The timeline will stay the same but the dates on the calendar have changed for the boys and girls of summer.

Marshalltown Little League president Corey Schoenfelder and Marshalltown Girls Softball Association board president Megan Heitmann both announced through their groups’ Facebook pages this week that baseball and softball for area youth would resume in June, allowing briefly for a reprisal of the registration process and time to establish and distribute their new set of rules as related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds announced Tuesday that youth sports in the state were allowed to proceed. Schoenfelder had already asked for feedback from baseball parents in anticipation of Reynolds’ approval, gauging the community’s response should youth sports get the green light again.

“I had discussed it with a few other people before the governor’s announcement, but I was also in tune with what the USSSA (United States Specialty Sports Association) was going to do so I kind of knew there might be a decision coming,” Schoenfelder said. “I was hoping we would be able to get it going again and the governor opened up play, and at that point I contacted most of the parents and got a mostly favorable reaction to play. At that point we decided we’d give it a try.”

Schoenfelder said practices would likely begin in the first week of June with the plan of starting games the week of June 15, though scheduling had not yet been finalized.

Regardless of when practice or play begins, children and parents need to be prepared for changes to the rules and regulations and to embrace them, or risk losing the opportunity to play or observe. Heitmann said that goes for the MGSA as well.

“We will have signage as a reminder about social distancing, to keep households or families separate from other families, we’ll recommend masks but we’re not going to require people to wear them, we will have hand sanitizer at every field and various places throughout the complex,” she said. “We’re not using dugouts during practice, coaches will wipe down dugouts and anything that’s shared.”

Heitmann, in her first of a two-year term as the MGSA board president, said the softball league will try to have a one-to-one ratio with helmets as well as infield face masks for those required to wear them. She’s hoping the same can be accomplished with bats, but that’s a taller financial task.

Liability will fall on the participants and their families, Heitmann said, as waivers for personal injury as well as COVID-19 must be signed before kids can compete.

“We’re going to do the best we can to keep everyone safe, but there’s going to be risk and if you’re willing to take that risk we’re requiring the waiver,” she said. “I like youth softball and it’s fun, but it’s not worth people getting sick over. The kids in my neighborhood want something to do and there’s less risk being outside and softball is naturally spaced out.

“If we’re going to start, this is a great way to do it. We might not be able to do hugs and high-fives, but for the kids being able to talk to their friends in person is going to be a huge boost.”

The MGSA board met through video conference on Thursday and decided to proceed with the softball season, one that will be able to follow its same timeline just two and a half months later on the calendar.

“We’ve been trying to figure out what’s right and what’s enough, what’s safe,” Heitmann said. “A lot of it seemed like wait-and-see, we’ll figure it out, so we were trying to do as much as we could without really knowing what to do.”

Heitmann said former MGSA board presidents such as Andrew Cole served as a reliable sounding board, while also considering the guidelines as laid out by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union and the USSSA. She also spoke with Schoenfelder as well as Marshalltown High School athletic director Ryan Isgrig to help ensure consistency throughout youth sports in the community.

“We want to get out and offer an opportunity with the hope and expectations that people will be smart and be responsible,” Heitmann said. “If you have a fever or are showing any symptoms, don’t show up. Regulate yourself. Be smart, be cordial. We’re all in it together and we can hopefully have an opportunity to have some fun.

“As long as we can at least be respectful and abide by the guidelines, we’re doing as much as we can to be safe.”

The MGSA will keep its registration open through Wednesday to atone for potential newcomers to the softball league for girls in grades kindergarten through seventh grade. Registration information can be found on the group’s Facebook page or at www.mgsa.us.

“Our guidelines will be posted and we’ll have the waivers out to parents early next week, we just have to shore a couple things up,” said Heitmann. “I’m looking forward to it. I’m excited to do something, anxious of anything going badly, but I think that’s just the current state of everything. But at some point we need to open up a little bit and see what happens.”

Schoenfelder shares in that theory, and was elated that the parents he spoke with or heard from were, in general, equally excited for the chance to get their ballplayers back on the diamond.

“The first thing for me was to make sure I had support of the families and that we still had participation,” he said, reacting to Reynolds’ announcement. “There’s still some uncertainty with the (COVID-19) numbers but I’m happy the community wants to get going and wants to get their kids out and playing.

“Obviously if somebody would get sick we would probably have to shut down again or a couple teams, and that would be tough for the whole league and the safety of the whole league, but as of right now I think we can play with these procedures.”