The future of Polk County baseball stood on the infield Wednesday night alongside the present.
Some 30-40 youth players raced onto the field at The Bottoms during pregame introductions for Polk County’s varsity baseball game against Landrum, each paired with a Wolverine starter and standing together for the national anthem during Youth Night.
For the young players, it was a chance to stand where they hope to be in a few years. For Polk County Youth Baseball, the new organization behind the county’s youth program, it was a glimpse of what they’re working to build.
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“There’s a lot of kids in the county that were playing in Landrum just because they weren’t satisfied with the program,” said Miles Bell, one of the founding board members of PCYB. “We’re trying to get them back.”
The organization is beginning play this week with about 100 players signed up for its inaugural season. Polk County YMCA oversaw youth baseball in the county in recent years, but now PCYB has taken the reins with a vision to expand and improve opportunities for local kids.
Bell and four other parents met last fall to explore forming the organization. The group eventually partnered with Polk County Youth Football, which agreed to let the baseball group operate under its umbrella, with plans to perhaps one day rebrand as Polk County Youth Sports.
“We just saw room for improvement,” Bell said. “The YMCA wasn’t doing a bad job, but the YMCA doesn’t typically do baseball, and they honestly just did it as a favor for Polk County. We just saw opportunity for growth and we just rolled with it.”
The organization serves players from T-ball through age 12 and competes in a league with teams from Landrum, Boiling Springs and Inman. Games began this week and the season runs through mid-May, with each team playing a 10-game schedule.
“We’ve had a ton of community support, a lot of sponsorships,” Bell said. “Everybody seems to be really excited about it.”
The group received backing from county leadership, including government officials who helped facilitate the transition from the YMCA.
Looking ahead, the organization would love to attract enough players to eventually form an all-Polk County league, though Bell acknowledged that may be challenging for a small county. The group also plans to add a fall season, though that will depend on participation numbers given the overlap with youth football.
The organization also hopes parents in the softball community will launch a similar program. Bell said the founding group didn’t feel they had the bandwidth to handle both sports in the first year.
Bell said the goal is to keep Polk County kids playing baseball in Polk County, building a pipeline to the high school program.
“We just dove in headfirst and started making plans,” Bell said. “We had to meet with the YMCA leadership and the county commissioners, just put a plan together to separate it.
“Everything’s worked out so far. It’s been a big learning curve, getting it all started, but it’s all going really well.”
