With the weather warming up and all of the snow practically melted away, that means baseball is right around the corner.
Game-play is still not allowed, but hopefully by the time ball season is scheduled to start, some of the current COVID-19 guidelines regarding sports and activities will be revised.
Minor baseball organizations in the province are preparing for the upcoming season, including the Sask Five Baseball Association, despite the uncertainty surrounding all spring sports.
Sask Five has wrapped up registration and according to the president of the association, Brian Hubbard, there were around 250 youth that signed up.
Even though that number is lower compared to recent years before the COVID-19 pandemic, it is still higher than what Hubbard thought it was going be, considering everything going on with the pandemic.
“It was nice to see that people were still interested and hopefully the kids do get an opportunity to have some fun and play some ball,” said Hubbard.
As of right now, with the amount of youth that are registered, Hubbard is expecting multiple teams in each age group. He said there should be five teams in the U11 division, four teams in the U13 age class and three U15 teams.
Along with the U18 AAA team Hubbard said they are hoping to field a U18 AA team as well.
The next step for players in the U11, U13 and U15 age groups, where there will be more than one team, is evaluation clinics.
The evaluation process will help Sask Five form the respective teams and determine which class (A, AA, AAA) those players will compete in, within the Baseball Saskatoon league.
In past years, evaluations happened at the Legends Centre in Warman, but this year it’s slated to happen outside on the ball diamonds in Martensville.
“We’re still finalizing and trying to figure out our evaluation process, Hubbard said. “With the current protocols of COVID-19 in place, we’re still working on how we’re going to do that, but hopefully we’ll do that in early May.”
Currently, athletes under the age of 18 can continue conditioning and skills training in groups of eight or fewer, and there has to be at least three metres of physical distancing between participants at all times.
“As soon as we go through the evaluation process, then we’ll put the teams together and select their coaches. As long as everything stays current … then we would be able to practice as teams in our groups,” said Hubbard.
Unlike last season where teams couldn’t even start training until late June, early July because of the pandemic, this year they can be on the ball diamonds and practice until they are allowed to play games again.
“We’re excited that the kids will still be able to practice going into this season, whereas last year going into the season all the parks and everything were totally closed, so we couldn’t even practice,” said Hubbard.
Since last season didn’t start until summer that meant players in the Rally Cap Division didn’t get to participate in any baseball activity. The Rally Cap season usually starts in May and ends in June, so that season didn’t happen last year.
“The Rally Cap Division is about development, practices and learning the game of baseball; and not necessarily all about playing an (actual) game, but working on their skills,” said Hubbard.
Hubbard said that Baseball Saskatoon is hoping game-play will be allowed by mid-May and league play can start. However, that is still tentative until the provincial government announces exactly when game-play in a league format is allowed.