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Inside Pitch: What I’m Hearing in Softball as COVID-19 Pandemic Continues to Wreak Havoc

With all that’s happening with the Coronavirus, players like Kaylyn Belfield of the Stars National (sliding), are having to make adjustments on the fly in regards to events to be seen and evaluated as part of the recruiting process.

Can 2020 just end now? I mean… c’mon.

The Coronavirus continues to be the Story of the Year as Florida had 15,000 new cases on Saturday.

For those who didn’t follow the news this weekend (and that’s probably a good thing for mental health), Florida shattered the U.S. record for new single day COVID-19 cases on Saturday with over 15,000, PGF Nationals were cancelled for Week 1 (the 18U and 16U age divisions plus the PGF High School All-American Game) and John Travolta’s wife, Kelly Preston, died Sunday of breast cancer.

On the personal front, my family is quarantined for the next week as we found out that a family member has COVID-19 and a member of her family was hospitalized with the Coronavirus (fortunately, my wife’s daughter was tested and confirmed negative, and my wife and I are waiting test results which should come mid-week). For what it’s worth, we aren’t showing any symptoms and feel fine.

Sigh.

OK, let’s get back to the softball and sports world, shall we?

Fortunately, there’s a lot of good softball being played right now across the country in the club space and there’s more to come. That’s the good news.

The bad news is there’s so much uncertainty and change going on, that you have to be alert daily as things are so unpredictable.

Here are my thoughts on what we’re hearing:

*****

Dead Period News

For the last month we’ve been hearing that the worst-case scenario is that the fall will be pretty much cancelled just like much of the summer was.

Recruiting in 2020 for college coaches may end up being primarily through live streaming.

In Oklahoma City at Top Club National last month, several coaches told me that they were hearing that the recruiting Dead Period could be postponed to January 1, 2021. That situation seems to be picking up steam, which would mean the Fall showcases will be like this summer: a lot of Virtual Recruiting going on.

Meren Angus of Softball America tweeted hour yesterday that “the NFCA is contacting conferences to push for an extension of the dead period to Jan. 1, 2020 and contact period for 2022’s to July 1, 2021. There are other options on the table but this is the one most are talking about.”

And one good source told me that the Dead Period might be extended through March with Signing Day being pushed to April (normally February).

*** Scroll down to read more about what’s happening in the college and club scenes…

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