In the 1960s and '70s, I played Dixie Youth baseball while growing up in Gulf Breeze.
As a 12-year-old kid, I didn’t think about adults' investment of their time and resources for my friends and I to have a league and a place to play. I think most kids just want a chance and a place to play.
The Gulf Breeze Sports Association, which ran Gulf Breeze's leagues, was a volunteer group that made sure kids could play organized ball.
We had one field for 8- to 12-year-old boys. There was another field for 13- to 14-year-old boys. The same complex had a football field and a yellow-brick concession stand.
Gulf Breeze's Shoreline Drive recreation complex looks nothing like the one I knew as a boy. Even before I graduated from high school, the face of the complex was starting to change as the community's population increased and young women became more involved in sports.
This scenario is not unique to Gulf Breeze.
The fact is, almost every healthy community will face a space crunch associated with growing youth leagues and an abundance of children.
Crestview is now amid such a dilemma. The city's youth baseball and softball leagues have grown at a faster-than-anticipated pace. Soon, there will be no place for all the children.
Fortunately, Wayne Steele, Crestview’s director of Public Works, has a plan in place for a new recreation complex.
The city has the property needed to develop a new facility, but budgets are tight and resources are limited as Crestview faces several other challenges of a town that's doubled in population the past 25 years.
Steele is calling on the community to help build a recreation complex on Brookmeade Drive, just behind North Okaloosa Medical Center. If enough volunteers stepped in with skills, or money, the project could be finished in time for next spring's baseball and softball seasons.
The Brookmeade complex will eventually cost about $500,000 to finish. Steele estimates it will cost about $100,000 to finish the project's first phase and have it ready for next spring.
You might not have $1,000 or even $100, but maybe your life was enriched by playing youth ball in Crestview and you want to give something.
Former teammates could honor a coach by donating money to the new complex in his or her name. Maybe you have a bulldozer to help level the field. Or you could volunteer to lay sod or carry lumber.
These are just a few ideas.
The fact is, our kids need a place to play, whether it's Crestview, Gulf Breeze or any of the other communities we once called home.
Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: DICKSON: Kids need a place to play ball