NEWBERRY – The 16-field, state-of-the-art youth baseball tournament facility was designed to boost tourism and bring out-of-town families to Newberry.
But the first scheduled season of tournaments hasn’t gone as planned for some teams.
Nations Park, 25325 SW 15th Ave., originally booked five weeks of youth baseball tournaments. But recently, the facility announced it would condense all of the scheduled tournaments into one week in July.
Bobby Holland, a general manager of Ripken Baseball — a youth tournament organizer in South Carolina — said he received complaints from people who planned to attend the Newberry tournament. They came to him looking for other options.
The schedule change was announced via email, he said, without an explanation. He said most people plan for a travel-ball tournament nearly a year in advance, and last-minute scheduling changes can cause teams to cancel.
“I feel bad for them – for the kids especially,” he said. “It’s something you look forward to all year.”
Wayne Gomes, owner of Virginia Baseball Academy, was one of them.
Gomes said he had planned to bring a team of 12 boys plus their families to Newberry for the week. But when he heard about the schedule change, he said they had to withdraw.
“We’ve set these plans for six months, and now they’re telling us its not going to happen,” he said. “Parents are upset about it. We’re disappointed. It was going to be our summer vacation.”
Gomes said they decided to pull out of the Newberry tournament because canceling hotel reservations and flights and changing work schedules on short notice would not be feasible for the dozen families involved.
“They can’t just take off work,” he said, noting that many extended family members had planned to accompany the players.
In lieu of the Newberry tournament, Gomes said his team struggled to squeeze into another tournament and eventually found an opening in another state.
“We’re still stuck with some plane tickets that we can’t do anything about,” he said.
Jules Johnson, a baseball operations manager at the park, said the schedule switch was designed to give management time to improve minor aspects of the park.
“We have some infrastructure things that we’re taking care of,” he said.
Johnson noted that most participants made the switch with no problems.
“We’re going to have one big shebang,” he said. “So far, the response has been great. We’re really fortunate.”
However, he said he didn’t know how exactly many teams were rescheduled over the four-week period.
Mike Spina Jr., director of the Newberry-based Elite Pro Ball Academy, emphasized that the work being done on the fields is minimal.
“They’ve got a couple things they’re working on before … they let kids play on the fields,” said Spina, a former Atlanta Braves first baseman who was instrumental in bringing Nations Park to Newberry. “It’s nothing serious – just some irrigation.”
He said the park’s goal is to optimize the facilities to not disappoint travelers.
“They’re trying to make these premier fields,” he said. “They don’t want to let people down. They want the grass as green as possible.”
Although park management was professional and polite in handling the situation, Gomes said, perhaps the scheduling incident shows the new park was unprepared for the beginning of the season.
“I just wasn’t willing to take that chance,” he said. “Maybe next year.”
Contact Kelcee Griffis at kgriffis@alligator.org.
