Batting cages decided where Langley baseball training camp was held

Only one baseball park had COVID-compliant batting cages.

Which is why Aldergrove Minor Baseball and North Langley Baseball will hold their first joint baseball spring training camp together in Aldergrove later this month.

All of the spring break sessions are happening at Aldergrove Athletic Park because the batting cages there meet COVID-19 restrictions and the North Langley cages didn’t, explained Marla Clark, vice-president, administration for North Langley Baseball.

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“Aldergrove has removable walls [which improves ventilation], whereas North Langley batting cages are considered ‘indoors,’” Clark told the Langley Advance Times.

Clark said the two associations have a good relationship and worked together to ensure kids had a chance to play.

The training camp will give young players a chance to get some guidance from Joe Germaine, head development coach of the Township Blue Sox high-performance teams, who will run all the clinics.

Germaine, an Aldergrove native, has a standout career that includes a tour of duty with the Langley Senior Blaze., playing an important role in the team’s 2014 victory at the Nationals.

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Each session will be one hour in length, Monday through Friday, and will cost $125 a week.

All sessions will be held at Aldergrove Athletic Park inside the batting cages with COVID safety measures in place, and a limit of eight players per session.

Those interested can register online at aldergroveminorbaseball.com.

The Blue Sox program, now in its fourth year, was launched to give players an opportunity to play high-performance ball, at a reasonable cost to participants.

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“We noticed that after a certain number of years, our players were looking for a more competitive environment,” Clark related.

Germaine came aboard last year.

“We knew that Joe had the vision of what we wanted to do,” Clark told the Langley Advance Times.

Last season, because of the pandemic, the Blue Sox were limited to playing in cohort groups [where distances less than the two-metre minimum are allowed, with the number of participants restricted] against a limited number of teams, Clark said

“It was more a training and development season,” said Clark, who described 2020 as a “one-off” year.

This year is hoped to be “more of a season,” but it will still be different, Clark said, with play likely restricted to cohorts and limited travel to other communities.

There won’t be a Blue Sox college prep team this year, Clark said.

But there will be an 18U AAA team as well as other age categories.