Washington County, TN BOE considering consolidating middle school baseball, softball teams

JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) — The Washington County, Tennessee Board of Education discussed consolidating middle school baseball and softball programs during a meeting Tuesday night.

One of the proposals would involve consolidating teams from the county’s northside and southside schools. The northside team would consist of Gray, Boones Creek, Sulphur Springs, Ridgeview and Fall Branch. The southside team would consist of Grandview and Jonesborough as well as Lamar, West View and South Central.

No action was taken during the meeting, but board members heard several options for solutions to the root of the problem: having a lack of umpires.

There are 10 middle school and K-8 schools in the county that have baseball and softball teams. A national shortage of umpires has made it difficult to continue providing officials for all the games.

“We need to have a push to recruit umpires to the game,” said Ben Bales, the parent of a Sulphur Springs student who plays baseball. “There’s varying organizations that have umpires. There’s varying leagues within the Northeast Tennessee community. There’s travel ball, and then there’s the school league. So there’s a lot of umpires out there. We just need to recruit more and utilize the talent we have in the area.”

Bales said he would like the current teams to stay the same.

“There’s a lot of value in the small school, in the small community, and people are passionate about supporting the schools in their communities,” Bales said. “We’ve lived in a lot of places, been to a lot of schools: charter schools, private schools, public schools. And Washington County has a really good thing going here, and I’d hate to see anything negatively impact that.”

Several options were presented to the board, including Saturday games, doubleheaders, and introducing a new “farm system.” Consolidating the teams is another option.

Washington County Schools Superintendent Jerry Boyd said many parents do not want any team changes.

“So we’re going to continue to find the best option, the one that we believe, number one, will provide the opportunities to the young people in our middle school programs, but also maintain a level of quality,” Boyd said.

Boyd also said part of the umpire shortage comes from the way they are treated.

“We encourage people that feel like they can do it to step up and do it. But we also support them because it’s not an easy job for anyone to do so, you know, number one, manage a game as an official, but also manage the spectators.”

The board encourages public feedback. There should be an opportunity for community members to speak at the July school board meeting.

Boyd said they hope to make a final decision in August.

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