Posted March 2, 2021 We are excited to welcome you back to the baseball & softball diamond. As we return to the field, our mission remains to provide our community with fun, affordable, and competitive youth baseball & softball. Due to COVID-19, we are implementing several changes and instituting new guidelines for players, coaches, umpires, spectators to meet state guidelines. This document serves as a high-level summary of some of the changes we will be making. These League Guidelines & Procedures will be published on our website and should be referred to for all specific and final guidance.
DO YOUR PART
- Hand Washing – Wash hands frequently, prior to attending and after practice and games. We are in the process of procuring hand sanitation stations for each diamond and our multi-purpose buildings. Sanitize frequently.
- Social Distancing – Please allow 6 ft between yourself and other spectators, following signs and markings. Please sit in designated spectator areas. If a coach or board member asks you to relocate to meet distancing guidelines, please just relocate without issue. Please be considerate to other guests on our complex. You don’t know who may be living with someone who is compromised. Make social distancing work for everyone!
- Face Coverings – Face coverings must be worn at all times when a distance of 6 feet cannot be maintained. While in the dugout, it is required that all players wear a face covering. Adult volunteers, coaches, and umpires are required to wear face coverings during the game and/or when working on the complex.
- Cleaning & Disinfecting – Please be patient as we clean and disinfect bench areas and bleacher areas after each use. This work is being done by volunteers. It may impact exact start times of games or practices so please be patient.
- Common Sense Health – If your child is sick or has a fever of 100.4 or greater do not send them to games or practices. Please notify your coach as far in advance as possible, so he/she can make alternative arrangements.
COMPLEX RULES
- Only rostered players and coaches allowed in the bench areas/Dugouts. No parents, siblings, or fans in the designated bench areas/Dugouts. No bat boys or bat girls permitted.
- No dogs or house pets are allowed on the complex at any time.
- No sunflower seeds, bubble gum, or peanuts. No spitting at any time.
- Complex capacity is limited ONLY to scheduled players, coaches, umpires, Only one (1) parent/guardian/spectator per player, and essential volunteers. If your children do not have a game, do not send them to the complex to watch their friends. Our complex will not and cannot be a neighborhood hangout spot this season. It saddens us but this is for everyone’s safety and to ensure compliance with state guidelines. If your child is at the complex and he/she does not have a game, he/she will be sent home. Coaches who are not scheduled to play should not come to the complex to watch games unless they are essential volunteers for that date. Players or coaches should not arrive more than 1 hour prior to game time or come to the complex to watch other games.
- Free play on the fields is NOT permitted at any time. Fields are only to be used for scheduled games and practices. When games or practices end, the field is immediately closed. No pick-up games, wiffle ball games, or free batting practice at any time.
PRE-GAME
- To be eligible to participate in our programs in 2021, the parent/guardian of each player must have signed the Return to Play Participation Waiver. Players are not eligible to practice or play games until the waiver is signed. The waiver can be found on our website.
- Bring your own water bottle or sports beverage. No sharing of water bottles or shared team coolers. Individual water bottles and sports beverages will be available for purchase when the snack stand is in operation. Bottles must be marked with child’s name.
- No food on the bench at any time. Meals or snacks should be eaten prior to or after the game. If food is medically necessary, players should leave the bench area/dugout with permission from their coach to see a parent/guardian.
- Bleacher seating will be very limited. Bring your own seating if possible. Only one (1) spectator per player on the complex for each game.
- Each team will warm up with their own team.
- Prior to first pitch, coaches will set aside some baseballs/softballs for use for warmups in between innings, minimizing the number of total balls used by the team.
- Please do not share equipment. For equipment that must be shared (catcher’s equipment), coaches must disinfect after each game and between the change of catchers.
- Home plate meeting will be limited to 1 umpire and only the head coach of each team. During the meeting, the umpire will stand behind home plate. Home team coach will stand just outside left-hand batter’s box. Visiting team coach will stand just outside the right-hand batter’s box.
- If your team is playing the second of back to back games scheduled on a field, your team should wait away from the field of play until the game concludes and exercise proper social distancing. Please do not come to the dugout areas until the teams before you have left.
- Batting cages – will be used for scheduled practices ONLY.
- Coaches will be provided practice balls and equipment bags; we recommend that each player bring/have their own helmet and bat, but if they do not have their own, they may use the shared equipment. Prior to each game or practice, coaches should pick up sanitized equipment from the clubhouse. After the game, coaches will sanitize it and return it to the designated area for future use.
DURING THE GAME
- Dugouts and bench areas will be marked or roped off. Coaches are required to encourage their teams to engage in proper social distancing.
- High fiving, hugging, and handshaking are not recommended at any time.
- Participants are not required to wear masks on the field of play but may do so at their own discretion and their own risk.
- Participants are recommended to have their own batting helmet. If it is financially prohibitive for you to purchase a helmet, you may use a shared league sanitized helmet.
- No spitting, sunflower seeds, gum, or peanuts in the shell at any time.
- Sharing of equipment is not recommended. Any equipment that must be shared should be sanitized regularly. POST-GAME
- In lieu of post-game handshaking, teams may lineup on their respective baseline and tip their caps to their opponent.
- Players should immediately pick up all trash in the bench area and place it in receptacles. Players should then pack their bags and vacate the bench areas immediately. If you are playing the first of back to back games, your post-game team meetings should not be held on the field or on the bench. They should be held after you’ve vacated the bench area, outside of the field, and allow for enough distancing.
- One volunteer from each team must disinfect his/her respective bench area and bleacher area at the conclusion of each game.
- One volunteer from each team must disinfect his/her used baseballs/softballs.
FOOD & BEVERAGE
- Customers must wear a face covering to approach the snack stand and when waiting to be served.
- Please allow for proper social distancing when waiting to be served.
- Please USE TRASH RECEPTICALS to dispose of perishable items. Please do not throw your trash on the ground or under the bleachers. Patrons caught intentionally disposing of trash on the ground may be banned from the complex for the 2021 season at the board’s discretion.
MOVING FORWARD
- Throughout the season and moving forward, as governmental guidance changes, our policies may continue to evolve. We will communicate those changes to you in as timely a fashion as possible. We will publish a comprehensive set of guidelines and procedures and make that publicly available on our website. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions, please bring them to a board member.
Fairmount Sports Association 