A youth track-and-field club run out of the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex for more than a decade is closing on a deal for an alternative practice space after its long-time home turned into a temporary shelter for migrants.
Boston United has received an offer to use the Reggie Lewis Center, about a mile away from the Cass, and officials are leaning toward accepting it, with one caveat, club treasurer Sekou Dilday told the Herald Wednesday evening.
The Reggie, operated by Roxbury Community College, is available from 6 to 9 Saturday mornings, but Dilday said such an early start time could prove a “tough sell” for families who participate in the program. Instead, officials are contemplating holding an hour-long practice, starting at 8 a.m, he said.
“We don’t believe our families, based on who we’ve spoken to, would be able to support a 6 a.m. start time on Saturday mornings,” Dilday said. “Trying to get your kids up at 5:30 on Saturday, earlier than they get up to go to school, is a tough sell.”
He added: “We are grateful for an hour to be honest because we didn’t have anywhere to go.”
Roughly 30 children between the ages of 4 and 18 participate every Saturday with the club, which hosts its program indoors in the winter and outdoors in the spring. It also provides summer conditioning, cross country in the fall and year-round academic support and guidance.
Dilday told the Herald on Tuesday that the club was notified last week its permit had been canceled, sparking some confusion initially before everyone learned about Healey’s plan to use the Cass to house migrants.
Dilday called the possibility of holding an hour-long practice “better than nothing.”
The Reggie will be full of action in February with regional track-and-field meets. Boston Public Schools has been hard-pressed to find time for its student-athletes to practice at the Reggie, with councilors expressing anger in December that use of the facility is being taken away by suburban districts.
A Roxbury Community College spokesperson told the Herald that conversations are ongoing.
Boston United is not the only program displaced by the emergency shelter for migrants, which Gov. Maura Healey has vowed to run through the end of May.
City spokesperson Ricardo Patron told the Herald on Tuesday that initial alternative space has been secured for lacrosse, tennis, soccer, baseball and handball programs. Some of those facilities include the Reggie and Shelbourne and Curtis Hall community centers, a spokesperson from the state Department of Conservation and Recreation said Wednesday.
Other programs are still in the process of finding a temporary location, which may be Boston University, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, and the YMCA, the DCR spokesperson said.
“Something that has been a top priority for us in this work is to make sure that every program finds a new home on a temporary basis,” Healey said during a Wednesday news conference at the gym. “I am confident and promise that we will make sure Boston United and all of the teams are taken care of so there isn’t that displacement. It is a temporary displacement, but I’m actually hopeful that good things can come from it.”
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