The annual summer men’s and women's softball leagues at Nosef Park did not take place in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic.
The leagues are back for 2021 and the seasons started Monday night, but participation is lower than usual and some rules are in place since the pandemic is not completely finished.
Those obstacles did not stop Cedrick Tenner, who oversees the league, from making sure everything was ready to go. The teams participating felt the same way.
“You just don’t know how it was getting close to this time and people were blowing my phone,” Tenner said. “They were ready.”
Tenner said members of the community let him know they wanted to get the league back going.
“It motivated me to want to get it back going,” Tenner said.
The dugout rules are different for 2021.
“Usually, the rules say you have to be in the dugout,” Tenner said. “With COVID going on, you don’t have to be in the dugout. You can spread out amongst the baseline side.”
There are four coed teams and five men’s teams.
“Hopefully, we can get it back to normal, get it back to seven, eight teams (next year),” Tenner said.
“It was down today. I actually had two teams to back out the Sunday before it started.”
Games are Monday and Thursday nights and the seasons run through August 12. The championships will be August 12. The playoff seedings will be based on regular season records.
Two coed softball games will be at 6:30 p.m. each night. PeopleShores, Team Dynasty, Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church and the Clarksdale Fire Department are the coed teams.
Two men’s games will be at 7:30 p.m. each night. Biggins Construction out of Charleston and Grenada, Tunica Rosa Fort, Clarksdale Fire Department, Team Dynasty and Union Grove Missionary Baptist Church are the men’s teams.
Some games will be at 8:30 p.m. They could either be men’s or coed games.
Tenner, a longtime coach whose resume includes being the softball coach at Coahoma Community College, reflected on the league’s history.
“I’ve actually been running it four years,” Tenner said. “It’s been around for ages. We came back and got it going back in 2002.”
Tenner is also a player on Team Dynasty.
He said all players must be 18 years old and the basic slow pitch softball rules apply.
“You play seven innings or if you’re losing by 10 runs, they’ll cut the game short in the fifth inning,” Tenner said.
Games have an hour time limit, there are no stolen bases and a batter is out when fouling the ball for a third strike.
Tenner was glad to see the community come together.
“It’s just to get the community involved, just to get the community something to do,” he said. “We’ve had it around for ages. It died down for awhile. I got out of school and started working at Coahoma and had the urge to get things back going how it was when I was younger.”
