Published: Feb. 22, 2014
Summer ball in rough spot
Summer baseball is on its last leg. It won’t be too long
before all baseball teams in Wisconsin will move to the spring.
Slinger made an announcement at its School Board meeting
Monday, revealing its plan to move from summer baseball to spring.
It was a shock as conversations with Slinger Athletic
Director Dan Karius revealed he had thought about leading Slinger out of the
Wisconsin Little Ten Conference and into the North Shore Conference full time.
The Owls play in the Little Ten in all sports except summer baseball, when they
play in the North Shore. Those discussions came after the announcement last
fall of Wisconsin Lutheran, West Bend East and West Bend West requesting to
leave the Little Ten, putting the conference’s future in jeopardy.
After reading Karius’ comments regarding the reasons for
leaving summer ball, it makes sense. He said it frees up the summer for the
student-athletes. That is a topic that always seems to surface at various WIAA
meetings, whether it be the annual meeting in April or regional meetings.
Slinger baseball coach Steve Dummer said it also helps the student-athletes get
a chance to build up bank accounts in preparation for college with summer jobs.
“It makes it more of a school sport again,” he said Monday.
The move is scheduled to be made for the 2015 season.
How many will follow suit? Don’t be surprised if more soon
make the same decision. Last season, 55 summer baseball teams were sponsored by
the WIAA. We will be down at least one for 2015.
During the 2012-13 school year, there were 382 spring
baseball teams in Wisconsin.
Advocates of summer baseball argue that baseball is meant to
be played in the summer, hence the phrase “boys of summer.” In addition, the
weather is often more cooperative in the summer as teams in the spring often
have to reschedule games because fields aren’t ready for competition.
They’re right with those arguments. However, in the grand
scheme, allowing the student-athletes to have a summer vacation is gaining more
support.
It opens up a lot of options for student-athletes to do
whatever they want, whether it’s legion baseball or just relaxing, especially
in a period where there is such pressure on the student- athletes.
In 1999, there were 110 summer baseball teams in Wisconsin,
the most in the season’s history since summer baseball was adopted in 1965.
Those numbers have declined each year. Another debate that always seems to
surface around baseball is who is better: Spring teams or the summer teams?
Those arguments go along with the WIAA and WISAA days when separate state
championships were contested in the same sport. This is the same thing.
What this boils down to is opening up a student-athlete’s
summer. With how often that comes up, don’t be shocked to see another school
say no to summer and yes to spring.
No comments:
Post a Comment