Coppell Chronicle Vol. 5, No. 19
Soccer Leagues Rely on Valley Ranchers • Upgrades Approved for CHS Weight Rooms • City Apologizes for Some Cyberattack Letters • Council May Allow Hens — But Not Roosters
Fair warning: In a blatant attempt to convert free subscribers to paid subscribers, this edition is loaded up with links to relevant articles that you may have missed.
The Coppell Chronicle is among several area businesses that offered internships to Coppell ISD students this month. The first article in this edition was written by Riya Prasad, a rising senior at Coppell High School. The rest are by your usual correspondent.
Soccer Leagues Rely on Valley Ranchers
Everything starts from the ground up. National birth rates are falling, and the ripple effect may be hitting local sports leagues.
The issue emerged at the most recent meeting of the Coppell Parks and Recreation Board meeting, during the Coppell Youth Soccer Association’s annual report. Nationally, participation in youth sports is declining, and Coppell is no stranger to this trend. Registration for the soccer association’s recreational leagues has dropped by more than half since peaking at around 2,500 in 2003, and while the select division has grown since its launch in 2013, those 500 new players cannot replace the 1,300-plus lost on the rec side.
CYSA Executive Director Angela Lancaster pointed to broader issues in the community: younger families being priced out alongside limited new housing options, and school closures within the city limits. “Do cities just age over time?” Lancaster said.
As the number of local players decline, the CYSA and other sports associations have begun to rely on nearby communities to sustain their programs.
(See “Sports Leagues Report Resident Rates” in Vol. 4, No. 42)
Here comes the “resident vs. non-resident” dilemma. The City Council has established a goal for each of Coppell’s sports associations: 75 percent of their players should be residents, because the city’s fields and staff are paid for by Coppell taxpayers.
Considering Coppell’s shifting population, maintaining these expectations becomes difficult. The soccer association’s spring 2025 season leaned heavily on out-of-town participants, especially when select teams were considered: 41 percent did not live in Coppell.
The majority of those players were Valley Ranch residents enrolled in Coppell ISD schools. If the Parks and Recreation Board considered restructuring the resident/non-resident guidelines to include Coppell ISD students, then the CYSA would meet the 75-percent requirement. Although there are no formal consequences outlined if the residency threshold isn’t met, the city expects the policy to be upheld.
“If we scoop ’em out,” Lancaster said in reference to Valley Ranch residents, “the program may fall apart, because our city is aging.”
Board Chair Nick Paschal lightly questioned why Irving families choose Coppell-based soccer programs over clubs in their own area. Lancaster said the Coppell ISD students in Valley Ranch would prefer to play with the kids they know from school. She also pointed out that the Irving Soccer Association’s fields are fairly far from Valley Ranch; one of its complexes is south of State Highway 183.
Having a backfill of non-residents is not only seen as beneficial to CYSA leaders, but also from a player’s perspective. Avery Fishman, one of the Parks and Recreation Board’s two youth advisors, offered her insight, noting that individuals outside Coppell provide local players with competitive opportunities without detracting from the community’s core purpose.
“We do need a lot of people to come in from other places to elevate the level we are playing at,” Fishman said. “When I was growing up, I played on the Coppell team, and every single girl went to a Coppell ISD elementary school.”
If you want your child to play recreational soccer this fall, sign him or her up by July 6.
Upgrades Approved for CHS Weight Rooms
The weight rooms at Coppell High School are set to receive more than $700,000 worth of upgrades.
On June 23, the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees approved several purchases with funds related to the $321.5 million bond package that voters approved in 2023. The district will spend $401,523 on weights and related equipment and $329,349 on flooring in the weight rooms.
The 2023 bond package was composed of four propositions, and Proposition D allocated $9.5 million to recreational facilities at the high school. Its major projects were expanding the Tennis Center and replacing the turf in the fieldhouse. With those two projects accounted for, Chief Operations Officer Sid Grant said there’s about $1.5 million left in the Proposition D bucket.
(See “Coppell ISD Approves 4 Bond Propositions” in Vol. 3, No. 11.)
Grant told the trustees that the weight room flooring, which was installed eight years ago, provides minimal shock absorption and is wearing down to exposed concrete slab. The surface material can no longer be cleaned; it simply breaks loose when scrubbed.
Trustee Anthony Hill asked how long the flooring should have lasted and how long the replacement is expected to last. Executive Director of Athletics Kit Pehl’s answer to the first question was nine to 11 years. As for the flooring the district is about to buy, Pehl said this: “Its shelf life is considerably better.”
Trustee Nichole Bentley said she’s seen plenty of photos and videos on social media of Cowboys and Cowgirls working out, but she asked Pehl to provide some perspective on the weight rooms’ use for taxpayers who aren’t as tuned in as her. Pehl said every CHS program with a varsity team — from football to swimming — lifts weights in those rooms. Those programs’ combined head counts add up to between 1,200 and 1,300 athletes.
The purchases approved on June 23 will actually benefit a larger number of athletes. The weights and related equipment at CHS are eight years old and still in good condition, so they will be moved to the Coppell High School Ninth Grade Campus and the district’s three middle schools, where younger athletes are lifting weights that are about 20 years old.
