Little League, welcome home.

Like a long, lost loved one returning, many people in Cedartown are overflowing with joy at the announcement that after a two-year hiatus Cedartown is returning to Little League baseball.

“Over the past two years I have had a lot of adults comment that they wished we were still Little League,” current Cedartown Little League President David Barrow said while noting that Cedartown had been chartered with Little League for over 50 years before playing Dizzy Dean for two seasons. “We recently e-mailed a questionnaire to 500 past and present league parents and a large part of the response was asking for us to go back to Little League.”

Unlike their previous stint with Little League, this time around the Little League board members, coaches, umpires and volunteers will not be required to keep the Bert Wood Youth and Athletic Complex baseball fields, bathrooms and concession stands up. Instead, the city of Cedartown will be in charge of all the maintenance.

“The city will focus on the park facilities and the volunteers will focus on running the baseball program,” Barrow said. “Our league volunteers and myself extend a huge thank you to the Cedartown City Commissioners (Gary Martin, Scott Tillery, Dale Tuck, Larry Odom and Johnny Barrett), the Cedartown City Manager (Charles Akridge) and the Cedartown Recreation Director (Johnny Morris) for doing this for Cedartown’s youth baseball community. They said they were all for it and it’s going to be a huge help.”

Barrow said that coaches and volunteers will no longer have to invest their time in getting the fields ready to play on. Instead they can focus on teaching the kids the game of baseball.

“It’s all our responsibility now,” Morris said about the up keep of the park.

The new local President also pointed out how the board members can focus on just baseball now and not worry about all the funds.

“We asked the city and rec. department to help eliminate our two huge burdens of raising funds to upkeep the park and operating the concession business. These two issues consume the majority of our members time that should be spent running the program,” Barrow said. “The city will receive the registration funds and run the concession business and, in return, will provide the players with what these funds have always paid for.”

Morris said they have already had a trial run and everything went smoothly.

“During the fall baseball season we did a trial run and it worked well, we had no problems,” Morris said. “The city is excited to be a part of this and we look forward to getting more youth involved in baseball again.”

Barrow said it is nice to see the city working so hard to help improve youth sports.

“The city officials want to help the youth,” Barrow said. “We are going back to Little League baseball because we feel it is in the best interest of the kids. We want to help make youth baseball in Cedartown flourish once again. And now with the city helping us out and maintaining the park and running the concession business, it will be easier on the coaches and parents and will allow them to focus on the kids more. And that is where we win. Being able to focus more on teaching kids the game of baseball and parents being able to support them from the stands without having to do other stuff.”

Morris said another thing that excites him about going back to Little League is the fact that Cedartown can play Rockmart in the Polk County Championship games once again.

“That’s big,” Morris said. “I think it is a big deal to have interleague play with Rockmart and to bring back the Polk County Championship games is huge.”

An interesting note this year is that the kids in the Cedartown Little League program will have the chance to play in a lot of tournaments against teams from different cities.

“Not only do we have the normal Polk County Championship games to play in at the conclusion of the regular season as well as the District and State Little League tournaments, but we can also compete in a Northwest Georgia Little League tournament,” Barrow said.

“During the regular season, our draft league teams will compete in weekend tournaments with Rockmart, Cartersville and Rome so every kid gets a chance to play in a tournament. The current Little League program allows us to have a community league for all levels of players but they also allow us to pull advanced players from our league to play in travel ball if we want to. So that’s big. We have lots of tournament’s for the kids to play in throughout the year.”

Morris stated that Cedartown will also be affiliated with the Georgia Recreation and Parks Association (GRPA), which is now working with Little League. Because of that affiliation, Cedartown Little League kids are eligible to make an All-Star team to compete in GRPA District and possibly State tournaments.

“What I like about the GRPA is we can send two or three teams to District,” Morris said. “That allows us to get more kids involved in All-Star play and that is a win-win situation for all involved.”

Another interesting note is that while it is Cedartown’s first year back in Little League, they are already hosting a District tournament. According to Barrow, Cedartown will host the Little League District 1 tournament for all the age groups from 12-and-under with the possibility of hosting the 13-and-over age groups as well.

Barrow said that on Sunday, Jan. 10 a meeting will be held at the park from 2-4 p.m. for all adult members of the program. At that meeting, they will vote on the Cedartown Little League constitution and they will vote in new members for the Cedartown Little League Board of Directors.

“Our league adults should know that the new Board of Directors will be following Little League guidelines to help reorganize the program. We’ve been taking nominations for people to be on the Board of Directors,” Barrow stated. “Our members will come and vote and put the people they want on the board. We are going to be completely different in a good way. We need new board members with fresh ideas.

“Also, we will vote on new board members each year. A board member who does not do a good job promoting the league should not be voted back on the board by our members. Board members will be held accountable.”

Barrow also added that they want 15 members on the board while Morris noted that if your child plays in a league outside of the Cedartown Little League program then you should not be on the board.

Morris also pointed out that they will be forming an Executive Board which will be different from the baseball board.

“The Executive Board will oversee all the city sports,” Morris said.

The registration fee to play baseball this season will be the same as last year.

The 2010 Cedartown Little League baseball sign-ups will begin on Jan. 4. Walk-in registration will be held from 8:30 a.m. until 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 4-7 and Jan. 11-14 at the Cedartown Recreation Department gym for kids ages 12-and-under. On Jan. 23 and Jan. 30 from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. walk-in registration will be held above the concession stand at the Bert Wood Youth and Athletic Complex. Online registration will begin Jan. 4 and will end Jan. 30.

The registration fee for anyone who signs up in January is $45. Any kid signing up after Jan. 30 will be charged $65 for late registration.

Morris noted that the city will be providing the hats, shirts and socks for the kids to play in. However, parents will be required to purchase their kids baseball pants.

A sign-up date for children ages 13-and-older will be announced after the Cedartown Middle School baseball season. Try-outs will be held for kids 12-and-under in February, either the first or second weekend of that month according to Barrow.

For more information about the Little League sign-ups or any umpires or volunteers interested with helping the local Little League program, call Morris at 770-748-7783 or Barrow at 770-872-4681 or visit www.playpcyb.com.