Numerous volunteers and members of the Mustang Youth Football Association have turned the Mustang youth football facility from unusable to one of the top fields in the area.

The city of Mustang put $1.7 million into the new Little League baseball complex, but has put zero dollars into the youth football facility. The city has donated mowers and other lawn equipment to the MYFA as well as help clean out the ditch that runs through the park.

Through volunteer work, the MYFA has spent roughly $4,000 on upgrades to the youth football field and facilities in the park.

Louis Krivanek, MYFA board president, said without help from the volunteers, there would be no youth football in Mustang this year.

“The field looks great,” he said. “We have watered it constantly and improved the facilities around the field as well. The concession stand looks like a new building, and we have a press box on the way. We have reversed the bleachers so the home-side bleachers are nicer and they look more like football bleachers.”

The area surrounding the main game field used to have fencing that was falling down and shrubbery all around it. The volunteers cleaned all that shrubbery off the area and made room for teams to warm up before their games.

The MYFA ordered 2,000 feet of black mesh to put around the fencing they could not tear down. Games will get under way tonight as the 11-year-old teams will play their preseason round-robin.

“Our goal is to make our facility look as modern as possible,” Krivanek said. “We are repainting and repairing everything we can to make this facility as impressive as possible.”

The ages that will be playing for the MYFA this fall are 6-year-olds through 11-year-olds, first-graders through sixth-graders. So far, the MYFA has 14 teams signed up to play this year, which is the most they have ever had. Roughly 180 new children have signed up to play football this year.

“Our goal is to have around four teams per age group, so we are pleased with the numbers we have this year,” Krivanek said. “We would like that number to keep increasing.”

Krivanek said the MYFA has entered a verbal contract with a company to come in this winter and redo the main game field and then turn one of the practice fields into another game field, so they can play two games at once.

“If we can play two games at once, that would totally eliminate having to play on Saturdays,” he said. “Right now, we still have to play a couple Saturday games, but if we can build another game field, we would just play on weeknights.”

Krivanek said this job wouldn’t get done if it wasn’t for the help of all of the volunteers for the MYFA, including Travis Helling, who is the vice president of the MYFA.

Mustang City Parks and Recreation Director Justin Battles said the city has helped out with the youth football facility a little bit, but the majority of the work has been done by the MYFA.

“They deserve all the credit,” he said. “They have been working tirelessly to make that facility the best it possibly can be. They have added practice space, improved the game field and updated the facilities. It’s really been impressive.”

The MYFA just recently started a website that shows all the information about the Mustang Youth Football Association and how people can help in any way. The website also allows for people to sign up to play in the league. The website is www.mustangyouthfootball.net. Sign-ups for football are May 1 through July 1.

Kyle Salomon is the sports editor at the Mustang News. He can be reached at ksalomon@mustangnews.info.