Its founder may be gone, but the Summit Dixie Youth Baseball program lives on.
This year will be the 50th season for Summit’s non-profit summer youth baseball and softball program, and the first without Windsor Gay, the program’s founder and commander for the first 49 seasons.
And contrary to popular belief, the program will not only survive but grow in ways Gay’s daughter, Darla Roberts, said would please her father.
“There was a lot of uncertainty (about the league continuing),” Roberts said. “That was the misconception. I don’t know why, but there was.”
The league will once again be held at the five-field Windsor Gay Youth Complex. Roberts said the facility was her father’s longtime dream for area youth ballplayers.
“I think he’d still be pleased that we’re going to continue,” Roberts said. “He was giving those children a place to play baseball. He was tickled to death to have all five fields going at the same time.”
Gay passed away last April at the age of 73.
As was its namesake, the Windsor Gay Youth Complex will be busy again this season.
The first event will be the Windsor Gay Memorial Invitational Baseball Tournament, to be held March 18-19 — during spring break.
Roberts said established league teams from throughout Pike County will be invited to play in the tournament, whose format has yet to be determined.
A joint jamboree with McComb Dixie Youth Baseball will be held the first weekend of April.
Once the summer program begins, Summit Youth Sports will have a softball league for girls ages 13-15, according to Tonya Hooks, a member of the newly formed Summit Dixie Youth Baseball rules board.
“There has been no place for 13- to-15-year-old girls to play,” Hooks said.
Hooks added that there has been “a lot of interest” in the program from local parents and softball players.
The softball program, Hooks added, means that Summit will allow McComb to have sole operation of the 13-to-15-year-olds baseball program in 2011.
Summit this season will implement a Rookie League in place of its T-Ball program.
The Rookie League will be open to ages 5-6, and will be similar to McComb’s Buddy Ball, Roberts said.
Helping teach youngsters the game of baseball this season will be former Parklane Academy and LSU baseball player Jason Albritton.
Roberts added that along with its Rookie League, Summit also will have baseball league for youngsters in age groups 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12.
The biggest difference in Summit Dixie Youth Baseball this season will be the aforementioned rules board.
“In the past, my Daddy’s always been the boss,” Roberts said. “Now there’s a board established to make decisions.”
The committee will include Roberts, Hooks, David “Smitty” Smith and Stephen Adams.
Smith is the national director for Dixie Youth Baseball. Adams is the McComb deputy fire chief.
Sambo Roberts, Darla Roberts’ husband, will serve as the league director, but will not be a member of the board.
“He’ll be working alongside the board in the daily operations,” Darla Roberts said.
She said Summit Dixie Youth Baseball sign-ups continue from 10 a.m. to noon through this Saturday at the Windsor Gay Youth Complex.
Roberts said volunteers have played a big part in the program’s past and she hopes they continue to do so this year.
