Camp Verde’s Adult Coed Softball League will not take place in the summer of 2020.
The Town of Camp Verde Parks & Recreation released a statement on its Facebook page on June 15, which said the town “will not be offering an Adult Coed Softball league this year.”
Parks & Recreation Division Manager Mike Marshall said that due to the COVID-19 crisis, the number of inquiries they’ve received about the league has been low. With that, they came to the understanding that canceling was the right decision.
“We’ve been trying to decide and realized we just needed to pull the plug; we need to let people know,” Marshall said. “We have not gotten a lot of people calling and asking. I think people were operating under the assumption that it would be canceled or wouldn’t be comfortable doing it anyway. But we do want to get the word out there.”
He also added that the department was concerned about being able to meet social distancing standards.
“Most recommendations are not doing a lot of competitive play,” he said.
While the ongoing pandemic accounted for a large part of the decision, there were other factors.
Camp Verde’s Parks & Recreation is focusing on other things that require extra attention in the midst of the health situation, Marshall said, adding that having a softball league this year could have potentially spread their small department too thin.
Among the programs being offered by P&R are yoga, spinning and pilates classes. The summer camp has also recently begun. The Cornfest is still on schedule to run on July 18, albeit in a smaller scope than in previous years, more geared toward the local community. Additionally, the Camp Verde Heritage Pool reopened on June 13.
“We’re needing to rework policies and procedures in every aspect of recreation — that’s a lot to do for a small staff in a very short period of time,” Marshall said. “We’re happy that we were able to open the pool. A lot of places haven’t opened yet or won’t at all this season. Same thing with summer camp. It’s something that a lot of parents are looking for as a place to send the kids off to while they have to go to work.”
The statement announcing the cancellation of the softball league also included the hope that the league will resume in the summer of 2021, hopefully at a new location.
“We hope next summer softball will be back and that you will be playing at the new Sports Complex! Thanks for understanding.”
