Softball Tourney Brings Large Crowds

Lewis County Memorial Park played host to AYSA Fastpitch Softball on Saturday, June 6th, with games beginning at 8:00 Saturday morning. The June Jam brought 15 teams from Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Southern Kentucky to Hohenwald to compete in 3 age divisions in games that played well into the night before champions were crowned. Teams winning tournament titles for the weekend were the Tennessee Bomb Squad '07 of Spring Hill in the 12U division, Knights 14U Platinum of Nashville in the 14U division, and the Nashville Cruisers 2020 in the High School division.

"We have been wanting to come to (Lewis County) to host tournaments for a couple of years now," AYSA Fastpitch tournament director Jason Baskins explained. "From a location standpoint, it is a central place and can be used for multiple divisions, especially on weekends we play other divisions in a nearby place, like Waynesboro." Baskins, who resides in North Alabama, said the weekend tournament went very smoothly and he is excited at the prospect of multiple events in Memorial Park in the future.

"We really would like to utilize Memorial Park in a consistent rotation for our travel tournaments," he continued. "The fields were in great shape, and we had a great turnout both in number of teams and in spectators. There are some areas that I feel could be improved on with the amenities of the facility, but overall it was a good experience and we will be coming back." When asked about the areas he felt needed attention to improve the experience and help attract more tournaments and events in the future, Baskins explained "one of the areas we get the most negative feedback from with parents at our tournaments are amenities like restrooms and areas for officials to break and change. This weekend was much of the same. With just some attention to some small details I think improvements could be made."

The crowds were quite large for the tournament, and procedures and guidelines were put in place by the tournament organizers to keep COVID-19 suggestions in mind during the event. Teams were given instructions on spacing of tents and team areas for down time, which was evident with pop-up tents and canopy tents that spanned from the north gate on Forrest Avenue through the park to the front gate area on Smith Street. Teams and spectators were also directed to flow directly to and from fields and bleacher areas, while a majority of the spectators were spaced along the fences of the fields. The Burris family from Haleyville, Alabama was in the park bright and early to support their granddaughters playing during the day. "We left home at about 5:00 this morning to be here for the tournament. We had never in our life heard of Hohenwald, Tennessee, but it was a nice drive up," said Mr. Burris. The couple said they follow their grandchildren all over during travel ball seasons. "We were not sure what to expect when we got here because we didn't know (the girls) were playing this weekend. This is our third weekend playing (during the pandemic), and the way the directors laid out the bracket and spread out the teams was really impressive. We are able to sit with our teams under tents spread away from others so I guess you could say we are social distancing but still able to enjoy beautiful weather watching these kids."

The economic impact of the tournament could be noticed locally as well. Restaurants in town could definitely feel the influx of out-of-town guests as drive-thru lines wrapped around the buildings of our local fast food restaurants multiple times through the day. Local restaurateur Mandy Weigel, owner and proprietor of the Junkyard Dog Steakhouse saw an uptick in business and saw some of the impact of the tournament. "Business was great!" she exclaimed. "We got a few tables from the tourney and had lots of out of town business. I think people are just ready to get out and socialize again." She added that "everyone was very appreciative of the food this weekend. These have been hard times in the restaurant business as we took a massive loss in March and April, down about 80%. But I see it rebounding."

Lewis County Mayor Jonah Keltner, who has a daughterwho plays for a team comprised of girls from Hohenwald, Lawrenceburg, and Waynesboro that competed in the June Jam, was excited to see how well the tournament went on Saturday. "The park was rocking early, as crowds had amassed by 9:00 in the morning," Keltner said. "Throughout the day crowds moved in and out of the park and to and from the fields consistently. It was just an overall great day of softball.