The DeKalb Youth Baseball season is nearing its opening day and, with some new changes, players will have more prospects for advancement in the season. Even a chance to make it to the World Series.

DeKalb Youth Baseball President Casey Midgett told the Smithville Review that through some reorganization the league will be better than ever. "We're still DeKalb Youth Baseball," Midgett said. "We were part of TYBA, which is Tennessee Youth Baseball Association based out of Murfreesboro. This year we decided to give our kids a better opportunity to advance and to play against better teams. We went to the Babe Ruth League's Cal Ripken Division. We'll be in a district which will be DeKalb, Crossville, Cookeville, Livingston, Jamestown, and Celina. In our senior league we'll also be playing against Lebanon."

Midgett said the league will basically be the same, but will add an older age group as well. "We have four leagues. We have Machine Pitch, which is what the old Coach Pitch League was. It will be for our seven and eight year olds. Then we have Kid Pitch, which is our first level of Minor League. That will be for our nine and 10 year olds. Then we go to Major League, which is 11 and 12 year olds."

"Also, this year we had enough kids that wanted to continue playing, so we have Senior League, which is 13 through 15 year olds. They'll actually play at Joe L. Evins Field. We've had a league for that age group in the past, but we haven't had enough kids to keep it going. This year we had plenty of kids. We're super excited about it. It means that our kids get to keep playing baseball."

According to Midgett the regular season will pretty much be the same, with some changes coming to the tournament season. "Our season will end on May the 23rd. We'll have awards that day and also the all-star teams, from each level, will be picked that day. Those all-stars will be made up of 12 kids that the coaches vote on. They'll start practicing, and June 8, and they'll go to our district tournament, where ever that is. We will be hosting the Minor League tournament, so those kids will play here."

He continued, "There are six teams in our district, except for Senior League which has seven. The top half will go to the State Tournament as part of the Gold State, while the bottom teams will go to the Silver State. So, every team in the district is guaranteed two tournaments. If you make it past the Gold State, you keep on playing, all the way to the World Series if you can make it. It gives our kids more opportunity to advance and gives them a better experience."

Midgett said that in the past DeKalb players would end up playing a lot of travel teams in tournament play. "It was really stacked against us sometimes. We feel this will be a much better fit for us and give our kids a better opportunity to really succeed,”

Midgett said there will be a few minor rule changes. "For instance, instead of Utrip bats, like we've used in the past, we have to use USA branded bats. In league ball we're not going to be real strict on that, because we don't want people to have to go out and buy a new bat for the kids to play baseball here. In district tournaments, we may have to share bats or something. We're trying to keep everybody's expense down. But we do encourage people that when they have to buy a new bat, don't buy the Utrip (USSA) bat, get the USA branded bat."

He said that there will be some growing pains with the reorganization, but that overall it should make a better baseball experience for DeKalb County players. The DeKalb Youth Baseball season opens April 11.