Benton’s slate of recreational sports leagues

Whether its softball, volleyball or even learning Jiu Jitsu, Benton Parks and Recreation has it covered.

They have announced a slate of recreational sports leagues for adults and kids to participate in this fall.

Ryan Grist, recreation manager, went over their plans for the fall.

“Adult softball, this is our fall league, it has one week left of registration,” Grist said.

He said that Oct. 22 will be the last day for teams to signup. Oct. 19 will be the day of the mandatory coaches meeting. The league has a minimum of four teams.

“Teams can anywhere from 10 to upwards of 25 people on the roster. There is not a limit on that,” Grist added. He mentioned that usually this time of year this league would already be finished, but due to COVID-19, they pushed the dates back.

The games will be played at Bernard Holland adult softball field and it will be a four-week, eight-game season starting Oct. 25. The only two divisions for the softball league are mens and co-ed. The fee for having a team in the league is $250.

Grist spoke on the volleyball next.

“This is our next one that is just about to open up for registration,” he added.

“This is a pretty fun big league, there’s co-ed, men and women divisions, I think we usually get around 20 times that are signed up and they usually have a pretty good time. Registration for volleyball opened up on October 15.

“Players can be 14 and up, usually for our adult leagues you have to be 16 and older, this one is actually one of the few that goes down to

14, they can have up to 12 players on a roster,” said Grist. The season for adult volleyball will begin Nov. 29 and end Jan. 13, games will be played on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The fee for a team in this league is also $250.

Grist spoke about the

Jiu Jitsu training program next which takes place year round. They have someone from Little Rock who comes to teach the classes. His name is Michael Hunter and runs Pure Land Jiu Jitsu.

Those who are interested can sign up each month. There are classes for all ages 5 and up. The fees for the Jiu Jitsu classes are $30 a month for kids and $50 a month for adults.

“We have started to try and offer a lot of niches, because theres always something someone is interested in” Grist added and mentioned that there are more sports they are looking into like disc golf and pickleball.

To sign up for any of these programs just go to https://apm.activecommunities.com/bentonrec/ Activity_search or e-mail Ryan Grist at ryan.grist@ bentonar.org