Burros Looking to Play at L-W East, Providence

Following the loss of their field and a barrage of rumors and miscommunication, the Mokena Burros are moving forward with new places to play football in 2012.

At a Burros Board of Directors meeting on Tuesday, athletic director Sal Della Fave said both and have offered their varsity fields to the youth football organization.

Earlier this year, the decided it would not rent football fields to the Burros. The two organizations discussed an agreement but nothing ever materialized. Early in March, the Burros announced an agreement with the Meijer Corporation to use a vacant development at Route 30 and Wolf Road.

Some parents , but Burros board president Joe Lentz said that was never the case. Instead, the Meijer lot will be used primarily for practices and that will still be the arrangement now that the Burros have other opportunities.

Fave said Lincoln-Way East offered a couple of dates to the Burros, and Providence Catholic would provide its field any Saturday needed. Four of the Saturdays offered would be available any time and two would require a later start.

“We’ll have to sit down and discuss it,” Fave said. “But I think we’ll utilize both.”

Lentz said the youth league will release schedule dates in May, at which point the Burros will work with the schools to determine when and where its games will be held.

He said he was hopeful the Burros could work out an agreement with the Park District, but the district did not reciprocate those feelings. According to previous articles, the Park District would not rent fields to the Burros after the group returned an affiliation agreement edited with changes the district did not agree to.

That follows , including one incident last season where a coach was disciplined for throwing a child to the ground and calling him insulting names.

"At this time, we feel it's not in our best interest to affiliate ourselves with the Burros organization," Park District Director Jim Romanek said in a previous article.

But Lentz said Tuesday that the incident never happened, and he was hoping to get past the miscommunication that has occurred. The board talked about drafting a fact sheet that would explain what has occurred and what the situation is for the coming season.