Montgomery Middle School baseball/softball is up and running
The second year of Montgomery Public Middle School baseball and softball is underway but without last year’s softball champion, Floyd Magnet, which chose not to participate. (STAFF PHOTO)
By TIM GAYLE
The Montgomery Public Middle Schools Baseball/Softball Initiative is underway for the second year of baseball and softball at MPS middle schools.
“We got everybody on the same page for this season,” said Initiative executive director David Thomas. “We finalized schedules. Every team knows who they’re going to play, the date and the time.”
Among the issues facing the coaches and athletic directors were home-and-home dates with each other, a decision on whether to play in a spring invitation tournament sponsored by the Baseball/Softball Initiative and an agreement to play in a season-end tournament to determine the city champion.
While all of the MPS middle schools responded except for Goodwyn, the Baseball/Softball Initiative suffered a setback when Floyd Middle Magnet School, which had the defending city champions in softball, did not sign up for the second season.
“Floyd decided they didn’t want to participate this year,” Thomas said. “I think they’re playing Johnnie Carr and maybe McKee (in baseball), but they don’t fit under the umbrella of the other schools. You have to play everybody twice and commit to playing in the city tournament. I had a conversation with the athletic director, I had a conversation with the principal and I had a conversation with the athletic director and principal together.
“We had to finalize the schedule from representatives who were at the meeting.”
Participating in baseball will be Capitol Heights, Brewbaker, Johnnie Carr, Dunbar, Southlawn, Bellingrath and McKee. Five of the seven will participate in softball, with Capitol Heights and Southlawn electing not to field softball teams this season.
The Baseball/Softball Initiative provides the funding for baseball and softball teams at all nine MPS middle schools, but school administrators must fill out the proper paperwork to participate in the program and must provide their own coaches (who are paid the regular MPS stipend by the Initiative). So far, Goodwyn is the only school to ignore repeated requests to join the program. A change in administrators and athletic directors at Floyd contributed to the confusion that left the Panthers out of the group this year.
All 12 MPS baseball and softball teams have announced plans to participate in the spring invitation tournament on March 13-14, along with Pike Road. The field remains open to other middle school baseball and softball programs who wish to participate. Thomas said a site for the invitation tournament must still be selected.
The city championship for baseball is set for April 3-4. The city championship for softball is tentatively scheduled for April 10-11, but because that is Easter weekend, organizers may elect to move the dates up a day or two.
“The sites have not been determined yet,” Thomas said. “We’re looking at Park Crossing for both. If not, we’ll look into city (park) sites.”
Home games are at the respective schools’ practice sites. Currently, McKee is practicing at Peter Crump, Dunbar is practicing in the Ramer community park, Capitol Heights is at Chisholm, Johnnie Carr practices at Park Crossing, Southlawn and Bellingrath are at Gateway Park and Brewbaker is undecided between holding games at either Park Crossing or Buddy Watson Park.