The South Okanagan Minor Baseball Assocition is not fielding a midget AAA program this season.
The association was not able to find a coach to replace Junior Deleon, who they parted ways with at the end of last season.
“No, we’re not very happy about it, but it’s not from a lack of effort,” said SOMBA president Aqil Samuel. “We decided to take the year to re-group a little bit.”
With the coaching position in limbo, they also couldn’t get enough player commitments. Samuel said he understands the players making that decision. Some players have been given the chance to tryout for the Westbank Diamondbacks and Okanagan Athletics in Kelowna.
Having those issues, the association couldn’t apply with B.C. Minor Baseball until they had enough committed players. SOMBA will continue its coaching search to bring the program back next season. The association had some good applicants, but they were outside of the Okanagan and they couldn’t work things out financially.
“We need to focus on finding somebody locally that can step up and take the job,” he said.
In the meantime, they will field a midget program for house play in the area, to be coached by parents. SOMBA is also looking to add a double A team to its single A program, which won playoffs last year. The bantam season is set to start after April 1.
The Tigers are currently finishing up their winter ball programs from T-ball to midget levels. At the tadpole level (2006-07 birth year) they had to create two groups because of the demand. At the midget level they had between seven and 10 players participate.