Wednesday, May 27th.

I hope that everyone is doing fine and staying healthy. There has been a couple of changes since my last post on May 13th. Here is what I know right now. 

The City of Winter Haven updated their website on May 21, 2020 and it still shows that the Diamondplex will be open for playing ball on Friday, June 12th. They are calling this the Phase 5 opening and are limiting the attendance to less than 50 persons. Not sure how that effects our softball league but I will be looking for more detail as the time gets closer. 

Polk County updated their website today and they are going to open up their ball fields on Monday, June 8th. If you want to go to a County ballpark and have batting practice, you will be allowed to do so. You will need to adhere to the CDC guidelines and social distancing requirements.

The City of Lakeland website still shows they are going to wait on the governors Phase 2 plan to be announced before they open up their ball parks. This may change anytime.

There are a lot of rules that we will have to comply with when we start playing softball again. I have seen the rules put out by USSSA, FHC and Don Lamay sent me a copy of the rules that they are going to use in Michigan. Softball will not be the same as it was in March when we left Poinciana. I am sure that Winter Haven Park and Recreation will have some rules for us to follow.  As soon as I know what they are proposing, we will have a Board meeting to discus how we are going to implement these rules and what additional rules that the Board may want to enforce. 

That's all for now. Stay Safe, Wash Your Hands, Practice Social Distancing, Wear a Mask in Public and if you are sick, stay home.  

Don Witmer, Commissioner

Winter Haven Senior Softball

NEWS FROM THE COMMMISSIONER - MAY 13,2020

I  hope everyone is healthy and doing okay. I don't have any good news to tell everyone but I haven't posted anything in a while so I though I had better let you know what I know concerning the opening of the Diamondplex and others.

After the April 27, 2020 City Commission meeting, the City of Winter Haven posted on their website that the DiamondPlex is going to open on May 29th. I got excited and called Cameron Stevens and asked if we could start having pickup games for our league that day. As usual, when you are dealing with the government, what they said is not what they meant. Cameron says their will be no league or pickup softball at the DiamondPlex until at least June 12th. At that time they will make a decision as to how the structure of the league will be handled. This will include the number of players allowed in the dugout, rather or not spectators will be allowed and how they will deal with social distancing. When I hear more, I will let you know.

Polk County announced they were going to open their parks on May 1st. So, I called the parks and recreation department to find out what that meant. Disappointed again. The parks are open but the softball fields remain closed. They could not tell me when they would be open again for playing softball.

The City of Lakeland has started opening up some of their parks. So, I called the parks and recreation department to find out what that meant. Disappointed again. No softball fields are open. They anticipate opening the ball fields when the Governor opens up Phase 2 for the rest of the state. The date of the Governors Phase 2 has not been announced yet.

We are not alone in this lack of softball being played. Florida Half Century had to cancel their
June 6th-7th 60's tournament scheduled for Polk County. Hillsborough County has not opened their fields yet.

There is good news. Bot Hite has been very active with our Facebook page. If you have not joined the growing number of our members on Facebook, send Bob a Facebook request and he will let you join. Good Job Bob Hite.

Stay Healthy. Wash Your Hands, Practice Social Distancing, Wear a Face Mask in Public, Avoid Crowds and stay away from anyone that you know is sick.

Don Witmer, Commissioner
Winter Haven Senior Softball