South Kitsap Soccer Club endures 'vandalism season' again

Members of the South Kitsap Soccer Club were cleaning up and repairing damage to their equipment shed this week after what has become a twice-yearly ritual — vandalism.

“It happens once in summer and once in winter — right around the school breaks,” said Terry Riders, director of the club’s fields, as he boarded up the shed with plywood Tuesday at Veteran’s Memorial Park.

Riders said the suspects broke into the shed sometime Monday night and, once inside, they spray painted profane messages across the walls and floors, then coated nearly everything else — shoes, gloves, lawn mowers, stacks of plastic orange cones, and even a radio — with orange and white paint.

“It’s maddening. They really put some effort into this,” said Susan Prince, who handles public relations for the club, explaining that the group has erected stronger barricades after each attack, including a fence-like door locked securely around the shed door.

Prince said they used to lock the outer door with a cable, but upgraded to a thick metal chain when the cable was cut. And when vandals cut through one padlock, they added another.

“Whatever will slow them down,” Prince said, noting that this time the suspects tore off the wood and plexiglass blocking the window because they couldn’t get through the door. “Now, we’ll probably have to block the window off like we do the door.”

However, that will take money, something the volunteer organization doesn’t have a lot of to spare.

“This will probably cost us another $500 to $600, which is frustrating because it’s money we’ve already invested,” Prince said.

A particularly disheartening aspect of the most recent incident, she said, was that the extra cleats the club had were ruined.

“We have those on hand for kids that can’t afford to buy them,” Prince said. “They can’t wear them now.”

The SK Soccer Club is a volunteer organization that raises money through registration fees from its approximately 1,600 members.

With those funds it pays the county for use and maintenance of the field and shed — which it had built — and purchases equipment, uniforms and everything else needed to host practices, games and tournaments.

Prince and the other members of the club, including president Dick Mohrmann, said they feel they are providing an important service to the community and a crucial outlet for local kids, but the recurring attacks are wearing them down.

“It’s very disturbing,” she said, adding that she did not take the attacks personally, as she believed the vandals would do the same to any building there, since its location made it an “easy opportunity.”

She said people often cut through their field to get back and forth from Mile Hill Drive, but that the county has worked hard to remove a lot of the tress and brush that used to keep the park more hidden from the road.

“We would also ask anyone in the community that if you see something, call the police,” she said. “This park is closed at dusk, so if anyone is here when it’s dark, they’re up to no good.”

Prince said it is disappointing to work to provide activities for local kids, and “then this happens — it makes us not want to spend more money.”

“We are a volunteer organization and trying to keep the costs down for the kids,” said Mohrmann.

Prince said incidents like these just proved to her that more clubs like theirs are needed.

“This town needs more for youth to do,” she said. “If they’re not into sports, what else is them for them to do?”

Deputy Scott Wilson, spokesman for the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office, said he does notice that vandalism seems to increase when school is out, whether on break or just over for the day.

“It would be stereotyping to say that it’s juveniles, but the incidents do seem to be more prevalent when the youngsters have more free time on their hands,” Wilson said.

As far as prevention, Wilson said short of “placing a full-time security guard on location,” property owners should focus on doing what the soccer club is already attempting.

“Make the facility as difficult as possible to gain entry into,” he said.

The club filed a report with the Port Orchard Police Department, which said Wednesday they are still investigating the incident.

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