One of the national trends that has caused alarm for a number of baseball fans across the country has been the diminishing numbers of kids participating in the sport. Over the next two days, the Raccoon Valley Radio Network will explore the numbers situation in Perry and get Perry High School Head Coach Mike Long’s opinion on the trend. Long just finished his 38th year of coaching Bluejay baseball and says the Little League picture has changed dramatically through the years.
“Most definitely it has changed. I know in my early years of coaching, Perry would have roughly 6 teams in what was called the Senior Division. This was for 13, 14 and 15 year olds. Each team would have around 15 kids so we had a pool of 90 kids participating each spring. That number continues to drop and I know this year that Perry had only 1 senior league team and there were only 10 or 11 kids on it. This situation isn’t unique to Perry. It’s happening all over Iowa.”
Kids in Perry seem to be finding alternatives to baseball. Long feels the sport of soccer has really hurt the baseball numbers locally.
“I know soccer has taken a toll on baseball numbers. It is less expensive and kids can play it at a very young age. It’s an easier sport to learn at a younger age and that’s not taking anything away from soccer athletes. I know a lot of tremendous soccer athletes and respect what they do but the truth is at a younger age it is easier to learn. Due to that, it seems like the borderline kids are choosing soccer over baseball. Plus baseball is losing the battle to computers and video games and just a lot more distractions these days.”
Tomorrow Long will talk about another obstacles that the sport of baseball is facing and offer suggestions to try and change the trend.