The resurgence of Winamac’s Little League program, along with the success of Winamac High School’s softball team, have led to scheduling headaches at the Town Park. Waylon Burke with the Pulaski County Little League told the Winamac Park Board Monday the league has grown a lot over the past three years, with participation reaching levels not seen since 25 years ago.
The problem, he says, is scheduling 17 Little League teams to play 12 games in a six-week season, while the high school has priority. Burke explained that he spent three hours putting together a schedule for the 8U level, only to find out afterwards that the school keeps a master schedule in a shared Google Document. He said he’d like school officials to keep the other leagues informed about rain make-up games.
Park board member Jon Chapman recommended that Burke try to discuss the issue with Eastern Pulaski Athletic Director Bill Ball, before asking the park board to step in. “As you probably know, he’s already got games scheduled for the next two and maybe three years, but he’s a reasonable guy and he’d be the last person who would want your program, after you’ve done so well with it, to have it be troubled,” Chapman said. “I see us more as, we keep the facilities going. We haven’t been the experts on the schedule. I think the more that we’re out of that scheduling loop, the better off you’re going to be.”
Board member Chris Schramm added that the goal is to see the park used as much as possible. “You know, it’s kind of a double-edged sword because we want that park used every single day if we could,” he said. “That’s what I want to see. I love to hear there’s 200 people down there. So I don’t really want to discourage the school from using it, too, but what’s fair is fair. I want to see those kids down there. I didn’t realize your season got over with June 2. My gosh, when I played, we played ’till like August. But I know there’s other things going on. I think I’m in favor of the master schedule thing. I just didn’t know we had one.”
Burke agreed to contact Ball to try to set up a meeting.
