Your spot for news and information on Ellettsville Youth Sports

In this edition of EYS This Week

• Eclipse Weekend allowed us to work on fields
• Concession volunteers needed
• Rough weather ahead
• First photo day is this week at Ellettsville Christian Church

EYS families,

It’s finally game week!

The feared influx of visitors to the area for Eclipse Weekend didn’t quite materialize as predicted, and a fantastic weekend of weather was wasted with the EYS Complex empty of players. After last week’s rain, it would have been great to have the kids get a chance to work, but local officials advised us not to host large gatherings in case we were overrun with visitors.

I was happy to follow that advice, and I will always err on the side of caution when it comes to safety. Although players weren’t getting in their work this weekend, there was plenty going on at the EYS Complex, as we took the opportunity to condition the fields to make them less compacted and more ready for the season.

A huge thank you to Richard Goodroad and Chris Manson for helping me in that regard.

The weekend also afforded the opportunity prep our concession stands—thank you to our secretary, Ashley Goodroad, for taking the lead on that—and we’re looking forward to opening them this week. There will be a shift in our food options for the stands, with Phat Daddy’s Pulled Pork being added to the menu, while the grilled hot dogs – some would say overly burned hot dogs (sorry about that) – have been phased out. Doesn’t mean they won’t come back from time to time, but we’re moving away from the grills on a daily basis.

But when it comes to our concession stands, we need your help. Please volunteer to fill a shift or two in one of our two concession stands. Shifts are 90 minutes, the time flies by, and you can help the EYS community while supporting the league. PLEASE VOLUNTEER TO HELP OUT. WE NEED YOU.

Links to volunteer are here:

Red Concession Stand 

Blue Concession Stand 

 
The good news is that our first games are scheduled for this week. The bad news is that rain is forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday this week. We’re at the mercy of spring in Indiana, so hopefully the forecasters will be wrong. The work done on the fields this past weekend should help water drain and dry a little faster, but there’s not much that can be done when the rain keeps coming.

Fingers crossed that the rain goes away. We’ll do our best to make a call on whether or not we’ll be playing on any given day as early as possible so you can plan your evening. I personally HATE having to cancel and reschedules games, but safety will always be the default.

A few more things.

First off, please take a look at a gallery of photos that were taken during Opening Day by our fantastic partner, Paul Turner Photography. You just might find your favorite player.

Opening Day Photos 

Speaking of photos, our first of three photos days will happen this Saturday, April 13, from 8 a.m.-6 p.m. at Ellettsville Christian Church located at 731 Independence Street in Ellettsville. No sign-up is required. Just bring your player in uniform, and please do so even if you don’t intend to buy photos to allow a full team photo to be compiled.

Additional photo days will be held Saturday, April 20 from 1-6 p.m. and Wednesday, April 24, from 5-8 p.m. Those sessions will also be at Ellettsville Christian Church.

And finally, if you need to know the level of dedication from our board members, at 3:07 p.m. Monday—quite literally in the middle of totality, our head of umpires, Chris Manson, was on our EYS Board GroupMe discussing the location of our umpire count indicators. It was an impressive show of dedication.

Best of luck on the field, and let’s hope the rain goes away!

-- Ken Bikoff, President, EYS