2020 Return to Play Guidelines

On June 5th, 2020 Baseball Alberta released their “Return to Train” guidelines for their member associations. These guidelines in their entirety can be viewed online at the BaseballAlberta.com website at:

http://baseballalberta.com/article/59848

On June 12th, 2020 Softball Alberta released their “Return to Play” guidelines. These guidelines can be viewed using the following links:

Barrhead Minor Ball has reviewed all of the guidelines released to date and determined that the “Return to Train” guidelines are geared more towards high performance athletes and programs, such as those offered at the “AAA” level, where participants are more inclined to pursue skill refinement through solo drills and related activities without actual game play. The BMBA Executive has agreed that such activities are not generally compatible with the expectations of participants in “A” (House League) and “AA” (Competitive) level programs such as those offered in Barrhead.

The “Return to Play” guidelines released by Softball Alberta include game play scenarios and describe activities that are more consistent with the types of programs offered by Barrhead Minor Ball.

In contemplation of a “Return to Play” in Barrhead, a series of surveys will be sent out to our previously registered membership to assess the willingness of participants to return to a restricted model of activity. Decisions with regard to the feasibility of any proposed plan will be made based upon the results of these surveys. Bear in mind that there are many factors that may still affect any return to activities in Barrhead in 2020, from municipal restrictions and facility availability, to changing provincial health directives, to local volunteer resources and community interest. The surveys represent only the first step in what could be a protracted and ultimately futile process, so expectations should be measured accordingly.

Since Baseball Alberta has not yet released Return to Play guidelines, only the softball survey will be sent out initially. This survey will be emailed to all 2020 registrants for softball and T-Ball in Barrhead. Similar surveys for “Baseball – House League ‘A'” and “Baseball – Competitive ‘AA'” will be distributed later to registrants in those programs if and when Return to Play guidelines are released by Baseball Alberta.

Also, please note that independent programs like Adult Slo-Pitch are not part of Minor Ball and are not subject to the same restrictions and liabilities as the youth programs sanctioned by the provincial governing bodies. So when you see the adults out on the diamonds playing ball in the coming weeks, please do not flood Minor Ball with emails asking why we are not doing the same thing.