Barring any setback there will be baseball and softball in Marion County this summer after all. Dean Griner announced this week that teams will be allowed to begin practicing Monday with an eye on June 1 as the official start date to the regular season.
Dean Griner President Kyle Wilks said there will be a set of guidelines for coaches and parents to follow for both practices and games to minimize the number of people at the park. When the season does start, Dean Griner plans to space games out more to allow teams that have just finished playing to leave the ball park before the teams playing in the next game come in.
“We don’t have all the kinks worked out, but we’re working towards being able to get these kids an opportunity to play,” Wilks said.
He added the big motivation to restarting the private baseball and softball league is to return a sense of normalcy for the children and allow them to play the game they love.
Regarding all-stars the World Series has already been canceled, but the hope is that district and state tournaments will still be played but just at later dates than originally scheduled.
“We’ll play as long as we can, and if all-stars is something everybody is doing then we’ll do that as well,” Wilks said.
Meanwhile, Duckworth League Administrator Larry Jenkins said the league has no plans yet to resume activities or cancel them all together. He said there are a lot of factors at play, including Duckworth being city property and needing approval from the local government to resume.
Jenkins said he anticipates making a decision that’s safest for both children and spectators in the coming weeks.
