The fight to keep 12 acres of vacant land off of Old Sunrise Highway in public hands wages on, as Massapequa's athletic groups band together to convince public officials that the land is necessary for playing fields for the area's soccer, lacrosse and baseball teams.

Over 500 people met in May at Marjorie Post Park to discuss the issue, including representatives from the Massapequa International Little League, the Massapequa Coast Little League, Massapequa Mustang Football and Soccer, St. Rose's CYO teams, and the Lacrosse organization MYLAX.

The meeting was also attended by County Executive Thomas Suozzi and Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor John Venditto, who expressed shock at the number of people in attendance.

At the meeting, Suozzi outlined the county's fiscal crisis and explained the importance of selling off some of the land the county owns to help close a budget gap.

But the attendees weren't interested, claiming instead that the property is crucial to maintaining Massapequa's quality of life and suburban character.

Since then, Suozzi has come up with five proposals, according to civic leader Gary Slavin, none of which Slavin considers realistic, and none of which include using the vacant land for athletic purposes.

Slavin, who was instrumental in organizing the initial meeting, said that one of Suozzi's proposals was to sell the land to a developer to build two senior citizen apartment developments. "The land is in the shadow of the Long Island railroad tracks. I can't picture a senior actually wanting to live there."

Another of Suozzi's ideas included using the five sumps in Massapequa as playing fields, as an alternative to the Old Sunrise Highway land. Again, Slavin said, this was impractical, as residents would be up in arms over the fact that there is no parking available.

"Lacrosse, along with every other sport, is growing bigger and bigger," explained John Lynott of Massapequa's Lacrosse organization MYLAX. "It's getting to the point where we don't even have enough space to have our home games at home."

Lynott said that what especially worries him is that the sport stands to lose many of its female players. "Already, girls seem to get less than their fair share of playing time compared to the boys. It is ideal when there are equal amounts of home and away games, but how many parents are going to keep their girls signed up if they have to travel away for six games and are home for only two? And there are a lot of opportunities for these girls, more so than even boys," he added.

Slavin said that he has responded to Suozzi's proposals through the Town of Oyster Bay, and hopes to set up another meeting with the County Executive.

"This is a joint effort by every one of the organizations in Massapequa," said Lynott. "If you added them all up you'd have over ten thousand members. That's some pretty strong support."