Youth leagues prepare for transition to all-stars after playoffs
Published 8:03 pm Tuesday, June 5, 2012
The Selma Parks and Recreation Department youth baseball and softball seasons are coming to a close with the playoffs, but there’s still a lot of ball still left to be played.
With playoff games in progress, Tracy Williams with the Selma Parks and Recreation Department said, looking back, the entire season has gone great.
“I think it’s gone extremely well,” Williams said. “The games have been great, the kids have been great. You always have a few problems here and there, but it’s nothing that couldn’t be worked out. Games, kids and parents — everything was good.”
Williams said the department isn’t done with baseball and softball just yet, as players will soon transition to all-star play.
“We’re moving on toward our all-stars, which are coming up. The 11-12-year-old boys all-stars will play on June 15 and the 9-10-year-old boys will play on June 22. That’s their first games,” Williams said. “The 12-and-under girls, their first game is on June 22 in Sumter, and the 15-and-under girls will play their first games in their district tournament on June 29 in Thomasville. The local schedule will be completely over after next week, with the exception of the older guys who are playing at Bloch Park — the 15-19 year olds. They’ll play until the end of June then their all-stars will be until July.”
Williams said numbers were slightly down this season, but it’s something that goes up and down from year to year, and he hopes the leagues continue operating at the same high standard for years to come.
“We had a few less players this year than we did last year. That’s been a trend for the last couple of years. Before that, it went up, then it’s gone down for a couple of years. It comes and goes,” Williams said. “It goes up, it goes down, it just depends on how the kids age out and things like that. Everything went pretty well. If we can keep the standard as it is, get the numbers back up and get more kids involved, it would be better, but everything’s been pretty good.”