- May 8, 2024
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They sometimes stay up all night, thinking about the game. Straight from school, young ball players run to their gear, lace up their cleats and put on their team shirt grab their gloves. Then, they get to the field but can’t play because several teammates failed to show up and caused the team to forfeit.
I’m afraid this issue has occurred too often this season in the Palm Coast Little League. When I arrived to cover a playoff and championship game this past weekend, both were cancelled because there weren’t enough players.
Coaches and parents had purchased snacks and all the necessities to make ready for the game — only to have to reload it all back into their vehicles, because the game was cancelled.
“It’s the parents’ responsibility to teach these kids that this is a team sport,” said Teresa Cestare, wife of a head coach who had to forfeit his playoff game. “If we would’ve known that we were going to be short, I would not have bought this cooler full of Powerades, and we wouldn’t have wasted everybody’s time.”
While a sickness or any other dire situation is excusable, the parents and coaches whose time is often wasted criticize the lack of communication from the parents who fail to notify anyone they won’t be attending.
For some families, baseball is literally just a fun little hobby they allow kids to past the time. On the other hand, parents expect PCLL to prepare their kids for high school, college and maybe one day the major leagues. So, they will make sure their kids are out there early and ready to warm up.
I asked PCLL President Patrick Johnan about the issue, and he proposed a solution that may be helpful going forward.
“We can start the season a week earlier and cut it to 16 games instead of 18,” he said. “Hopefully, we can play all the games before graduations and Memorial Day.”
Whether the board decides to go with this or not, I think this will prevent some players from missing the biggest games, but nothing can stop those who refuse to take the league seriously enough to show up for every game — if they can.
