Laurel Highlands Youth League

“The complex had two work nights this week for coaches and board members,” Laurel Highlands Youth League softball president Kevin Landis said. “We hung up all the sponsor banners, put up batting cages, and really just got everything ready to go. I’m really excited for the kids to feel like everything’s normal again.”

The league consists of 63 baseball and softball teams from several Somerset County school districts, including Salisbury, Meyersdale, Rockwood, Berlin, Shanksville, Central City, North Star, Conemaugh Township and Somerset, with each district having their own division of teams.

Baseball teams range from Tee Ball to 12U. Softball, which traditionally went up to 15U, will go up to 18U this season because of the coronavirus canceling spring high school sports.

Shade head softball coach Jason Baer contacted area high school coaches, and the league will have seven teams competing in the top division this season.

“This is basically the high school softball season,” Landis said. “We wanted to give all of the players, especially the seniors, a shot to be able to play this year since they didn’t get to play in the spring.”

The Somerset Little League baseball and softball divisions, however, are in separate leagues. Somerset’s softball teams play in the Laurel Highlands League, which is not sanctioned by Little League International.

Their baseball league, which is sanctioned, has six teams that play their own schedules against each other. The six teams have been given two weeks to practice before the season starts.

“We spoke with coaches and felt that was the best decision,” Somerset Little League President Rich Good said. “It helps to get arms back into shape, plus the kids haven’t seen live pitching in a while. This was pretty much the norm for the leagues was a two week break. Extra practice time will give us more quality games.”

After the regular season, there will be playoffs where a champion will be crowned.

For Laurel Highlands softball, there will be no postseason.

“We’re just having a regular season and that’s it,” Landis said. “After much deliberation, we just decided against playoffs. We understand we normally have playoffs with the top four teams in each division, but with the amount of girls that play travel ball, we wanted to avoid issues.”

Landis also said that due to the coronavirus concerns still being within the league, the board members asked parents if they still wanted to let their children participate.

Fortunately, a high percentage of parents allowed their children to play in the leagues despite the coronavirus scare.

To help with the virus concerns for the upcoming season, the Laurel Highlands board set guidelines for all teams to follow.

They include basic ones such as social distancing, where players will be spaced apart in dugouts and can extend to outside to place bags and equipment.

Parents will also be encouraged to bring their own chairs instead of all sitting in bleachers.

For the games, coaches and umpires will be wiping the balls off with disinfectant after every inning played, among other things.

“A lot of the things we’re doing are in the state guidelines that were given to us,” Landis said. “One key thing about the guidelines is that the leagues can add different rules as they wish to enhance safety above what we have in regards to coronavirus. It’s all about keeping the environment and kids safe.”

Good agreed that the main idea is safety for the players. He said the Somerset Little League board has been very proactive and have held meetings to help generate the best ideas to promote safety.

“This is a new territory for everybody,” Good said. “We believe everyone is well prepared for this season despite all the new changes. Our board has been together, and we’re going to do our best to abide by the guidelines. I believe our parents and players will do very well to follow them, and I’m confident we’re going to have a good year.”

Landis said he wanted to thank all of the parents and board members for staying supportive through the entire process of resuming the leagues.

“I’m really ecstatic that everyone hung in there for these last two months,” he said. “The fact that there’s so many people still wanting to make this happen is great to see. I’m very excited to see what happens this summer.”