By Ed Letsinger 

It’s a warm, clear day at Tichenor Middle School as Lloyd Memorial and Newport slow-pitch softball players take to the field under beautiful, blue skies.  Roughly 25 fans settle in as spirited chants from both teams slowly start to drift out from the dugouts.  Newport’s lead-off hitter cracks a triple to right-center field and it is game on for the Lady Wildcats and Lady Juggernauts.

Sadly, it’s a scene that may not be played out in the future as the sport of slow-pitch continues to battle adversity; with its mere existence in real jeopardy.

It’s a complex yet compelling story that has left area coaches and players upset and a governing state Association dealing with a tenuous situation that ultimately seems to be a lose-lose situation for all parties involved.

Last year, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) declared that they would only sponsor a state championship tournament for slow-pitch through 2007.  Which means that after ’07 the 19 schools that currently offer the sport are essentially on their own if they want to continue to offer it.  It was a decision that was not made lightly.

“There was a lot of time and effort put into this sport but at some point you have to make a decision.  Our board made the decision last year that we just could not keep sponsoring a state championship in a sport that does not have a lot of participation,” explains KHSAA Assistant Commissioner Roland Williams, who oversees slow-pitch softball along with three other sports.

Slow-pitch does not meet a KHSAA bylaw that states that at least 20 percent of the schools in the Association initially have to participate in a sport to have a state-sponsored tournament and then maintain a 15 percent participation level.

“The Association isn’t saying that you can’t play anymore and that’s not our intent … but there are rules and regulations that we have to adhere to and it’s just not financially feasible.  We’re all about the kids … we want to make certain that we continue to offer opportunities for our female student-athletes and we are very sensitive to Title IX issues and don’t want any misconceptions,” adds Williams.

The biggest culprit, according to Williams, is the increasing costs of insurance that the KHSAA has incurred over the past few years.  Costs have increased over 100 percent from two years ago forcing the Association to concentrate even more on keeping their state-sponsored championship sports at a manageable level.  To help defray some of those costs, ticket prices were raised by $1 for post-season soccer, football and basketball but financial pressures will likely remain for the KHSAA if it wants to continue to offer the best or as Williams calls it “the Cadillac version” policy it has in place which includes catastrophic coverage.

But without the umbrella of the KHSAA, the financial strain increases significantly for the 19 schools offering slow-pitch.  Ultimately, the onus will be on the respective administrations to take out their own insurance policies and one logical conclusion is that many won’t want to incur such high costs, especially for a low revenue-generating sport – thus the sport will be eliminated.

“I think it’s very unfortunate and unfair that a sport that these girls love to play is being taken away from them,” says Newport head coach Cindy Haas.  “I’m not very happy and I know that nobody likes this.”  Adds Lloyd head coach Marty Lenhoff:  “I think there should be as many opportunities for kids as possible.  Now you’re going to have about 500 girls who won’t be playing anything.”

The one option and theory is that girls can just simply play fast-pitch, which was introduced in Kentucky during the 1994-95 school year.  Now 255 schools participate in the sport statewide, according to Williams.

The KHSAA is already trying to move slow-pitch teams in that direction this year, mandating that they have to play at least 10 fast-pitch games in order to qualify for the slow-pitch state tournament.  Several teams, including Lloyd and Newport, scheduled those games early in the season mainly against other slow-pitch playing schools to get it out of the way so they could focus on slow-pitch.  Both Lloyd and Newport experienced mild success, compiling records of 7-4 and 8-5, respectively.  Perennial slow-pitch power Newport Central Catholic just quit offering slow-pitch period this year, deciding to focus solely on fast-pitch.  Less fortunate schools like Covington Latin did not even have enough players to field a fast-pitch team, thus eliminating them from the slow-pitch post-season.

Being forced to play fast-pitch has not resonated well with most slow-pitch players.  “I’ve been playing slow-pitch since I was 6 and for Lloyd since seventh grade and I don’t think it’s right,” says frustrated Lloyd sophomore Kayla Brinkman.  “Slow-pitch is more fun than fast-pitch and when we played (the fast-pitch games) we hated it.  Everyone just got aggravated because it’s such a pitcher-catcher game and everyone else just stood around.  You’re just going to end up losing a lot of those girls because they just don’t like fast-pitch.”  Adds Haas:  “They’re just two totally different sports.  “I have 20 girls on my team and I would say maybe five would play fast-pitch.”

There is no simple solution at this point.  Lenhoff and Haas both say that different proposals have been sent to the KHSAA to keep the sport alive, like offering one sport in the fall and one in the spring to avoid overlap.  “We’re trying to do everything we can to appease them,” says Lenhoff.  “We’re trying every avenue we can.”

Unfortunately in the end it looks like it’s the slow-pitch girls who will end up paying the biggest price, especially the sophomores and underclassmen under them who will be most affected by the 2007 deadline.

“Even though I love the game so much, I grew up playing slow-pitch and I don’t think I’ll play fast-pitch,” says Brinkman.  “Now you’re going to have all these girls sitting around at home and maybe getting into stuff they shouldn’t be getting into.  It’s just not right … why take it away from us?”

Schools That Are Still Playing Slow-Pitch

Augusta

Silver Grove

Dayton

Bellevue

Campbell County

Calvary Christian

Newport

Scott

Covington Latin

Villa Madonna

Holy Cross

Beechwood

Ludlow

Holmes

Grant County

Heritage

Lloyd Memorial

Dixie Heights

Simon Kenton

State Tournament Schedule

Saturday, May 20, Rivershore Complex, Hebron, Ky.