League Decides: Let’s Play Ball

FARMINGTON — The 2021 baseball and softball season for Washington County Civic League is on go after the league’s board voted last month to move forward following covid-19 safety measures.

The city of Farmington was the last community to decide to participate, according to Mayor Ernie Penn.

Others in the league are Lincoln, Prairie Grove, Elkins, Greenland, Huntsville, West Fork and Westville, Okla.

Even though the league board elected to go ahead with a season, Penn said city staff wanted to discuss it among themselves first before deciding what Farmington would do.

“We’re trying to be safe,” Penn said. “We’ve been getting emails about why we hadn’t made a decision but we wanted to make a good decision.”

Penn said the city has decided to play this year and to follow guidelines to be as safe as possible.

According to the WCCL website, the 2021 season will be subject to covid-19 protocols as set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Activities Association and the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA).

One new requirement this year is that parents will have to submit a signed release form that includes covid-19 as part of the liability release. The form will release the member towns and the Civic League from any liabilities incident to the child’s involvment in the program.

Chad Harrison, the board’s secretary/treasurer, last week said the Civic League is “kinda” expecting fewer teams will play this year because of covid-19.

“I don’t think there will be anything normal about this year,” said Harrison, who also serves as West Fork’s ball coordinator.

However, he said the league wants to sponsor the program this year, be responsible and make it as safe as possible.

“I think it’s important to play,” Harrison said, noting that schools have played football and basketball. “It’s not easy, but it can be done.”

The Civic League board has set a March 3 deadline for towns to turn in their team rosters so the league can start working on a schedule. Harrison said venues and the league will follow the safety guidelines that are in place when the season starts around mid-April.

“It could be more restrictive or less restrictive or about the same,” Harrison said.

One possibility, he said, is that fewer games will be going on at the same time to reduce the number of people at a ballpark.

Laurie Adkins, manager/ program director for Farmington’s sports complex, said she’s hearing from parents in Farmington who are “all over the board.” Some are “all out” and want to play and travel to the other towns for games, and others are not ready to play at all because of covid-19. Still others, she said, want to play only if the games are in Farmington.

Farmington will have signups through Feb. 24. Those who want to participate, can go to the city website to get a registration form and the liability release form. These forms, plus the league fee, are to be left in the drop box at City Hall.

Adkins said it’s possible that for some of the younger age divisions, Farmington will have its own softball and baseball schedule if enough boys and girls sign up. Already, Farmington sponsors its own T-Ball league.

“If we can play in town, we’ll play in town,” she said. “I don’t know what it will look like until after the signups. It’s not going to look like any other year.”

Farmington’s participation has been growing each year. For 2019, 510 boys and girls signed up to play, including T- ball. This increased to 580 kids on 44 teams last year before everything was suspended because of the pandemic.

Adkins pointed out that Farmington’s situation is a little different than the other towns because it has a bigger ballpark and more people participating.

“Being the largest town, as your numbers get larger, there are things to consider,” she said. “That means our numbers are larger for people coming in and out of our park. We don’t want to be the ones adding to the covid-19 cases.”

Darren Bignar, Prairie Grove coordinator, said Prairie Grove is accepting registrations through the end of the month. Parents can get forms from the city website and the Prairie Grove Summer Softball/ Baseball Facebook page and drop these off in the box out front at City Hall. Payments also can be taken over the phone.

More than 400 kids signed up to play in Prairie Grove last year before the pandemic stopped everything, Bignar said.

“Skies are going to be clear, pretty and we’re playing ball,” Bignar said, adding, “We’re going to be optimistic.”

Bignar said some safety ideas include removing bleachers so people can’t sit close together, masks, social distancing and decreasing the number of games each night.

He said coaches will be asked to tell their parents not to show up early to the ballpark but to show up when a game is supposed to start and then leave after the game.

“We want to enjoy all of this and be realistic and do it for all of us,” Bignar said.

Lincoln Consolidated School District has taken over recreational ball for the city. Deon Birkes, athletic director, said the school is having parents sign up on Google forms but not pay any registration fees at this time.

“We’re planning on doing it,” Birkes said.

After the district sees how much interest is out there, Birkes said a parent meeting will be held, either outside, virtually or by team to talk to parents about expectations for the season.

Last year, about 125 kids had signed up to play spring/summer ball before the season was suspended because of the pandemic and then finally canceled for the year.

Birkes said he believes it is important to play ball.

“They’ve already missed a year. It’s understandable. No one knew much about it last year. Now we know more about it. We know that exercise is good and just being outside helps,” he said.