Batter Up

Yesterday at noon, the Tri Valley Girls Softball League opened their season, with Mayor Bill Fulton throwing out the first pitch. The ceremonies took place under scattered clouds at the Ventura College softball fields, on the Telegraph Road side of campus.

With spring around the corner, there will be lots of opening days for baseball and soccer and lots of eager kids and proud parents looking forward to them. What makes Tri Valley special?

The volunteers that run the league will tell you, of course, that it offers girls a fantastic "opportunity to understand and respect the rules of the game and a chance to expose players to a varied group of teams while providing a fun and competitive setting." The emphasis is on comaraderie and love of the game instead of competition, with the goal that every girl will have an enjoyable experience.

Yes, but isn't that pretty much the same message as Little League, Pony League, AYSO and other youth sports programs?

Each have their boosters -- and all are worthwhile. But what perhaps makes this opening day special is that it almost didn't happen. And that's a story about the times we live in.

Like pretty much every other youth sports league, Tri Valley survives year to year on volunteer power that tries to keep participant costs low. They've been playing for years at Ventura College, under an agreement where they helped build the fields in exchange for a nominal rent.

That's how things were done years ago and nobody much worried about "budgets." But when colleges and school districts and city parks departments are slashing budgets, these "grandfather" deals are getting scrutinized. Ventura College is no exception. Their mandate is to offer postsecondary education, not ball fields for youth sports. As a result, the rent Tri Valley was paying went from next to nothing to a flat rate of $3000 a year. Cheap rent compared to what the college would charge you if you started a new League today -- but a big jump in costs for the Tri Valley parent volunteers to raise.

Then, as budgets worsened, the College notified the League that they'd have to start paying the going rate every time for renting fields. Depending on exactly how much they used the fields for practice and games, that could cost more than ten times what they were paying. Ouch.

League President Tracey Warriner understood the jam the College finds itself in. So she approached the City to ask us to find room. After all, we still have some $1 a year deals with Little League organizations. If the (mostly) boy Little Leagues could have that kind of deal, why not Tri Valley?

There it got sticky. Not all the Little Leagues have cut-rate deals -- only ones that helped build their fields in the first place, like the deal Tri Valley had with the College. And we didn't have enough spare fields to simply sign over to Tri Valley, although we offered to accommodate them as best as possible. On the other hand, the League's deal with the College was originally brokered and administered by the City -- so Warriner asked, why isn't Tri Valley "grandfathered" too?

If Warriner and her fellow parent volunteers had thrown in the towel, Tri Valley would have folded. But if they insisted on forcing the issue with the City, we'd all be looking at engaging lawyers for a messy sports gender discrimination lawsuit. Fortunately for the more than 300 girls suiting up for Sunday's opening ceremony, everybody worked together on a solution.

The heroes were Dr. Robin Colote, Ventura College President, and Tim Harrison, Dean of Physical Education, Health & Athletics. They agreed to a one-year extension with a rent increase that Tri Valley could afford. Even though the College find themselves under excruciating budget challenges, they stretched for a win-win. So did Tri Valley. The deal is only for this season though. Budget problems aren't going away for the College, the City or Tri Valley. Next year could be worse all around. But at least this year, the girls will take the field for a season of memories playing a timeless game.

So when the Tri Valley T Ballers lined up to sing the Star Spangled Banner, it wasn't just the parents and the grandparents with a tear in their eye and a little catch in their throat. In these tough times, even something as All American as the great game of softball can't be taken for granted. It turns out, it takes more than coaches, players and parents to put on a season. It takes teamwork from a City government and a College administration as well.

Play ball!