Medicine Hat Minor Softball hits the diamond Thursday as COVID restrictions on youth sports lift
By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on June 9, 2021.
ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi
The Alberta government says play ball.
The Medicine Hat Minor Softball Association is starting its U-19 house league Thursday with the rest of the age groups starting on Sunday, Monday or Tuesday, says the association’s president, Michelle Campbell.
“Our U-19 house league consists of kids in Grades 10, 11 and 12 and being that they’re the oldest kids, I’d say they’re probably the most eager to get back out there and play some games,” she said. “They didn’t have a season at all last year, so when the announcement came that Thursday there would be no restrictions for youth sports, we just decided that we would make it happen and get them to be able to start playing games on Thursday.”
Campbell says the U-19 matchups will take place at the Moose Ballpark with two games at once from 6:30-8 p.m. She says this is the first time in a decade games will be played on quality diamonds within city limits in a decade.
“We’re really excited to have them play games at the Moose,” she said. ” … For the city to partner with us and find us space, it is really quite an exciting thing for these kids.”
The house leagues often play in Redcliff because the MHMSA didn’t have access to enough facilities that were the right size or of good quality in the city. She adds that in October, the MHMSA went to media outlets and asked for help with advocacy with the city to give them access to facilities off school grounds.
She says school diamonds go through wear and tear all day long, which makes it difficult to transition to a quality needed for competitive minor league ball in the evening.
“To have access to city facilities in a complex that’s not open to the community, that’s only rented by user groups will definitely get these older U-19 athletes a different experience to be able to play at a facility like that,” said Campbell.
Campbell says minor sports have been struggling with almost no competitive play over the last two years. She says the pauses, starts, delays and those sorts of things are hard on families and athletes, so moving into actual game scenarios and competitive play gives people a sense of normalcy.
“We’re hoping that as our kids are back out on the diamonds, playing games, having fun, having some failures, successes, fun and being able to be around a larger group of kids that it will impact them positively both mentally and physically,” said Campbell.