Grant lauded Pehl and head football coach Antonio Wiley for securing multiple bids for both the flooring and the weights: “Coach Pehl and Wiley really did their homework to find the best solution for Coppell ISD.”
With Board President David Caviness absent on June 23, the trustees took seven 6-0 votes on purchases funded by the 2023 bond package. The most expensive item was $2.5 million worth of heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning equipment at Coppell High School.
The district will replace 24 large split-system air handlers that were installed in 2007 and six boilers that date all the way back to 1988. These units heat and cool the high school’s auditorium, its main hallway, two gyms, locker rooms, and the north portion of the cafeteria. Grant said the new units will be about 28 percent more energy efficient than the ones they’ll replace.
“This, by far, is the most critical HVAC project — not just at Coppell High School, but within Coppell ISD,” Grant said.
With a smile on his face, Hill said this about the boilers’ age: “When I look at the replacement of building equipment and things of that nature, I think of a number much less than 37, but I will defer to your expertise on what that is.” Grant said the boilers should have been replaced after 20 to 22 years. He also said the trustees will soon hear about a thorough inventory of district equipment performed by Aramark Facilities Management.
“We now have a very, very good record of our assets and the age and at what point we should entertain replacing them,” Grant said.
City Apologizes for Some Cyberattack Letters
By following the letter of the law, the City of Coppell sent letters that upset some residents.
In late October, the city’s computer network was briefly accessed by outsiders. A gang of ne’er-do-wells called Ransom Hub reportedly took credit for the attack. By mid-December, the city had restored all affected systems and data.
(See “Coppell’s Government Hit by Cyberattack” in Vol. 4, No. 37, and “Coppell Has Recovered From Cyberattack” in Vol. 4, No. 43.)
Since then, the city has been making an “extensive and exhaustive” effort to figure out whose data may have been compromised, according to the webpage devoted to the incident. On June 19, letters signed by City Manager Mike Land were mailed to potentially affected individuals.
Two of these letters have appeared in my mailbox. One was addressed to a guy who rented my house for years before I bought it in 2014. The other bore the name of my father-in-law, who has lived with my family off and on during his retirement.
These letters include a “What Information Was Involved” section. In my father-in-law’s case, that section says, “Your personal information, including a combination of your name and Treatment Information/Diagnosis, and Treatment Cost Information, may have been exposed to others.” I was confused by how the City of Coppell would have information about any diagnosis or treatment for my father-in-law, until I read the comments under a related post by Joyce Skelton in the “Coppell, Texas” group on Facebook. Someone theorized that it could be related to emergency medical services, and the Coppell Fire Department did send an ambulance to my house once after he fell in the shower.
I wasn’t bothered in the least by the letters sent to my house. However, I imagine some other Coppell residents may have been upset because they got letters addressed to a deceased relative or a former spouse. That’s based on comments that Deputy City Manager Traci Leach made during the City Council’s meeting on June 24, when she filled in for Land.
“Due to the age of some of the data that was compromised, we know that some letters were sent to individuals who may not live in Coppell anymore or who may have experienced significant life or family changes since their time in Coppell,” Leach said.
Leach explained that the city was legally required to send notifications to the addresses associated with the compromised data, even if an address was out of date for a particular individual.
“We do sincerely apologize for the stress, and in some of these very particular sensitive situations, consternation and emotional distress that the letters have caused some of our residents and victims of the cyberattack,” she said.
The letters spell out how an affected individual can sign up for a year’s worth of free identity monitoring using a unique activation code. If you have questions about anything in the letter, call 877-580-7778. Leach said anyone who still has questions after such a call should contact city employee Justin Vaughn at 972-304-3611.
Council May Allow Hens — But Not Roosters
Chickens could be legally clucking in Coppell soon, but we shouldn’t expect to hear roosters cock-a-doodle-dooing.
On June 24, City Council Member Jim Walker asked his peers to consider legalizing the ownership of egg-laying hens. Recycling a presentation that resident Rebecca Visconti made to the council in 2020, Walker laid out some of the benefits of having hens on one’s property:
Health benefits: You know exactly where your eggs came from — your yard.
Economic benefits: The grocery store’s price for a dozen eggs is no longer your problem.
Educational benefits: You can teach your kids lessons related to the chickens’ care.
Despite Coppell’s ordinances prohibiting swine and poultry, Walker said there are quite a few people in the city who already own chickens.
“Right now, to the extent that we have people doing it, there is no guidance,” he said. “And I just think it’d be good for us to go ahead and allow it, but at the same time to put some guardrails on it, so that neighbors and everyone else that are not as interested will also be protected.”
The idea that some Coppell residents keep chickens in their backyards seemed to be news to Council Member Biju Mathew. Walker, Brianna Hinojosa-Smith, and Kevin Nevels all assured him that is true, and I’ll join that chorus of affirmation. One of my neighbors has paid my son to feed her chickens when her family’s out of town.
Mathew wanted to know which department would be tasked with enforcing the rules of a chickens ordinance. After some brief mentions of Animal Services and Code Enforcement, the consensus was that it would be the Police Department’s responsibility. That led to this laugh line from Walker: “I’ve never seen any of our officers handcuffing a chicken.”
