Believe it or not, baseball season is expected to start in about two weeks. This photo was taken on Tuesday afternoon at the diamonds behind the Kindersley Inn.
Kevin McBain
of The Clarion
Ball season is just around the corner! Well, hopefully, depending on the weather.
A total of 277 youth have registered for ball teams this year that will make up between 25 to 27 teams.
President of Kindersley Minor Ball, Chad Miller, said that players can still register if they wish.
“If you missed the early registration (held in February), you can still sign up,” he said. “If you go under kmsports.ca and go under the ‘Forms’ tab, you can fill out the appropriate form and just take it into the KMS office at the arena, or you can mail it to Box 2487, Kindersley. There will be a $20 late fee applied however.”
He adds that the deadline to sign up will be April 27.
Miller said that a focus of this year was to give as many opportunities as they could to get players ready for the season.
“That was kind of something we wanted to is offer as many clinics as we could,” he said.
[emember_protected for=”2″ custom_msg=’For more on this story, please see the Apr. 18 print edition of The Clarion.’]
There has been many baseball and softball clinics that have been held already with one more to go. There will be a ‘Learn to Play’ clinic held April 24th for players, coaches and parents at the Prep, Mite and Rally Cap, levels.
Also, on May 6th, there will be a Saskatchewan Softball Basic Skills Clinic held for girls in the mite division and older.
This weekend, minor ball will also host Level 1 and 2 umpire clinics for baseball. As well, a softball umpire clinic will be held this Sunday in Unity.
Field updates
Kindersley Minor Ball will again be looking after the seven ball fields under their care.
Millers aid that they have acquired a new infield drag and they have access to the a new aerator, which they will share with the town’s parks’ department.
He adds that the new maintenance shed located between the Flanagan and Berard Fields has been completed, with the exception of the power being hooked up to it.
The addition to the booth at Flanagan Park is being worked on and the exterior is complete. Work will begin on the inside that will contain wahrooms, two change rooms and one umpires room. The work on this project is expected to be completed by the end of August.
As well, there is a new booth that is being renovated and located between the two diamonds located behind the Kindersley Inn.
Also at Flangan park, there will be some security cameras installed to hopefully alleviate some security issues that have happened in the past.
This should be completed and ready to go in May. To note, it has been positioned so booth workers can watch the games at either field while they are working.
Sponsorship
Miller has been working on a sponsorship program since last year and it has done well. All minor ball diamonds are now sponsored. The diamonds at Elizabeth school are sponsored by Speedy Auto Glass, Jackson Trucking and On the Wall Exteriors.
The Water Treatment diamond is now called the Supreme Source for Sports field.
The diamonds behind the Kindersley Inn are re-named the Lynco Hot Oilers field and the Longhorn Oil & Gas field.
He is also continuing to work on sponsorship at the Berard Field, hoping that he can cover the back fence with sponsorship signs. He said that it has gone well and has just 24 of 62 spots to fill. Miller said that he wants to wait until all spots are filled before putting them up.
Volunteers
This year’s volunteer hours will be extended to the end of September to give everyone a little more time to complete the hours needed.
Senior teams
Flanagan Park will be busy this season with three bantam teams and possibly six senior teams playing in the Fertile Valley Baseball League. those teams include the Kindersley Midgets, Kindersley Klippers, Raiders, Stallions, the newest team the Kindersley Cubs, and finally, the Eatonia Wheat Kings are expected to play at least the first half of the season here.
[/emember_protected]
