The Melfort Spirit U14 team celebrates their win after a tournament last season. (Facebook/Melfort Minor Softball)

By Mat Barrett

Play Ball... Safely

MMSA excited to get back on the field as Phase Four of Re-Open Plan begins

Jun 21, 2020 | 1:00 PM

Monday will mark the return of softball in the province, as the beginning of Phase Four of the Re-Open Saskatchewan Plan will be put into action.

Melfort Minor Softball Association (MMSA) President Kirk Kezema said they’re happy to be allowed back on the fields.

“We’re quite excited to get the kids out, and getting out ourselves,” he said. “And getting some time out on the field.”

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the start of softball season, the MMSA was already well underway in terms of registration and choosing teams for their Spirit program. Unfortunately, the house league season has pretty much passed according to Kezema, but he said there is still a possibility of having something for those players. Some camps for younger age groups were mentioned as ways to get some of those players on the field.

Meanwhile, other teams are now allowed to practice and be together, but under stringent guidelines set out by Softball Saskatchewan. One of those guidelines is that there will need to be a “Health and Safety Person” at each MMSA event.

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“That person is responsible for asking questions at the beginning of every practice,” Kezema told northeastNOW. “Making sure that everybody attending is feeling good and hasn’t been sick in the last little while, or been around anybody that’s been sick.”

That person can be a volunteer within the teams and Kezema said they’ll likely have two of them through the organization.

On top of the health and safety individual, sanitation will be ramped up. Kezema said MMSA will have sanitation kits and they’ll sanitize all of their equipment after practice. Social distancing will also be practiced as best as possible under the circumstances.

Stage two of returning to play for Softball Saskatchewan and the MMSA would be incorporating game play. For MMSA, that would mean beginning play with their Spirit program teams, some of which participate in the Saskatoon league, which would start at that point. Then, the final stage would be allowing larger events including tournaments and provincial championships.

“We’ll still have to follow the protocols and guidelines and have the health and safety people around and stuff like that. But as back to normal as possible.”

Kezema said he believes MMSA is prepared and can handle the new guidelines very well. He gave credit to the board that is in place that was in constant communication as they were waiting for when softball would be allowed again.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6