• Rockville Community,
  
  As COVID-19 cases continue to rise across the country, and in our own state and community, we hope this email finds all of you safe and healthy. Our thoughts and prayers are with anyone that has been seriously impacted by these events.  As we continue to navigate this new landscape, we are all looking forward to getting back to what we all love.  For most of us at Rockville, this involves baseball and/or softball! 
  
  Over the weekend, Babe Ruth League officials met at both the state and national levels.  Ultimately, the league continues to take a wait and see approach, offering guidance to the local leagues to align their plans with recommendation of local and state agencies.   With this in mind, we wanted to offer you an update on the status for league play at Rockville.  We would like to give the kids a chance to get out on the fields as soon as possible and return to some level of normalcy as soon as possible.  Gov. Northam has suspended all groupings of people of 10 or more until at least June 10, as a result, local athletic complexes such as Rockville School Park are closed and unavailable until after that date.  Therefore, we will be moving our spring season into the summer months if local, state, and federal guidelines allow us to get back on the fields.  We realize this is a change from our normal spring dates and you may have some questions.  We have tried to anticipate some of those questions below:
  
  Question:  What are the dates of the revised summer season? 
  Answer: Specific team schedules are being finalized, but anticipation is to begin team activities June 11. We will have practices for a few weeks and then play 10 regular season games per team. We will complete the season with a post season tournament for each division in early August.  Cross-organization games against some of our friends in neighboring associations may also be included in the game schedule!   
   
  Question: Do we need to re-register?
  Answer:  No.  We are merely restarting a suspended season and our plan is for all team/division assignments to remain unchanged from when we suspended activities in mid-March.
   
  Question:  My player will miss time during the revised season due to planned vacations/trips.  Is that OK?
  Answer: Yes, we understand your schedules may be different during the summer.  As always, we ask that you communicate any dates when your player will be absent with your manager. 
  
  Question:  Will I need anything different or additional regarding equipment of uniforms? 
  Answer:  No, you can use all the same equipment you planned to use in the spring.  Most coaches have already received their team’s uniforms.  These are all still good for the summer season. 
  
  Questions:  Will the summer season interfere with the All-Star season that typically occurs in the summer?
  Answer:  At the moment, Babe Ruth has not offered any guidance on the summer All-Star schedule.  They have elected to continue to monitor the environment, as opposed to making any premature decisions.  We will communicate any plans in respect to All-Stars, once we get more clarity from Babe Ruth League.
  
  Question: The new schedule doesn’t work for our family.  What can I do?
  Answer:  We certainly hope you will stick with us and participate in the league, as we think we will be able to have a lot of fun this summer.  However, we understand if you need to withdraw.  Please note that we are a non-profit organization and rely completely on the registrations, concessions, sponsors and volunteers to operate, and the expense for baseball and softball were heavily front –end loaded with uniforms, hats, field maintenance, field equipment, insurance, etc.  With that said, we are working on a refund policy to include three options in the event you are unable to participate in our summer season:

• You will be able to offer your registration fee as a donation to the WRYA.  As a non-profit organization, we can offer you a receipt that can be used as a deduction when you file taxes.

• We can roll your registration fees over by crediting your account, which can then be applied to a future season such as fall ball, basketball in the winter, or next spring. (We are still determining the rollover %)
• We can issue you a refund minus expenses already paid for this season. (We are still determining the refund %)

If you will be unable to join us in the summer, please email:

Rockville Baseball

Rockville Softball

As we work through more of the specifics or as we get any additional information, we will keep you updated.  Thank you for your continued patience as we work to ensure our kids have a chance to get out on the fields and play this season.  As always, please let us know of any questions.
 

Baseball Commissioner

Steve Rhyne

Softball Commissioners

Paul Coates

Bonnie Rightnour