From the Dugout - April 29

April 1, 2020

By Terry Hennessy
SSUSA CEO

The next few weeks will be critical for restarting our sport.

We have been laying the groundwork at Senior Softball USA for more than six weeks, talking with city officials and field coordinators and medical experts about the best ways to start playing again during the pandemic.

Those efforts culminated Tuesday in a conference call with 38 directors, staff, umpires-in-chief and a medical professional to hash out initial recommendations and rules to get back playing as soon as possible in the safest way.

The recommendations and rules are listed in this Newsletter.

It is important to remember that these rules and recommendations almost certainly will be modified after we actually start playing and find out what works best.

Our primary concern is starting the sport in the safest way possible.  It is also essential to send state and local health departments, city officials and field officials these recommendations so that they know we have a plan to safely start the sport.

The reason?

It will be up to them to determine which phase of re-opening their states, cities and fields we fall under. The better our plan, the sooner we will be allowed to take the field and play.

We also understand that some people do not agree with any regulations restricting their activities. However, in a pandemic we feel our responsibility is to the people who gather to play and watch our sport.  Therefore, we are asking that anyone who does not accept these rules and regulations to stay away from the fields until the pandemic danger passes.

We will be updating you as soon as we get solid information from any of the tournament sites.

Meanwhile, in next week’s newsletter look for information on the face shields we are developing and the masks and gators we will be offering players and officials.

We hope – as I’m sure everyone hopes – that the danger will pass soon and we can get back to normal life.  It may take a while, but at least in the meantime we will be able to play softball, see our friends and get out of the house!

Terry Hennessy is chief executive officer of Senior Softball USA and can be reached at terryh@seniorsoftball.com.