PACE leaders vow to keep youth sports programs going after scandal

On a sunny April Saturday morning, Ana Diaz perched in a camp chair and watched her 7-year-old son Aaron race through basic drills with dozens of other children in the Police Athletics for Community Engagement micro-soccer program at Campos Field in South Omaha.

Joyful noise rang out from the children and volunteer coaches, and from the families ringing the fields. “Go, go, go!” parents yelled, as the children went, went, went. And when practice ended and families folded their chairs to leave, Ana and Aaron wore smiles as bright as the spring sky above.

“I just love soccer,” Aaron said.

And his mother is happy that Police Athletics for Community Engagement, or PACE, gives him and thousands of other kids the opportunity to play for free.

“I used to play for PACE,” Ana Diaz said. “I think it’s great for the community to come together and a positive activity for the kids to do.”

It was a scene most common and familiar to many Omahans, yet remarkable under the circumstances. PACE, a well-respected nonprofit created and run by Omaha police officers to provide free youth sports in disadvantaged neighborhoods, has been under a cloud this spring.

That’s because of its connection to an FBI investigation that has led to federal indictments last month against an Omaha City Council member, two former Omaha police officers and a fundraiser for a police fraternal organization. Council member Vinny Palermo, retired Police Capt. Rich Gonzalez, former Police Officer Johnny Palermo and fundraiser Jack Olson are in jail awaiting trial on federal charges. Gonzalez is the former executive director of PACE. Johnny Palermo is the former president of the Latino Peace Officers Association (LPOA).

The four are accused of fraud and a variety of other offenses, many of them related to money donated to the LPOA, though the indictment also refers to PACE money. For example, the indictment alleges that Vinny Palermo took actions as a councilman to direct money to the LPOA and PACE and failed to disclose benefits that he allegedly received from those organizations.

Current PACE officials question whether any PACE funds were actually used. PACE and the LPOA have been separate organizations for about a decade, although they were closely linked at the start.

The controversy has hurt PACE. The City of Omaha is withholding funding, at least temporarily. Some donors, and many volunteers, have shied away. Enough previous donors have continued their support, and new ones have pitched in, that the organization is still offering youth soccer, baseball, and CrossFit to youths at no cost to their families.

“We’ll always have free sports,” said retired Omaha Police Officer Tony Espejo, who founded PACE in 2005 and took over as acting executive director after search warrants were served in December as part of the federal investigation. “We’ve always, for 17 years ... provided free athletics. We were always here. And it’s always been free.”

But the limited funds and fewer volunteers mean PACE will have to limit the number of teams in its soccer and baseball leagues. Currently, they don’t have funding for flag football in the fall. That means they can’t take all the young people who want to play.

“Even though our involvement in this is minimal, we’re going to have to limit the amount of kids that we can serve, and that hurts,” Espejo said.

Normally, PACE has 95 to 100 teams in summer soccer, he said. This year, they’ll have 80 teams. Last year, PACE had 24 baseball teams. This year, they’re capping the number at 16. Their limit is 1,200 youths for soccer, and 300 for baseball.

By Friday, 1,200 boys and girls were registered for summer soccer, and 240 for baseball. There were 20 teams on a waiting list for soccer, Espejo said, plus a number of youths on a waiting list for some age groups in baseball.

Clearly, there’s a demand for the free sports offered by PACE despite the investigation and indictments. And anecdotally, interviews with parents and PACE athletes suggested that their confidence in the organization has not been shaken.

Espejo and Lance Jones, chairman of PACE’s board, have been talking to current and prospective donors.

“Foundations and individuals have really stepped up for us,” Jones said. “They understand that some of the public funding has been put on hold.”

Additional businesspeople are joining PACE’s board, Jones said. He said the organization is working not only to keep its programming going this year, but also for the future.

“We’ve got to build out our staff, we’ve got to continue to build our board,” he said. “We’ve got to continue to build our volunteer base. That’s been hurt for a number of reasons — the investigation and just the shortfall of police officers. They’re understaffed, the Omaha Police Department. So they can’t volunteer for PACE as much as they have in the past.”