Walker displayed a list of 10 nearby cities that already allow backyard chickens: Allen, Carrollton, Dallas, Flower Mound, Frisco, Irving, Lewisville, McKinney, Richardson, and Southlake. “Basically, everybody but us,” Walker said.
He also floated a few of Visconti’s proposed provisions for the theoretical ordinance, including a ban on roosters. Walker then educated your city-slicker correspondent with this information: “Egg-laying hens don’t require roosters. The eggs that we eat are not inseminated eggs. And so, there’s absolutely zero reason to have a rooster waking us all up at dawn.”
Walker’s presentation convinced enough other council members that City Attorney Bob Hager was told to draft an ordinance that could be considered at a future meeting.
Chronicle Crumbs
• Besides the bond expenditures detailed above, the Coppell ISD Board of Trustees on June 23 also approved the district’s compensation plan for the upcoming school year.
(See “Trustees Get Preview of Compensation Plan” in Vol. 5, No. 17.)
• The glass around the front door of the CVS at Sandy Lake Road and MacArthur Boulevard was replaced by wood due to something that happened early in the morning on June 26. I emailed Coppell Police Department spokesperson J.J. Ceniceros to ask whether this was a criminal incident or just a case of a careless driver, like the one who recently crashed into the Athletico Physical Therapy clinic on Denton Tap Road. “The incident you are inquiring about is an active investigation,” he said. “That is the only thing we can share at this time.” (Cue the Law & Order sound effect.)
• I recently replaced a pair of running shoes that were due for replacement more than a year ago. When I threw my old pair into one of the donation bins on the Sprouts parking lot, I noticed this sticker dictating action by July 1.
(See “New Ordinance Regulates Donation Bins” in Vol. 5, No. 6.)
• On June 26, a 6-3 majority of the Irving City Council approved a zoning change that will allow alcohol sales at Pakora Indian Eatery, which has been operating as a BYOB establishment at 1900 Market Place Blvd., and Madira ’N Masala, which will soon open on the second floor of the same space. This zoning change was approved despite the opposition of Council Member Al Zapanta, who represents the north end of Irving and said about the request, as he often does, “It just doesn’t fit.” As a reminder, there’s a liquor store in the same shopping center plus two other restaurants that have full bars.
(See “Indian Eatery Returns for Another Round” in Vol. 5, No. 18)
• The Dallas Gun Club, which sits just outside Coppell’s city limits but within the boundaries of Coppell ISD, will spend $700,000 on Phase B of its interior renovations, according to a form filed with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation last week. A form filed last October said the club planned to spend $600,000 on Phase A of the project. I didn’t get to see any of the interiors when I took a self-guided tour of the property nearly four years ago.
(See “Dallas Gun Club — Who Knew?” in Vol. 1, No. 22.)
• A sign has been installed for something called Melt Creamery above Suite 100 at 215 S. Denton Tap Road, a space formerly occupied by a restaurant called Carmel. You might assume this new business is related to Melt Ice Creams, which has locations in Fort Worth and Dallas, but you’d be wrong. I know this because a Melt Ice Creams spokesperson has fielded several inquiries from people excited about a Coppell expansion that is not in the works. She tracked me down to figure out the sources of my reports on Melt Creamery, and I told her they were all based on permit applications filed with the city.
• Last week, a woman named Latasha Warren posted this in the “Coppell, Texas” group on Facebook: “Hear me out ... A Braum’s where DQ is?” As someone whose family frequently patronizes the Braum’s in Grapevine, I wholeheartedly endorse this idea. I periodically call Dallas-based Willingham Property Company, which owns the land beneath our dilapidated Dairy Queen, to inquire about prospects for future development of that prime piece of real estate. I never get a call back. Wouldn’t it be something if everybody in Coppell started dialing 214-553-0000 in an attempt to spur some action?
Community Calendar
Sensory Sensitive Fourth of July Celebration: The Sound at Cypress Waters will host a free event from 6 to 10 p.m. on July 3 that will feature LED bracelets from Star-Spangled Glow, animal encounters courtesy of the Creature Teacher, and live music from a Taylor Swift tribute band called Reputation. But the event will not include any fireworks.
Celebrate Coppell: Parade Down Parkway: The city’s annual Independence Day parade will begin at 9 a.m. on July 4.
Silver Line Biannual Community Meeting: If you’re tired of hearing the Silver Line trains test their horns, here’s a chance to let DART officials hear from you directly. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. on July 10 inside Town Hall, an event venue above the Flying Saucer in Cypress Waters.
Moms Unhinged: The Coppell Arts Center will host a standup comedy show featuring Emily Holden, Kimberly Koester, Donna Lee, and headliner Magen King at 7 p.m. on July 10.
82 Major: The South Korean boy band will perform at the Coppell Arts Center at 7 p.m. on July 11.
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Another great edition. Congrats to Riya for an informative, well written article. And, Dan, the Law and Order sound effect brought a smile.
I'd rather see Dairy Queen come back, with different management.