Weeks of practice were put to the test last Saturday as hundreds of nervous Little Leaguers stood tall in the batter’s box and dashed around in the field chasing hard-hit balls. Some teams won and some teams lost but it appeared that everybody had fun. This is a big season for Cayman Islands Little League, say organizers, as participation levels have finally risen to around 500 after Hurricane Ivan’s visit in 2004 had cut player numbers significantly.
A pitcher and batter duel in a Pony League game last Saturday. |
‘We think this is going to be a very good year for us,’ said Robbie Cribb, current president of the Cayman Islands Little League Association and a long-time volunteer coach. ‘We are very happy that our numbers are crawling back up. We have 200 players in just T-ball alone this season. It’s a big year and we are hoping to do a lot. Hopefully our auction [fundraising event set for Marriott hotel on March 24th] will do well and we can try to start developing two more fields [the facility in George Town currently has four fields] and put a big parking lot down.’
Cribb says there are many new coaches leading teams this year and while they may lack experience, none are short of enthusiasm.
‘We have some of the old coaches back but we also have a lot of new ones and they are doing well. They are really into and they’re having a blast.’
Ben Pershick is one of the Association’s many volunteer coaches. (By the way, it is important to keep that word ‘volunteer’ in mind. Cayman Islands Little League coaches are not paid for their time and effort. They just do it.) Pershick says his team’s goal for the season is simply ‘to have fun’.
‘We have a lot of 8 year-olds on our team this year so it’s probably going to take us a while to develop the skills we need to compete. But we’re going to have fun and by the end of the year we will be as good as any other team.’
Cribb adds that the Association hopes to organize participation in three or four overseas baseball tournaments for Cayman players. There will also be more attention on the Pony Division [8-9 year -olds].
‘Pony is the age where you make a ball player,’ Cribb said. ‘So we want to concentrate more on them this year.’
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