After an absence of close to 15 years, the Osoyoos Minor Baseball Association returned last year and things went very well with more than 100 players registering. League president Jason Bartsch is hoping there will be more than 120 players with the addition of a bantam division for the 2016 season. Registration for the upcoming season is ending this week. The new season will start in early April and continue until the second week in June. (Photo supplied)
Minor baseball disappeared from Osoyoos for close to 15 years until being resurrected last season and thankfully the future looks exceptionally bright moving forward.
“Last year we had close to 100 kids join up and we’re expecting another 20 to 30 for this season as we’re adding a bantam division for kids up to age 15,” said Jason Bartsch, the president of the Osoyoos Minor Baseball Association.
Registration for the upcoming 2016 season has been taking place for the past several weeks and wraps up Friday of this week.
Any player who registers after March 11 will be “looked at on an individual basis” to determine if he or she will be eligible to play this season, said Bartsch.
After only one year, the executive with the Osoyoos Minor Baseball Association is so confident about the future that they have registered to become officially incorporated with the British Columbia Minor Baseball Association, said Bartsch.
“This will allow us to hold officially sanctioned tournaments and allow all of our teams to try and compete to reach provincial playdowns,” he said. “We feel that by joining the provincial association, it’s going to result in attracting more players and raising the overall standard of play in all age divisions in our association.”
Registration is continuing on March 11 from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. at the Sun Valley Dental Clinic in Osoyoos.
Players eligible to play in the Osoyoos Minor Baseball Association must live between the north side of Oliver to the American border in Osoyoos, said Bartsch.
The cost to register is only $90 for the entire season and includes all practices and games from the time the league starts on March 29 until things wrap up the second week in June.
Osoyoos Minor Baseball has also officially signed a working agreement with the Penticton Pinnacles Football Club (FC) to encourage young baseball players to also play minor soccer, said Bartsch.
“As an association, we agreed that it would be a really good idea to have our kids playing more than one sport,” said Bartsch. “We’re teaming up with the Pinnacles FC program to try and get as many kids as we possibly can involved in both baseball and soccer and both sports have so much to offer.”
The league is blessed to not only have a growing number of players, but a solid group of dedicated and committed coaches and team sponsors, he said.
Practices will take place in all age divisions on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, with games on the weekends. Most of the games will be played at the Desert Park facility, but some will take place at the town ball diamond behind Osoyoos Secondary School, said Bartsch.
Bartsch, who has been very active as an executive member with the South Okanagan Minor Hockey Association for several years, said he’s thrilled minor baseball has returned and is thriving in Osoyoos.
“I have a passion for this community and for seeing children excel,” he said. “I found it very distressing that kids who love baseball, and there are many of them, had to travel long distances to play.
“Bringing minor baseball back to Osoyoos is going to allow kids in this community to play this wonderful game right in their backyard and we’re very pleased with the results so far.”
The league is looking for umpires “of all ages … young and old, experienced and inexperienced.”
A clinic for umpires is being held in Penticton on April 3 for interested umpires, he said.
Umpires will be paid a very competitive wage for their services, said Bartsch.
“We could really use some new umpires,” he said.
For more information about the league, you can go online and visit www.osoyoosbaseball.com.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
