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58 • September 2021 sportstyle • sportstylemag.com adult teams and senior (age 55-plus) teams. "The adult leagues started play- ing again last fall and the senior league teams started in January," says Whipp. "Clearly, baseball is our busiest sport — 12 months a year." While many team dealers don't sell bats and cleats because of inventory challenges, Dave's Sporting Goods does well in those categories. "We sell bats and cleats because many team dealers don't," adds Whipp — bats from Rawlings and Louisville Slugger and cleats from Under Armour. A Walk in the Park In Indiana, it has been business as usual for high school baseball and softball in 2021. "We had full seasons for high school baseball and softball," reports Doc Claussen, manager of Coaches Corner in Terre Haute, IN. "Business was not as strong as it was in 2019, but I don't expect baseball and softball sales to return to normal until Spring 2023." In addition to being a sporting goods salesman, Claussen is also an umpire for baseball and softball and in May alone this year he officiated 21 high school base- ball and softball games. He did so many because many baseball and softball officials had decided not to return as umpires because of COVID concerns. Because of its geographic prox- imity along the Indiana-Illinois border, Coaches Corner sells into Illinois schools as well, where sales were not as strong since the seasons for both diamond sports were delayed and considerably shortened. "For schools in Illinois, we sold mostly scorebooks, field mark- ing paint and game balls," says Claussen. Also in the Midwest, there was a brief six-week shutdown in the spring of last year in Iowa and then the governor instructed high schools to play baseball — and they did. As a result it was the only state to crown state cham- pions in high school baseball last year. Traditionally, Iowa plays high school baseball in the summer and that tradition continues this year, which is good for sales. "High school baseball and soft- ball have been great in our state," says Derrik Netten, president of Iowa Sports Supply in Cedar Rapids. "Participation is strong." Again, the one major issue for Netten has been a slow delivery of product. But, Netten and his customers have resorted to their own Plan B. "If teams can't get what they need, they are pivoting and going to an off-brand," says Netten. "It's been super frustrating, but people have been adjusting on the fly when it comes to buying prod- uct. I have heard that many of the suppliers are understaffed, which adds to delay of product being shipped." Gambling on Participation In Nevada, high school baseball and softball teams had limited 12-game schedules, but even then most teams did not play all because of continued positive COVID-19 tests. But at least it was an improvement over the spring of 2020, according to Shawn Huff, manager of Turf Sporting Goods in Las Vegas. "We had no sports in Spring 2020," said Huff. "It was better this spring." And, Huff is keeping his fingers crossed that business next spring will show a continued improve- ment. That's a bet which Huff is willing to make. Youth baseball was played this past spring in Las Vegas, which helped generate some equipment and uniform sales, but the over- all lack of play at the recreation, travel and high school level in the last year caused one local sporting goods store in Las Vegas to go out of business. Out west in southern California, the 2021 recreational baseball business was an improvement over what took place in Spring 2020, but it was not as good as it was pre-COVID. "Our rec baseball business was all right, definitely better than we expected it to be, but not as strong as it was in prior years," says Rhonda Giummo, owner of PRG Enterprises in Menifee, CA. "Teams are continuing to buy uniforms, hats, belts and socks. Out in Hawaii, sales in the last 12 months have been as bad as one could expect. "Since last spring, business has been horrible," says Stanley Costales, Jr., owner of Sport Line in Hilo, HI. "It's been like Death Valley." That's because while many parts of the U.S. were playing limited schedules of high school baseball and fast-pitch softball this past spring, it was all quiet, for the most part, throughout Hawaii. "For the most part, Hawaii was a non-participant in high school sports this past spring," says Costales. On the island of Oahu, private and public high schools had a short three-week sched- ule for baseball and softball. On the other Hawaiian islands, high school baseball and softball were not played. "But all indications are that we will return to normal this coming fall, which means we will have base- ball and softball next spring," he adds. But, Costales, too, is concerned about the ability of manufacturers to supply enough merchandise in a timely manner. "I'm expecting record turnouts for all sports, but I'm not sure if our supply chains can deliver what we need in time for all athletes on all teams in all sports," he says. "Meeting the demand for prod- uct may be difficult in the coming months." But, Costales says that's a better problem to have than one where no teams are playing sports at all or not ordering product. l The NFHS conducts a high school sports participation study each year, but because of the disruption to high school sports in 2020 there was no survey conducted for the 2019-20 school year. The most recent figures for high school sports participation are from the 2018-19 school year. Back in 2018-19, fast-pitch softball was the fourth-most popular high school sport for girls, with 15,877 schools. According to the NFHS, 364,221 student-athletes played high school fast-pitch softball in the U.S., a slight drop from the 369,450 high school fast-pitch softball participants during 2017-18 school year. Of those 364,221 high school fast- pitch softball players, 2,183 were boys. Fast-pitch softball ranks number five in high school participation with 362,038 players. (The largest high school sport for girls – based on the number of participants – is track and field, with 488,267.) The top 10 states for high school fast-pitch softball participation are Texas, California, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Florida and New Jersey. High school baseball is the fourth most popular sport for boys, accord- ing to the NFHS, with 484,024 players. A few of them were girls — 1284 to be exact. Baseball ranked third with 16,170 schools. The top 10 states for high school baseball participation are Texas, California, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, Michigan, New Jersey and Missouri. Boys do not have the exclusive domain when it comes to playing baseball. To cater to the female base- ball player, Baseball for All executive director Justine Siegel reports that in the last 12 months there have been a number of promising developments in the world of girls baseball, includ- ing the creation of eight new girls' baseball teams in Cleveland, Dallas and San Diego. INSIDE THE NUMBERS • TEAM: BASEBALL/SOFTBALL

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