COLT Baseball World Series Cancelled for the First Time Ever:Local Greensboro COLT Baseball looking to still salvage their Summer Season

The COLT Baseball World Series, held now in Marion, Illinois, will not be held this season…The 2020 COLT Baseball World Series has been cancelled…

We almost always have had a local Greensboro COLT Baseball team headed to the World Series, but his year, the Greensboro Green, will staying in Greensboro….The Greensboro teams have been traveling to Lafayette, Indiana and to Marion, Illinois, since back in 1965, to compete in the COLT Baseball World Series

Our boys will be staying and playing at home this season….

We spoke with Greensboro COLT Baseball leader Donnie Stowe, earlier today, and he said that PONY Baseball decided to cancel this year’s COLT Baseball World Series, due to the COVID-19 Pandemic…

The COLT World Series cancellation by PONY(Protect Our Nation’s Youth) Baseball includes the following…..
The cancellation includes the eight baseball World Series and three softball World Series events:

Mustang-9 World Series – Walnut, California
Mustang World Series – Youngsville, Louisiana
Bronco-11 World Series – Chesterfield, Virginia
Bronco World Series – Laredo, Texas
Pony-13 World Series – Whittier, California
Pony World Series – Washington Pennsylvania
Colt World Series – Marion, Illinois
Palomino World Series – Laredo, Texas
Girls Softball World Series – Youngsville, Louisiana
Girls Softball World Series – Hemet, California
Girls Softball World Series – Sterling, Virginia
Girls Softball World Series – Houston, Texas

Donnie Stowe said Greensboro COLT Baseball would still be a go in 2020, and the start of the season will all boil down to when the COVID-19/Coronavirus restrictions are eased and the City of Greensboro allows the Parks and Recreation fields to be put back into use…

The Parks and Rec fields will need to be available, as Greensboro COLT Baseball uses Stoner-White Stadium(GPR Field), as their main playing field…

The Guilford County Schools’ fields will also need to be made available, since Greensboro COLT Baseball uses those fields too, some for games, and most of the GCS baseball fields serve as the practice sites, for the Greensboro COLT Baseball teams…

Currently, Greensboro COLT Baseball can not even get on any of the Guilford County Schools baseball fields, or even be on campus at the GCS, this due to the fact that all GCS facilities are CLOSED for the remainder of the 2020 school year…

And one big question I would have here and maybe only one person, Governor Roy Cooper, can answer this question, “When is the Official Last Day of the Guilford County Schools, school year”???

I’m not sure this Last Day of School has ever been discussed since the Coronavirus/COVID-19 required the closing of the schools in the entire state of North Carolina for 2020….Now that the students are doing online social-distancing learning, what will be their End-of-the-Line/Last Day of School for 2020???

Donnie Stowe was telling us that he hoped all(Greensboro COLT Baseball) could be a go by Mid-June, and that is right now, all just wishing thinking…Nobody knows what goes right now, when it comes to lifting of the total Coronavirus/COVID-19 restrictions….

Greensboro COLT Baseball just wants to play baseball this Summer, and they are willing to do what they have to do, to get their season in….

Working with an abbreviated/modified schedule seems to be the “new norm”, and that will have to be something that will have to be addressed, once Greensboro COLT Baseball and Donnie Stowe get the GO…..

At the schools, the coaches have been cutting the grass, but the players have not been able to take any cuts at the plate, with the current state of Wait and See, what the CDC says is next on the game plan….

When will the season start, nobody knows for sure right now, but Greensboro COLT Baseball will be moving forward with their 2020 season, once the light turns Green for Greensboro COLT Baseball….

One the Summer season is finally set, it will be time to be looking to the Fall Greensboro COLT Baseball season, and sooner than later, we shall see, “The Running of the COLTS”…..

Here is the full 2020 World Series Announcements from PONY Baseball found at their website/www.pony.org:

2020 PONY Baseball & Softball World Series Canceled over COVID-19 Concerns
Due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic PONY Baseball and Softball has made the difficult and disappointing decision to cancel its World Series tournaments for the first time in organization history.

After a thorough assessment of the impact the devastating COVID-19 pandemic has had on all of our community-based PONY member programs throughout the United States and 54 countries and based upon the direction of governmental and public health authorities, and in consultation with our Board of Directors, PONY has made the difficult and disappointing decision to cancel its eight baseball and three softball World Series tournaments in 2020.

PONY has come to this decision due to the significant public health uncertainty that exists and most likely will continue several months from now. Upon review of guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Center for Disease Control (CDC), as well as senior public health officials and government leaders from locations where our other seven World Series are held, it will not be possible to proceed with our 2020 World Series schedule.

“With an overabundance of caution and in order to ensure that our athletes from all over the world are able to compete in a safe environment, we have had to make this very difficult decision to cancel our World Series events in 2020,” stated PONY President Abraham Key. “PONY stands for Protect Our Nation’s Youth and PONY believes we would be reckless and irresponsible to host these events under the current circumstances. We will be back in 2021 with a full schedule of league play, tournament play and our popular World Series events.”

“As Chairman of the Board of PONY Baseball and Softball I wish to express our deepest regret to our participants that we will not be able to host our baseball and softball World Series events for 2020,” stated PONY Chairman of the Board Steve Miller. “This has been a difficult decision as we know how much this means to our youth and their families from around the globe. We encourage our leagues to continue with their local programs in conjunction with local and state health official guidelines. As allowed, and where possible, there may be opportunities for local play and tournaments. We appreciate the commitment of our local leagues and all those volunteers, and we look forward to resuming a full schedule of league, tournament and World Series play in 2021.”

As we assessed the feasibility of including these tournament opportunities as part of that resumption of play, several factors went into the decision to cancel the World Series, including:

The inability to play qualifying tournaments in many of our U.S. and International zones, coupled with direction from international health officials regarding the complexity of international travel restrictions and immigration requirements.
The cancellation of the Caribbean Zone, European Zone and Asia Pacific Zone tournaments.
An indication from teams from around the globe that they will be unable to participate or travel to these tournaments.
The testing and mitigation protocols that would need to be in place at these significant public events should an individual participating or attending an event be diagnosed with COVID-19.

The cancellation includes the eight baseball World Series and three softball World Series events:

Mustang-9 World Series – Walnut, California
Mustang World Series – Youngsville, Louisiana
Bronco-11 World Series – Chesterfield, Virginia
Bronco World Series – Laredo, Texas
Pony-13 World Series – Whittier, California
Pony World Series – Washington Pennsylvania
Colt World Series – Marion, Illinois
Palomino World Series – Laredo, Texas
Girls Softball World Series – Youngsville, Louisiana
Girls Softball World Series – Hemet, California
Girls Softball World Series – Sterling, Virginia
Girls Softball World Series – Houston, Texas
To assist the local PONY programs as they continue to assess their local operations according to state guidelines, PONY will be crediting all leagues with the affiliation fees paid for their membership in 2020. These funds will be available for local leagues to use on current balances, 2021 affiliation and other PONY related expenses.

As each local league will have different guidance for resuming organized youth sports, PONY International strongly encourages volunteers to confirm with their local and state health officials that it is safe to do so before resuming any local league activity. These playing opportunities could include not only regular season activities, but also opportunities for local all-star tournament play in order to provide players, especially those moving up to a new age division in 2021, a tournament experience if local health officials allow.