more than ready to help out.”

The council has agreed to have a meeting to discuss the needs of local youth organizations as part of its planning.