HUMBOLDT 鈥� To keep its players safe, one of the measures the Humboldt Girls Softball Association is taking is having a volunteer sanitization coach for each team.
That coach is in charge of cleaning surfaces and ensuring players are distanced on benches.
鈥淲e make sure every half an inning we鈥檙e sanitizing balls, bats, bat handles, any high touch areas,鈥� Chris Stadnyk, president of the association.
Questions are also asked to try to detect COVID-19 symptoms.
The president said the association has invested a lot of time to ensure its players鈥� safety.
鈥淢yself, the treasurer and our vice-president, together the three of us put in more time this year than probably the last three years, and that鈥檚 just dealing with a lot of talking back and forth with Softball Saskatchewan and coming up with the game plan of where we can return to play, but safely.鈥�
Stadnyk said their most difficult challenge is trying to get the younger kids to distance from one another.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just young girls like to socialize, young kids like to socialize and it鈥檚 not that they鈥檙e not educated enough that they know it鈥檚 a pandemic, it鈥檚 just they associate playing ball with having fun, which means playing with their friends,鈥� he said.
鈥淭hey think, 鈥榃ell, since we play together at the park, why can鈥檛 we play together on the ball field?鈥欌��
The season began on July 13, with practice beginning on July 1, and is expected to go until the second week of August.
There was a drop in the number of players this year, resulting in the association cutting out the U16 team for the season, and opening signups to surrounding communities such as Lanigan, Watrous, Wadena and Muenster.
鈥淥ur numbers have dropped, probably in half. We struggled to find teams, we actually grabbed players in surrounding communities just to make up teams,鈥� Stadnyk said.
鈥淥ur league itself has probably seen the lowest numbers it has ever seen.鈥�
