Pablo Carmona, founder of the Devine Soccer Club, addresses the Medina County Commissioners Court Monday on finding adequate training facilities for his players.
By Anton Riecher
Extending his crusade on behalf of “the beautiful game” to the Medina County Commissioners Court, Pablo Carmona of the Devine Soccer Club urged county officials to help find training fields for local players.
He spoke during the public comment period at the beginning for the commissioners’ court regular session Monday.
“Being in Devine, we noticed that soccer stops for the kids in about the fifth grade,” Carmona said. “At about 10 years old they have to stop playing soccer. There is nowhere else for them to go.”
A Medina County resident for 27 years, Carmona said he and his wife Paula established the Devine Soccer Club to help give local youth a chance at higher education through soccer.
“What is different about our club is we compete against teams in San Antonio,” Carmona said. “We are trying to give them a pathway to maybe go to college and become semi-pro and pro players.”
The Devine Soccer Club has two professional players serving on its board of directors, he said.
“We are looking for a space where we can train and be able to play games because right now we have temporary places but we cannot play games there,” Carmona said. “We have to travel to Canyon Lake, La Vernia, different places because we have no place to develop fields locally.”
Unfortunately, Devine does not have a city park large enough to use for staging games, he said. He asked if the county could assist in providing training fields for interested players in Medina County.
Two officers approved as Natalia ISD SROs
In other business, commissioners approved an interlocal agreement with Natalia ISD to assign two licensed peace officers from the Medina County Sheriff’s Office to serve as school resource officers. The motion by Precinct 4 Commissioners Danny Lawler was seconded by Precinct 3 Commissioners David Lynch.
The motion was approved unanimously.
Drug Detection Device
Commissioners also approved the purchase of a TruNarc handheld drug detection device for the sheriff’s office using Operation Lone Star grant funds. Commissioners also approved the use of Operation Lone Star funds to purchase a 2026 Kawasaki Mule Pro FXT Ranch Edition utility task vehicle.
Operation Lone Star is a Texas state border security initiative launched by Gov. Greg Abbott to address illegal border crossings and drug smuggling.
