Team Insight

The major baseball and softball associations provide insight into how their sports are playing in 2022. By Mike May BASEBALL/SOFTBALL STATE OF AMERICA'S GAMES The High School Baseball Scene Interest in high school baseball in the U.S. is strong and established and is great shape, according to Elliot Hopkins, director of sports, sanctioning and student services at National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). "We began this baseball season with just a few rule changes and the promise of new programs emerging in different pockets of the country." e primary big-picture goal of high school baseball is to keep all players free of injury. "Safety and risk-minimization are always at the forefront of the start of each season," says Hopkins, and product innovation has not only helped propel interest in high school baseball, but made the game safer as well. "Technology is always in the discussion when you talk about baseball," says Hopkins. "The equipment is always improving and the creativity of new prod- ucts to improve the performance of today's high school players is astonishing. "With the introduction of new and innovative equipment, we have to maintain the balance between technology and skill," he adds. "When the technology assists in improving the skill of the player, then we have an ideal balance." The future of high school baseball in the U.S. is tracking in the right direction. "We are very optimistic that interscholastic baseball will continue to thrive," Hopkins adds. The High School Softball Scene In that same vein, girls' high school fast-pitch soball is back on the sports scene aer the 2020 and 2021 seasons were mostly a washout. While not completely back to pre-pandemic levels, so- ball is certainly trending in the right direction. "State associations are es- timating high school softball participation numbers to be near pre-pandemic levels," reports Sandy Searcy, NFHS director of sports. "Varied levels of par- ticipation occurred across the country over the last two years, but we are optimistic for increases in players taking part in high school soball in 2022." While fast-pitch soball players and their coaches and parents are happy to be back on the diamond, the one group in the softball family that has not returned in large numbers is the all-important umpire. "e number of umpires re- mains low, causing contests to be cancelled across the country," Searcy laments. Unfortunately, fast-pitch soball is not the only high school sport that has been impacted by the decline of game officials, referees and umpires. "A survey of state high school associations indicates that ap- proximately 50,000 individuals in all NFHS sports have discontin- ued their service as high school (sports) officials since the 2018- 19 season — the last full school year unaffected by the pandemic," Searcy reports, adding that while there are several contributing factors to this sizeable decline, such as the age-old problem of unsportsmanlike behavior by stu- dents, coaches, parents and other fans, one of the latest challenges is related to the pandemic. The Youth Baseball Scene At the younger levels, it remains too early to know if participation levels are back to pre-pandemic levels. "Although we won't have our participation data for this season until the end of the year, we have seen many of our local leagues returning to the field for the 2022 season," reports Stephen Keener, president and CEO of Little League Baseball in Williamsport, PA. While he understands that some leagues are still recovering from the impact of the pandemic, he is pleased to see the number of leagues that were able to return to the field for the 2022 season. Because of the pandemic, the business of conducting Little League Baseball has changed. And some of those changes will remain, moving forward. "Like many other organiza- tions, Little League International embraced the use of technology throughout the pandemic to help communicate and educate its volunteers around the world and plans to continue to use that technology to enhance those ef- forts in the future," says Keener. Meanwhile, on the field, oppor- tunities such as the Sandlot Fun Days Program (LittleLeague.org/ SandlotFunDays) now provide 18 • Team Insight ~ July/August 2022 teaminsightmag.com At all levels of play baseball and fast-pitch softball remain an integral part of the youth sporting scene in America. Sure, they all face their challenges in participation and product availability, but the bottom line for team dealers' bottom line is that kids of all ages are playing ball. Photos left to right by Caleb Mullins, Rachel Barkdoll, Keith Johnston on Unsplash

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