Garrett Coliseum plays host to youth baseball-softball skills camp

Local youth got the chance to learn about the games of baseball and softball during a special clinic held at Garrett Coliseum this week. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE
The rain fell about an hour into the third annual Montgomery Baseball/Softball Skills Camp, but it didn’t matter.

More than 70 participants continued the clinic inside Garrett Coliseum as the storm raged outside. In the afternoon session, more than 30 participants worked out at the various baseball and softball stations designed for middle school students in the fourth through eighth grades.

“It went extremely well in comparison to the previous camps,” said David Thomas, the former Robert E. Lee High boys basketball coach who has teamed up with former G.W. Carver coach Dan Lewis and others to spearhead the effort to work with potential middle school athletes in baseball and softball. “We’ve got some great skilled teachers here from all levels. By being inside, I think it attracted a lot of folks who didn’t have to worry about the heat and the rain. 

“(Being inside Garrett Coliseum) limited us some, but not as much as I thought it would by having the option of using wiffle balls. We didn’t do too much long hitting. Most of the hitting was into a net.”

The free clinic was originally scheduled for February, but had to be rescheduled after repeated rainouts in February and again in June.

“I thank the city for allowing me to get this facility,” Thomas said, “and the coliseum staff for helping with the setup. We didn’t have to do anything but just walk in. They were so cordial in doing that and it helped out tremendously.”

Thomas said next year’s clinic will be held in February just prior to the start of the 2024 baseball and softball season, but that it was important to hold this year’s event -- despite its four postponements for rain -- to honor commitments made to the sponsors.

Those sponsors included Judge Delores Boyd, Calhoun High Class of 1968, MPS financial officer Arthur Watts, former state Sen. David Burkette, E.G. Cummings Memorial Funeral Home, Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, Dr. Brenda Shuford, real estate agent Gene Cody, Medical Place CEO Alfred Seawright, state Rep. Kenyatte Hassell, state Sen. Kirk Hatcher, Mount Zion AME Zion Church, Ross-Clayton Funeral Home, Bell-Lee’s Funeral Home, Anthony Steele, Howard’s Hairstylers, Dr. Joel McCloud, Dr. Katrice Thomas, Nell Rankin, MAC Sporting Goods, Harold Lockett, Martha’s Place, Curtis Jackson, Johnnie and Ulysses Nelson, Blessed Straw Co., and Golden Corral.