The Tribune

By INIGO 'NAUGHTY' ZENICAZELAYA

ADMITTEDLY I’m in coaching withdrawal, I miss coaching 10-U baseball.

In every effort to stay up on the sport of youth baseball, and possibly learn a few new tricks, I watched a recent travel tournament for 14-year-olds on ESPN.

Not only was it well organised, with social distancing protocols in place, it offered a very good blue print for our local leagues to study, as they prepare to return to the field.

The tournament took place at the Texas Rangers spring training facility in Surprise, Arizona. The tournament included 17 California-teams — social distancing protocols were still in effect, most parents still clustered together in tiny pockets of shade, many players still slapped hands between at-bats, and only a handful of attendees donned masks during a sweltering summer afternoon.

The only real tell tale sign of a pandemic was when they zoomed in on the concession stand, plastic shield in front, was the only vivid reminder of a pandemic.

According to Brad Clement, CEO of Perfect Game USA, the organisation that staged the event in Arizona:

“We try to make sure that people will follow the rules to the extent we can, but because it is uncharted, it’s impossible to know for sure.”

Although it’s a challenge for all sports, social distancing compliance has become particularly pertinent in the largely self-governed world of youth sports — where widespread testing requirements are impractical; oversight varies widely from tournament to tournament; and coaches, players and parents are typically trusted to follow guidelines on their own.

Said Jon Solomon, director of the sports and society programme at Aspen Institute:

“There’s no governing authority in youth sports, there are a lot of well-intentioned sports organisations that have put out really thoughtful guidelines and rules for their specific sport and sports in general. But it’s still up to each organisation to apply it as they see fit on the ground.”

There is still resistance locally, leagues have been called into question whether youth sports are truly safe to return.

Even more so now as national COVID-19 cases continue to rise.

The fear is the leagues are returning too fast, that financial factors and parental pressure are taking precedence over best possible decisions.

At some point we have to get the ball rolling, (no pun intended) and these kids back out there having fun and playing sports, not only for their health but for their parents’ piece of mind, my sons have almost completely remodeled our house by hand, and the inventor of ‘Fortnite’, I’d love to meet in a dark alley, anyway that’s another story for another column.

Until next week, let there be sports, of any kind!

• Naughty presents ‘Mischief and Mayhem in da AM’ from 6am to 10am, Monday to Friday and ‘The Press Box’ sports talk show on Sunday from 10am to 1pm, on KISS FM 96.1.