Our Roadmap to Reopen

KMBA has been working hard to confirm our plans for a meaningful and competitive baseball season for Summer 2021 in response to the provincial government announcement Roadmap to Reopen. Like many of our families, we were disappointed that small group practices on (now open) municipal diamonds weren’t included as safe activities to begin prior to Stage One. We were prepared with practice schedules that could have been implemented yesterday. We want to thank all of our coaches who would have adjusted their long-weekend plans last minute in order to prioritize our players. We would also like to thank the City of Kitchener staff who have worked tirelessly to get the diamonds ready for us to book as soon as possible.

Stage One (in and around June 14th)

We remain ready and are counting down the days until our province moves into Stage One. This week you should see practice schedules uploaded into TeamSnap for the duration of Stage One. We will be maximizing the use of all available diamonds, and will be following all Covid19 safety guidelines that will be determined by both Baseball Ontario and our local Public Health Unit in collaboration with the City of Kitchener and regional partners. This period will provide our players with adequate time to work on team skills and drills that compliment the Stay At Home training program we implemented over the past few months. Coaches will be taking a measured approach to reduce injury and prioritize arm care.

Stage Two (in and around July 5th)

As voting members of our Rep/Elite leagues, we are advocating for the release of a full league schedule, with no player bubbles or travel restrictions. Baseball Ontario’s current interpretation assumes restrictions (both diamond capacity and player bubble restrictions) that are not mentioned in the government communications. KMBA has called on our leagues to reject these assumptions and has requested that Baseball Ontario cease making claims of restrictions that have not been verified by the government. We are asking our Panther families to prepare for league play (between 20-25 games) with no travel restrictions. ICBA Rep teams can find their loops listed here and EBLO Elite teams can find their league details here.

Provincial Championships

Baseball Ontario announced on May 22nd that they intend to crown 2021 provincial champions. We look forward to hosting the 12UAA and 16UA provincial championships, and we are waiting on Baseball Ontario to release concrete details to our leagues with timing and hosting requirements. In 2019, KMBA won the most championships (4) of any association in the province – we look forward to retaining that title!

Stay Ready Panthers.