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June 30, 2009

A place to grow: Wabash Valley youth softball gives youngsters chance to develop on, off field

By Craig Pearson

Options are abound for youth softball players in and around Terre Haute hoping to hone their skills, whether it be in a competitive travel-team format or in a get-your-feet-wet recreational league.

The local Miss Softball America Complex is close to wrapping up its 38th year on Terre Haute’s south side, and the Wabash Valley program at 19th and Delaware has been going strong for more than 20 years.

Both leagues are hosts to age-group championship games this week. Board members of both groups agreed the main goal at the two facilities is for girls to have fun playing as much softball as they want to play.

With an indoor facility, the MSA complex can also provide year-round instruction to further develop the talent in Terre Haute.

“Our goal at the ballpark is to get everybody the opportunity to play, and to help kids that want to, find college scholarships,” said MSA vice president Mike Telezyn.

Telezyn said that 17 girls who graduated from MSA programs have gone on to play some level of college softball in the past four years alone.

MSA has had about 500 players per year in recent summers, with the Wabash Valley facility approaching 400.

Wabash Valley president Mark McKinney said his organization has even gone an extra step to allow girls to play.

“We don’t like to see a girl not play softball. We have been known to do what we call a scholarship. We try to limit as much as possible but if a parent can’t pay, we don’t turn a girl away,” McKinney said.

Terre Haute North High School coach Jack Kirchner, a veteran of 14 years at the varsity level, has done clinics with coaches at Wabash Valley in recent years.

“With most of my feeder system coming in at Wabash Valley, I’m there a little more,” he said. “I know both programs, there’s a lot of people that volunteer to make it work.

“Both places have pretty good programs and you can see that as every year the talent gets better and better around here.”

While Wabash Valley chooses All-Star teams after the regular season to travel to Mecca to play Covered Bridge League teams or to Vincennes and other surrounding towns, the MSA has two travel organizations going throughout the summer. The Indiana Terror and the Diamond Edge teams travel all over the Midwest and the Diamond Edge 14U team recently won a state title.

That team included several freshmen that played on Terre Haute South’s 2009 varsity team that won more than 20 games. The Braves had eight key freshman and seven of those played travel ball at MSA.

“It’s become a year round sport for many of the girls, with games and tournaments in the fall and spring,” said Telezyn, also a Terre Haute South varsity assistant coach.

Overall participation, however, hasn’t grown at MSA.

“Overall, it’s been a decline for us,” Telezyn said. “Soccer’s killed softball in this area. The soccer program’s getting huge. There’s more girls playing travel soccer or travel basketball.”

The MSA facility is also host to a high school league in which teams from North Central (Sullivan), Sullivan, Clay City, Turkey Run, South Vermillion, North, South, West Vigo and Paris compete in a seven-week summer season.

MSA’s growth has come in the form of being a tournament host, which can even be a tourism factor for the city. The facility “hosts roughly 13 tournaments per year, bringing in about 2,000 visitors from outside the city every summer, which brings money into the local economy,” Telezyn sad.

“We’re really starting to become a tournament facility. We’re busy every weekend. We had 26 teams here two weekends ago for a 16U tourney and 20 had to stay in hotels.”

The program at Wabash Valley has also raised more than $5,000 with an early June tournament the last two years for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

Both facilities will conduct fall leagues, and Wabash Valley has plans to start a women’s fastpitch league, McKinney said.

“We’ve had some former youth players come to us and say they’d like to play again,” McKinney said. “We’re taking registration now and we’re tentatively scheduled to start July 25.”

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