Youth Clubs

The inaugural Development Academy Under-17/18 championship game was lights out -- literally. Thirty seconds into the first of two mandatory overtimes -- no golden goals in this format -- the lights on the field of the Home Depot Center went out. The game, which was being broadcast live on ESPNU, was tied, 2-2, at the time of the power outage.

Given the task of closing a gaping budget shortfall for the coming school year, Los Angeles schools Supt. David Brewer has angered leaders of after-school youth groups with his proposal that the groups pay to use school district athletic fields and other facilities. Brewer included the so-called pay to play proposal among many cost-saving measures aimed at closing a $95-million shortfall in the $6.

Pasadena city officials have moved to shut down the unlicensed youth club where a 16-year-old was fatally shot this month. Connie Orozco, the city's chief prosecutor, obtained a temporary restraining order Tuesday to close the Underground, in the 2000 block of Lincoln Avenue in northwest Pasadena. The club's fate will probably be decided in a Sept. 13 Superior Court hearing. "Hopefully it never opens again," Orozco said. On Aug.

Hoping to feed more of its soccer-frenzied youths into the college system, Santa Ana is allowing a local soccer club free use of the city's new, $2-million all-weather sports field to help develop better players. The move reflects civic frustration that the city's two dozen youth and adult soccer leagues have produced a dearth of college and professional players -- and signals an unusual effort by municipal government to develop sports talent.

Hardly has one dizzying upheaval subsided than a new one begins. At least that's the way it has seemed lately at the YWCA of Central Orange County, where life has the feel of a roller coaster ride. Last November, the organization's board of directors said financial pressures were forcing them to close and probably sell their 47-year-old headquarters in Orange.

A multimillion-dollar renovation of the Boys & Girls Club near downtown Oxnard came closer to fruition Thursday with a $300,000 gift from a local business. Haas Automation, a manufacturer of high-tech machinery that employs 700 people in Oxnard, made the donation, the single largest from one organization. Company President Gene Haas is asking Boys & Girls Club officials to begin a fundraising drive to match that amount. "I've gotta tell you, he's the type of individual who feels it's his responsibility to give this type of donation to organizations that affect his community, his workers, his business," former Oxnard City Councilman Tom Holden said.

Pedro Temores says he used to resolve conflict with his fists. Now, the strapping sixth-grader would rather punch a note. "I used to get in a lot of fights," the 11-year-old admitted. "But the singing . . . makes me more calm, [and] it gives me self-esteem and makes me feel, like, secure." Pedro, who lives in Santa Ana, is a member of the Paul McNeff KidSingers, a 36-member choir for children in grades three through seven.

More than 100 children from the Challengers Boys and Girls Club spent Monday morning exploring outer space, courtesy of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. As part of the lab's "From the Outer Planets to the Inner City" program, science educator Richard Shope brought space exploration to life for the 8- to 15-year-olds.

The Capistrano Valley Boys and Girls Club recently received City Council approval to begin building an 11,000-square-foot headquarters, including a 5,000-square-foot youth activities room. "This can give San Juan Capistrano the chance to have the best youth-services facility in the county after years of it really lacking in that area," said James L. Williams, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club. The club still needs to raise about $1.