[jerryv]

Is Villages Neighborhood Softball loosing their focus.

After reading this, what's your opinion?

I was in Spanish Springs when one of the Villages residents and constituents approached me with a problem/concern. His problem has to do with a new procedure that the Recreation Department will be enforcing within the softball program in The Villages. I told him being supervisor of District 7 his problem does not fall within my legal scope of responsibility and all I can do is give him suggestions and my opinion.

After thinking about his problem last night and seeing how upset he was about this problem I figured morally I can do something. Basically, his problem is that he has been playing softball for the last 5 years on the same team with the same players in the neighborhood league. He was told starting next season he can no longer play on his present neighborhood team. The reason why is not very clear, it seems that representatives from his league is blaming the recreation department and he is devastated that he cannot play with his friends because of this decision.

The Villages softball league is made up of 2 leagues, one the recreation league and the other is called the neighborhood league. The recreation league is much more competitive than the neighborhood league, they play twice a week, they have drafts every year which means it's very unusual that one player would stay on the same team more than one year. Within these 2 leagues they are broken down into 5 divisions. Where #1 division is the players that have the most ability and division 5 having the least ability. This is done because of safety reasons. And rules do vary from division to division because of players abilities.

In the neighborhood league they have division 3 which all players that are rated 3 will play in that division. Players rated 4/5 play in their separate division. The Villages wants to take players that are rated 5 from the 4/5 division and put them in a separate division by themselves. At first it doesn't sound so devastating but after speaking to this resident he was very upset, now he cannot play with his friends and neighbors that he has been playing with for the last 5 years or more.

In my opinion, that is the difference between the recreation league and the neighborhood league. The neighborhood league gave the residents an option to play with residents in his same neighborhood that is why it was called the neighborhood league. After speaking to this resident I asked him what is the purpose why the Villages is doing this he said no one really knew.


I was trying to justify why they are doing this and the only logical reason or excuse would be health and safety which I feel definitely does not apply. Especially in the light of a rule change that they just implemented this year. That change was if you played in division 4/5 you would have what they called the run by rule, the run by rule eliminated anybody running into another player while running to a next base. This rule was eliminated.

It's not just this one player that is upset, he has established a petition that has over 150 names. My goal in writing this email is to make residents aware and especially those residents that participate in Villages team sports. "The goal to any team sport, especially the Villages softball neighborhood league, is about camaraderie and basically just having fun." In my opinion, there is a very easy solution to this, "just grandfather in the people that have been on the same team for years".