With no guidelines, frustration stirs among N.L. youth baseball as sports can resume Monday

Youth sports are gearing up for another summer season — although things will look a bit different this year on account of COVID-19 and the public health measures in place to stop its spread.

But many have been left in the dark as to how they can truly operate this summer. Government first announced its phased reopening plan on April 30 that some outdoor sports could resume in Level 3 — tentatively slated for Monday.

"Unfortunately, based on the situation right now, everything is changing very quickly," said Kristyn Coley, executive director of the St. John's Minor Baseball Association.

"We're kind of on hold waiting for government to come out with some regulations, similar to what they've done for retail establishments, restaurants, things like that. We've just had no communication basically."

Meanwhile, the Corner Brook Minor Baseball Association said it too is awaiting government guidelines to be finalized, while communities such as Paradise and Mount Pearl say they've been working with their sports groups, but the go-ahead date is still to be determined while waiting for the official regulations.

"Technically, Monday, fields and things could open depending on your municipality. But, they haven't come out with any guidelines. We're the forgotten bunch," said Coley.

"The assumption is that we're dealing with large numbers of kids, that they would be taking a very proactive stance, but that hasn't been the case so far from our experience."

More info coming

On Friday, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said sports like baseball, volleyball and soccer can start again with up to 20 people, including coaches and athletes, but no other information was provided.

When asked, Fitzgerald said details are still being finalized and more information will be available in the coming days.

Coley said Newfoundland and Labrador is among the last of the provinces to have regulations in place for summer sports. Coley said baseball organizations in Quebec, Ontario and Alberta have had faster responses from their governments, and have their "return to play" policies in order.

Jason Mosher, president of Corner Brook's minor baseball said this season will be a challenge on both the players and the parents. He told CBC Radio's Newfoundland Morning there could be even a change to some of the rules.

"Social distancing will have to be in effect. Parents wanting to watch, it's going to be much harder for them to be at the ball field to watch because there will have to be restrictions on how many people be in attendance," he said.

"Just physical distancing measures, the amount of kids that are going to be allowed in a dugout at a time. If you've got a 20-foot dugout and have four kids in that dugout, the rest have to be outside the baseball fence."

Proactive planning

St. John's minor baseball has taken its own proactive approach while waiting for government's orders, Coley said. The organization has issued information to its members with guidelines of how things could potentially look this season, while waiting for the official word.

Coley said registration for baseball usually happens in the middle of March, but this year it was pushed until the end of May.

Still, even with the delay in registration and no real plan, Coley said her organization saw the single-largest first day registration numbers in its history. Coley noted registration fees didn't go up, though she expects the organization to take a little bit of a loss where funding from sponsorships could likely be down due to those businesses also struggling amid the pandemic.

Obtaining personal protective equipment for staff is also on the expense list.

"It's going to take us some time to source materials," said Coley. "The problem is we can't do much of that until we hear back from government."

"Everyone is looking for answers from government right now, so we understand it was going to be a long process."

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