The individuals at the City of Madera Parks and Community Services Department make sure to stay busy year-round with events encompassing all seasons.
“I don’t want to have any downtime with the City. We’re always working to provide something as much as our budget allows,” said Parks and Community Services Recreational Coordinator, Adam Romero.
He also wants to make sure that everyone that joins a program within the recreation department has the best time possible at the lowest price possible.
“I tell my staff the kids are paying $75 to play, but I want them to think they are paying $300 for the league,” Romero said. “They are getting the best for what we can afford and we’re there to provide the best service.”
Romero has first-hand knowledge of the recreation departments within the city. He grew up in Madera, and participated in a number of programs, including Little League, where he coached his son with Madera American this past season.
“We offer something all year round. We may overlap some leagues. We want parents to have an option for their kids,” he said. “Our league is recreation. When you think of Parks and Rec, you are going to play with people you don’t know. There’s not a draft. Coaches don’t get to pick their teams. You join a team, meet some new faces, meet a coach and have a good time. We, at the City, want to make sure we have something to offer that the community is lacking.”
The participation numbers are slowly returning, post-COVID. The City recently added Jr. Giants baseball, pickleball for the adults, open gym volleyball and indoor soccer. The open gym volleyball has exploded in attendance.
“We have 50-60 adults out there at John Wells for volleyball,” Romero said. “It’s $2 to come in, and they are out there until 10 p.m. They help set things up, and play pick-up games all night. It’s huge. It got so big, one of them set up a court outside so people could also play.”
One of the sports that is starting to grow in both popularity and participation for Madera is flag football. The City’s flag football program started right after COVID, in 2022, and it only had 14 kids sign up the first year.
“It was something to fill the void,” Romero said. “People were playing tackle football and kids were getting cut. I thought they still wanted to play football, so what could we (at the City) do? Some parents didn’t want their kids to play tackle because their kids are still getting used to it. I thought about starting flag football.”
Even though the league didn’t have enough players to start, Romero kept the kids and had, basically, an exhibition season.
“I told the parents that we couldn’t start a league, but if they wanted to, we could work with the kids. On Saturdays, we will have officials out there and have kids playing against each other. They all had a good time,” Romero said. “We wanted to get the kids experience if they wanted to play tackle football later. This was before the hype of flag football.”
Then, the NFL changed its Pro Bowl format to include flag football games in 2023. Kids started seeing players they idolized playing flag football, and interest in Madera’s flag football started to grow.
However, the second year, the City had only about 26 kids, so they did the same as the year before.
In 2024, the City had enough for a full league. There were four teams in two leagues (7-9 year olds and 10-12 year olds) with playoffs and a championship.
Last year, the league grew to about 86 kids with five teams in each league and about 8-10 players on each team.
“We played at Town and Country Park on the fields,” Romero said. “People drove by and saw all the flag football. They started asking. They missed the sign ups, but they were ready for the next one. People were calling up to sign up.”
The teams are coed and play five-on-five. This year’s season is moved from August to start in October to stay away from other leagues. The registration deadline is August 30.
“We have evaluations with skills assessment, and I build the teams according to their skill level,” Romero said. “I try to balance everything out. The coaches are helping get two picks, but every one else is spread out on skill level. Our evaluation is done by City staff and volunteer coaches.”
Flag football participation is growing within Madera. All three high schools (Madera, Madera South and Matilda Torres) field a full varsity and junior varsity girls team, and are at maximum. All three middle schools have also begun playing flag football. This year, the Central Section will host a flag football playoff for the first time.
With the attention towards girls flag football, Romero has added a middle school league, and hopes to expand to have separate boys and girls flag football leagues.
“We have 20 kids signed up, already for middle school,” he said. “I’m aiming for just four teams. The competition level is pretty high for that age.”
Romero has set a maximum of six teams in each league with four in the middle school league with a maximum of 160 kids. He also thinks by starting in October, he is able to attract players that play in the Madera Youth Soccer League, which begins its season in August.
“We had to compete with that,” he said. “Kids had to pick and choose. We’re waiting until soccer is over. They could play soccer and play flag football. We’re hoping those kids playing soccer will come play flag football.”
The flag football season is eight weeks long with one game each Saturday and a practice during the week.
“We play six games with playoffs. Then, you get ready for the holidays,” Romero said.
With more interest in flag football because of the girls flag football offered at the high schools, Romero is reaching out to the schools to help with the teams.
“They can come out and help coach,” he said. “I do see the popularity coming in. Parents are more inclined to let their kids play flag football than tackle at a young age. Having it at the high school and middle level is huge for the girls because there’s something for them to do.
“We have great athletes out there. Just having the opportunity to play at a low cost is great. We do have fee assistance for the players if they need help. That comes from donors around Madera. It’s not a huge commitment. It’s in-and-out. It gives the kids an opportunity to try something new or better their skills for later on.”
For the time being, Romero doesn’t see a big flag football expansion, and enjoys the Town and Country Park location.
“I like where we’re at with the numbers for flag football because it’s easy to maintain as far as budget goes, and volunteers,” he said. “It takes a lot for these coaches to come out and give their time. I want to keep it at these numbers for some time. It’s easy to manage with the budget we have. We’re looking at 16 teams at the max. I like having flag football at Town and Country because it’s central, and it’s free marketing for us. We play under the lights and people stop by to see what’s going on. The time of year fits because not a lot is going on for flag football.”
As a father of a young athlete, and a former player in many of the recreation leagues, Romero knows the benefit of these recreation leagues.
“I see the benefit of having something for these kids to do. I see the benefit that it’s having on the community,” he said.