Extensive safety measures in place at Shawnee Sports Complex after shots-fired incident

DUNBAR, W.Va. (WSAZ) – The USYS Eastern Regional President’s Cup is a tournament 107 teams are coming to compete in in West Virginia.

Shawnee Sports Complex in Dunbar is the main facility of the two, including Barboursville where the games also will be held.

Beth Noss, the program manager, said parents were sent safety information and staff went through training after a shots-fired incident near the complex about a month ago near the facility.

“Well, there is 107 teams and most teams have at least 15 kids on them,” Noss said. “We sent out some things information to our teams letting them know that all of the gates are going to be open and that there will be police officers onsite. We are all here and aware and ready to do what we need to make sure everybody stays safe.”

Parents and players ran off of the field and took cover when gunshots could be heard on the field during a baseball game at Shawnee.

Kanawha County Commissioner Ben Salango said extensive safety measures have been taken.

“One of the things that we are doing for the USYS tournaments that are coming up we are making sure that we have security on site. We are going to have deputies there,” Salango said. “We have ordered emergency exit gates so that people won’t be locked inside, but we will be able to lock people out we don’t want in the facility. So, we are going through a lot of changes. Our staff has gone through active shooter training.”

Salango said the safety gates will be installed at every entrance within seven to 10 days.

“We are going to jointly host two major US Youth Soccer tournaments. We are going to bring in about $32 million total. The first one is the President’s Cup, which starts Friday and lasts about five days and then right before 4th of July we have what I call the big daddy tournament, which is 246 teams coming to town from 15 different states. It is going to be packed.”

Salango said the gates will be in use during that tournament, but until then the gates for the complex will be open during the President’s Cup.

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