Leagues in Painesville, Leroy cancel seasons

Two Mentor circuits planning for June start

Two Lake County institutions won’t stage baseball or softball games this summer.

Although the state government announced May 14 non-contact and limited contact youth sports leagues could resume May 26, the Leroy Softball League and Painesville Little League moved to cancel their 2020 seasons.

Leroy Softball director Billy Averson said he began to implement guidelines passed down from the state government and took extra measures above them, but Painesville Township informed him the league wouldn’t be permitted.

“They just said that they didn’t think that they would be able to control the parents and the players and everybody would comply,” Averson said. “I had come up with, to be honest with you, a perfect program that would work.”

Alongside mandates from the state, Averson had secured a donation for 200 masks to provide players on the field. He also had donations in place for each child to receive their own helmet and bat to help eliminate the need to share equipment.

Games would be played on a staggered schedule, to help limit the number of children and spectators at the fields. There would be monitors stationed at each diamond to ensure compliance, as well as stations to check temperatures and symptoms when people arrived. Additionally, Averson planned to install hand sanitizer stations at each field and provide disinfectant wipes.

The league began the process of refunding registrations and Averson is working with neighboring leagues to help place children who had registered. However, that could deplete Leroy’s numbers in coming seasons if those families do not return to play in the league.

Averson must also continue to maintain the league’s seven fields, each of which requires $1,000 in dirt. Averson said the league has funds in reserve, but what must be allocated to cover costs without registration funds coming in will hamper future projects such as purchasing new bleachers.

“All in all, it’s going to have a huge impact,” Averson said. “Leroy Softball’s been around for 40-plus years, to have this come to an end this way is going to be a huge impact on the community, the local businesses that generate business from us when we play down there, it’s going to have a huge impact.”

Painesville Little League announced the season’s cancellation on its Facebook page, where president Chuck Asbury wrote he and the board directors could not “in good conscience have players on the field and risk even one child becoming sick.”

The league, operating since 1952, listed three options for those who already paid registrations: transfer the cost to a credit for the 2021 season, a donation to the league the ensure it remains active or contact Asbury directly to request a refund. Those who donate registration to the league will have their family’s

name placed on a banner that will be hung on one of the fields in 2021.

Asbury’s post noted Painesville Little League was ranked No. 1 in the central region for safety in 2005 and No. 1 in the country a year later.

Little League International had already suspended the year’s tournament games and canceled playoff, district and state tournament games as well as the 2020 Little League World Series in Williamsport.

Painesville Little League announced it will hold an on-field fundraiser in July after the silent raffle, the league’s annual fundraiser that usually generates $1012,000 for the league, was canceled.

Meanwhile, the Mentor Youth Baseball and Mentor Softball leagues plan to open in June. The baseball league will hold its draft next week with practices and travel games set to begin June 1. The softball league will begin in mid-June.

President Jeff Elly said a handful of families backed out, but the league received registrations to compensate.

Registration numbers about 1,000, roughly 400 fewer children than in a typical year, but the league is making preparations to begin its season.

Elly said the league plans to play on the city’s fields and expects to hear soon on the status of the fields at Mentor High School. Elly expressed gratitude to the city for communicating and working with Mentor Youth Baseball while operations were suspended. He’s also thankful for the efforts of his fellow commissioners, Lou Kraska and Greg Valeri, and his father, the league’s treasurer who founded Mentor Youth Baseball in 1985.

Mandates from the state require coaches to wear face coverings and receive a daily symptom assessment. Coaches are not allowed to make contact with players, other coaches and umpires.

When not actively playing, players must wear their own face covering. In the field, each team must use its own set of baseballs.

Teammates are not allowed to share water or equipment, and should refrain from high-fives, handshake

lines and any other form of physical contact. Spitting, seeds and gum is also prohibited.

Spectators are recommended, but not ordered, to wear masks as well. When leaving the venue, individuals are not permitted to congregate in common area or the parking lot.

The league is making accommodations to ensure safety. Elly said Mentor Youth Baseball purchased $6,000 in neck gaiters to provide to coaches and players. Dugouts will not be used and players will be required to bring chairs to sit six feet apart from one another while they aren’t on the field.

Elly said the league will give away batting helmets to its players so they don’t need to share and supply two sets of catcher’s gear to each team. Sanitation and wellness stations will be set up, due in part to connections with local businesses.

“We’ve got to take those precautions,” Elly said. “We take it that seriously, we care that much and we’re going to make it work. It’s going to be a lot on our coaches, we’re asking a lot.”