For baseball, PACE is hoping to hire coaches to work with teams consistently over the eight-week baseball season. One of the main elements of PACE has been having young people get to know police officers, changing perceptions while ideally building relationships. Besides keeping kids busy with sports, that interaction with police has been one of the factors cited when city and police officials have credited PACE with crime prevention.

Asked whether that will continue, Espejo said: “We’re going to try.”

“The police engagement with these kids is essential,” said Jones, a financial advice business owner who’s been involved with PACE since 2011. “We’re working as hard as we can to make sure that we can continue that.”

That includes talking with the Black Police Officers Association, the newly formed local LPOA chapter, and Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer. In the past, Schmaderer has encouraged officers to volunteer for PACE, and even has allowed some officers to volunteer while on duty, provided they answer calls for service that arise.

Asked through a spokesman if that support will continue, Schmaderer said that Omaha Mayor Jean Stothert and he “believe wholeheartedly in the mission of PACE.”

“Once the federal investigation gets to a certain point, we are hopeful to meet with PACE and forge a renewed partnership,” Schmaderer said in a written statement. “Strong, trusted leadership and financial integrity will be necessary to move on from the recent criminal indictments and ongoing federal investigation into those arrested associated with PACE.”

Diaz had no qualms about her son playing PACE sports. He’s safe there and having a good time. She said her respect and trust for the organization and Espejo was formed when she played for PACE several years ago, and the scandal hasn’t changed it.

“People do bad things; it doesn’t mean that everybody’s bad,” Diaz said. “As long as parents teach their kids to do right, everything will be fine. Including them in positive activities like this will help them grow with that.”

Genaro Tellez, 14 and in eighth grade, plays on the PACE Academy Blue under-15 team in PACE’s competitive soccer program. He said the team is 5-0 in its division in the Nebraska Youth Soccer League. He joined PACE at the invitation of his coach, PACE soccer coordinator Abraham Ledesma, who had played PACE soccer himself as a youth.

“Because it’s free, but it’s not just that,” Tellez said during a break from studying for exams after soccer practice Thursday night. “It’s also because I thought it was a good opportunity. When a good opportunity comes, you have to take it.”

He’s glad he made that choice.

“The coaches, I can really talk to them,” Tellez said. “They find a way to communicate with us. And the players, we all feel like family. The coaches and players have a lot of respect for each other.”

He noted that not only are uniforms and equipment all provided, but PACE makes sure the youths have rides to practices and games.

Tellez said he’s aware of the investigation and indictments. He worries they might cause parents to pull their children out of PACE soccer. He said he would encourage people who might not like PACE anymore to “dig deeper and get to know them a little bit.”

“PACE might seem bad because of the indictments and all that, but you never really know what PACE is about until you give it a try,” Tellez said. “PACE is a good organization. It’s a good opportunity for the kids to play. It’s good for the people. It’s good for the community.”

Kayla Wilson’s three children — ages 6, 9 and 9 — started playing PACE soccer and baseball last summer, and her daughter plays on a PACE Academy soccer team this year. They love it, Wilson said. And so does she.

“Unfortunately, the organization and all of the kiddos that come along with it are now in a position where we have some investigative things going on,” Wilson said. “We’ve got free sports that are supposed to help keep kids out of trouble and gangs and drugs and everything, to keep them engaged and get them playing sports at no cost, to see if it’s something they want to pursue in the future.”

Wilson emailed a letter of support to Espejo. She is among parents and community members rallying to raise money for PACE. So is Socorro Carrera-Sosa, whose nieces and nephews have played PACE sports. Carrera-Sosa helped organize a Zumba-thon to raise money for PACE on April 30.

Publicity about the investigation has “put (PACE) in a negative light,” Carrera-Sosa said. “But it’s not. This program is wonderful. It’s so good for these kids. In so many families, these kids wouldn’t be able to play these sports if it wasn’t for PACE. It’s so expensive; those club prices are ridiculous.”

Carrera-Sosa said she doesn’t blame the organization for the scandal.

“If anything, I feel like PACE is a victim of all this,” she said. “I don’t even like to talk about the people that are involved in the cases or whatever. They’ll face the judge and the jury, and that’s not who we are. We have to presume innocence until proven guilty, and that’s stuff that they have to go through on their own. It’s disheartening that PACE is in a bad light based on what’s happening, because PACE is such a great organization.”