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Copper thefts leave youth sports scrambling

TUCKER, Georgia (CNN) -- Last Thursday around dusk, Granite Park soccer field in suburban Atlanta was more crowded than usual.
With lights not working, the Optimist Club of Fort Worth, Texas, was forced to play all games on Saturday.

With lights not working, the Optimist Club of Fort Worth, Texas, was forced to play all games on Saturday.

Makeshift goals had been erected to accommodate five extra teams from the Tucker Youth Soccer Association. On the sidelines, groups of giggly kids waited their turns on the field while soccer moms and dads mined the crowded green space in search of a place to park their lawn chairs.

The atypical arrangement was caused by thieves who had ripped out copper wiring from light poles at nearby Henderson Park field, causing about $6,000 in damage, displacing teams that practiced under the lights and making the TYSA players the latest victims of a nationwide epidemic.

"It's annoying that we have to drive all the way here. It takes away time from homework and talking to friends," said Lizzie Howell, 15, who had to leave home earlier than usual to make it to practice by 7 p.m.

Her friend and teammate, Jessie Spencer, worried that the cramped quarters might affect her game.

"I'm kind of upset that we didn't get to practice on the same field and we have to be all crowded out here," said Spencer, 15.

TYSA fared well compared with its neighboring league, the Gwinnett Soccer Association, whose teams sought refuge at Granite two weeks earlier under similar circumstances. The vandals who hit the GSA's field in Lilburn stole about $100 worth of copper wiring from their field and caused about $8,500 in damage.

Those losses paled in comparison to the $25,000 in damage caused by thieves who hit Norcross Soccer Academy's field in Pinckneyville, Georgia.