A new opportunity for youth to play baseball coming to Essex County this spring.
Lakeside Little League says it plans to offer a fun, developmental, and competitive season.
League president Kurt Barr says the league boundaries are expansive from the shores of Belle River to the shores of Kingsville and Leamington, up to Tilbury and down through Essex.
"We're essentially from Manning Road to Jeannette's Creek. That's west to east and then from north to south we're Lake Saint Clair to Lake Erie, and so we include Essex and Kingsville and Leamington, Woodslee, all the way up Lakeshore."
He says to start off the children ages four to 10 are eligible to play, with the league expected to expanding further in 2026 offering a majors league division for ages 11 and 12.
"At four we're kind of an instructional tee-ball. At five and six we are full on tee-ball with a very structured and organized program and then machine-pitch is six, seven and eight, and then kid-pitch is nine and 10."
He says through their Play Today, Play Tomorrow campaign, the Lakeside board is in the process of working on a ball park complex.
"We will be able to raise money and get donations to build a kind of state of the art facility in the centre of the county here, and we're in the process of having an architectural firm put together a set of renderings for us."
Barr says the renderings will be available at www.LakesideLittleLeague.ca in the coming weeks.
The league is also hosting a virtual town hall over zoom on Monday Sept. 16 from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Registration launches October 15.
The season will run from May through the end of June and the birthday cutoff is August 31.