No one schools you like a seventh grader.

Three spoke to the Annapolis City Council on Monday, testifying to an uncomfortable truth: The affluent capital of Maryland can be a horrible place to play.

“The fields in Annapolis are either a dust field, mud pit or uneven ground instead of well-kept Bermuda fields,” said Nola McCamley, a student at Bates Middle School. “I am worried I will get injured twisting an ankle or tear my ACL because of the fields.”

It‘s been like this since my kids started playing team sports 20 years ago. There are nice parks in Annapolis, and if you can access the water, the Chesapeake Bay is your playground.

But the sorry state of the large rectangular fields needed for soccer, lacrosse and other sports is driving kids away, and the relationship between the city and its 17 nonprofit rec leagues is, to put it mildly, adversarial.

Annapolis will select a new mayor and at least three new City Council members in November. Over the next six months, I’ll explore problems they’ll face, both leftovers from Mayor Gavin Buckley’s eight years in office and new challenges.

Two Democrats want to be mayor: Alderwoman Rhonda Pindell Charles and former Alderman Jared Littmann. The filing deadline is in July, but no Republican or independent has announced a run yet.

Voters should ask candidates about their vision for recreation. It’s not just about play time.

Volunteers who run these programs believe youth athletics have the power to address some of the inequality and violence that mar Annapolis as a place to live.

“Most of us speaking tonight have kids on our teams who have been touched in the last six months by gun violence in our city, at the Boys and Girls Club turf field, at the bus stop on Clay Street and most recently, the murder in Robinwood,” said Emily Tomasini, a coach and board member at the nonprofit advocacy group PlayAnnapolis.

“I’ve been touched by it.”

The next mayor and council will inherit a department with a $1.7 million budget and roughly 250 full- and part-time employees. Roslyn Johnson leads it. Hired two years ago, she sees the criticism organized by PlayAnnapolis on Monday as misinformed.

“They told their own narrative last night,” she said, “not a truthful narrative.”

PlayAnnapolis surveyed 300 families and found that many consider field quality and services inferior in the city. They blame Johnson.

“The Annapolis Parks and Recreation Department clearly doesn’t know how to do it,” said Neilye Garrity, the group’s executive director. “And they blame overuse.“

This is a hyperlocal issue, the kind that seldom makes news.

Anne Arundel County Public Schools owns the big multipurpose fields in the city and considers them educational assets. It partners with others for their use where it can.

Annapolis manages the ones at Bates Middle, the Phoenix Academy and Germantown Elementary schools. The county maintains one at Annapolis Middle — inches across the city line — and smaller ones at elementary schools.

Truxtun Park, the city’s largest park, has two lighted baseball-softball diamonds and basketball courts. None of the city’s rectangular fields are lighted, and just one is all-weather turf, the Boys & Girls Club.

The county is renovating PAL Park, also outside the city. It has lighted diamonds and a small, rectangular grass field. Quiet Waters Park nearby has no ballfields.

Thousands of kids in the city and county vie for field space in the Annapolis area. It is allocated through the county reservation system, joined by the city last year.

It gives teams first dibs on fields closest to players’ homes. But demand is so great that games and practices spread to Crownsville, Broadneck and farther afield. Teams outside the city, facing similar pressure, and adult leagues land in Annapolis, too.

This year, a new middle school sports program complicated the formula, with rec teams losing an hour of afternoon practice.

In 2023, PlayAnnapolis asked the county for help. The city offers fewer rec programs in fewer places than the county, a comparison Johnson says is unfair because of the relative size of each government.

“Meanwhile, we don’t even have [school] aftercare,” said Garrity, who’s also Littmann’s campaign manager. “We have dormant community centers. At the core, we’re missing fundamental operational things.”

Some of the details are maddening.

The state paid for upgrades at Bates, but the school system installed a grass field instead of more durable turf, citing cost and environmental concerns. The worn dirt space is closed for reseeding.

Weems Whalen Field, built by the city atop an ash heap, has been closed for 12 years because of contamination concerns.

Orioles great Cal Ripken donated the city’s only all-weather field to the Boys & Girls Club. When the club halted its sports program, it became the middleman for reservations.

Problems created over decades will take time to fix, but some upgrades are in the works.

County schools and rec and parks will add lights to the Annapolis Middle field this fall, a $1 million project. Opening Weems Whalen will cost more and take years to remedy.

Buckley hasn’t ignored recreation and parks.

He’s laid the groundwork for new bike trails, expanded pickleball, upgraded the skatepark at Truxtun and improved trails at Waterworks Park. Two waterfront parks are being developed, neither with playing fields.

This year, he proposed a basketball court and e-gaming center at Stanton Center, serving neighborhoods plagued by drugs and gun violence.

“This will be a game changer for that community,” Johnson said.

PlayAnnapolis offers scholarships for kids whose families can’t afford team sports or get to the fields. Families who can are leaving for greener fields — taking their money with them.

It’s the kind of small-town blues the next mayor could easily ignore. But no matter who wins in November, he or she will face hard feelings on both sides.

“I don‘t understand,” said Tim DeWitt, who manages field access for the Annapolis Soccer Club. “I am fighting with them over everything.”