Some parents with children in the Pace Athletic Recreation Association T-Ball League received a text message saying the season had been cancelled and the teams would not finish out the season.
"There were two games that didn't get played," said Scot Thomas, Vice President of Operations for PARA. "I believe it was the coaches decision."
The parents knew of the change, but were left wondering why the season was cancelled with such short notice.
"The parents didn't know that the communication wasn't the best," Thomas said. "A lot of the times, a head coach sends a text out to the parents. A lot of people don't have the same people skills. We have coaching classes on that to build skills."
Thomas said that the season had already been running behind schedule, driven by bouts of rain since the season began opening nigh March 9. Rain is typically the main cause of any delays during the calendar year, according to Thomas.
However, this year, there have been additional difficulties. Adverse events had struck PARA throughout the season. The organization had suffered several deaths within different leagues of the organization.
"Unfortunately, we lost two parents this year," Thomas said. "We lost the parent of a T -Ball player. We kind of had to give the teams extra time and space to deal with the situation."
The PARA organization suffered again with the loss of a four-year-old pre-T-Ball player that drowned in Cantonment early May.
"We definitely have a tight-knit community," Thomas said. "We have a lot of committed people in the ball park. We want to see people get involved."
The Vice President said he was more than welcome to address any concerns.
Information:
The Pace Athletic Recreation Association is a youth-sports association with programs ranging from football, baseball, softball, cheerleading and adult kickball. They run programs out of two main complexes.
PARA utilizes the 16 fields at the Santa Rosa Sports Plex at 5976 Chumuckla Highway, just north of Five Points and the fields at the Pace Area Recreation Park at 3536 Limbaugh Lane, close to the intersection of Highway 90 and Woodbine Road.
The organization is in the process of setting up an adult softball league. They are also gauging interest in a Lacrosse league for five to 14-year-old range.
For more information, visit parayouthsports.com.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: PARA t-ball Season Ends Early