Mauldin resolves to cure ailing baseball program

By Eric Connor

Tribune-Times Writer econnor@greenvillenews.com / Published March 5, 2014 (Page 1A, 14A)

There was a time when if youth recreation baseball leagues in the Upstate wanted to win championships, they had to go through Mauldin.

That time has passed — by more than a decade.

Player participation in the Mauldin recreation league has dropped by more than half in five years. Games periodically end early because there’s no­body to turn the lights on. Um­pires show up late or not at all, leaving coaches in the uncom­fortable position to officiate their own games.

The softball program has disappeared. Players have moved to costly pay-to-play tournament baseball, where once upon a time, playing in a rec league was enough. The high school features fewer and fewer players who have spent their formative years in Maul­din rec.

And on either side of the city stand state-of-the art ballparks that outshine Mauldin rec’s older fields where the same holes in the same fences have existed for years.

These were the blunt, hard­-to-stomach observations that coaches, former players and longtime boosters in the pro­gram gathered recently to share in a community meeting convened at the Ray Hopkins Senior Center.

The gathering was called by the city to air the concerns of a community that prides itself on its passion for America’s pastime.

The theme was clear: Mauldin rec baseball isn’t what it once was.

However, once two hours of sobering discus­sion had passed, another theme emerged: The pro­gram must return to its former glory. “I think if we all pull together, we can get this back on track, we can pull this thing out the ditch,” said Bill Wingo, a former Clemson University sec­ond baseman whose three sons came up through Mauldin rec.

One son, Scott Wingo, went on to become one of the University of South Carolina’s most-storied players, a second base­man himself who in 2010 scored the winning run in what would be the Game­cocks’ first of two back-­to-back national champi­onships.

“It all started here,” Bill Wingo said. Another son — Brad Wingo, who played base­ball for USC Upstate — coaches Mauldin youth teams today although he has no children in the league. But, he said, “The buzz is gone.”

City leaders were pre­sent more to listen than to offer answers, and at the end solicited community volunteers to serve on an improvement commit­tee.

“I’m dedicated to mak­ing whatever changes need to be made,” said newly elected City Coun­cilman Taft Matney, who heads the city’s recrea­tion committee.

“We know how to do it,” Mayor Dennis Raines said. “We’ve just got to get back to it.”

Just five years ago, there were 2,200 children playing baseball through Mauldin rec, but that number has slipped to about 1,000.

There is no one reason for the drop in participa­tion, but rather a collec­tion of factors, said coaches, parents and sup­porters.

Today, success is be­ing measured in how many kids are signing up, but many players have been lost over the past several years to thriving leagues like those in Simpsonville, Greenville and Northwood. “We’re letting too many kids leave this pro­gram and go elsewhere,” said William Sentelle, who coaches and once played in the league. “It’s not about how many peo­ple are signing up today. It’s about how many peo­ple we let out the back door.” Matt Bynum, who has coached his three sons in Mauldin, said that leader­ship within the program has been a steadily wors­ening problem. “The leadership in Mauldin rec is waning when it comes to base­ball,” Bynum said. “We need people who are pre­sent. We need people who are forthright, people who are outgoing and out­spoken and not afraid to be present and active in the organization itself.”

In 2012, Mauldin cut ties with the multi-state Dixie Youth Baseball or­ganization, as did Foun­tain Inn. The disaffili­ation eliminated the se­lection of All-Star teams, which as recently as five years ago were advanc­ing into regional play­offs.

In its place, Mauldin and Fountain Inn joined Simpsonville — which disaffiliated itself from the national Little League Baseball organization — to create a Golden Strip coalition, with an end-of-­season tournament that involves all three leagues instead of All-Star teams.

The factors involved in the decision were con­cerns over franchise fees related to Dixie Youth and a desire to “be better partners” with neighbor­ing leagues, Mauldin Recreation Director Van Brannon said. “It’s definitely not off the table to go back,” Brannon said. Frequently, All-Star teams will break off from the league and transform into so-called “travel baseball” teams that par­ticipate in pay-to-play weekend tournaments.

However, teams often­times travel no farther than Heritage Park in Simpsonville or Conestee Park in Greenville, where rec leagues are flourishing with players who participate in league and weekend tournament play. Mauldin High’s base­ball coach, Jim Macie­jewski, said that fewer players are coming into the high school program from Mauldin rec. “I think we’re using travel baseball as an ex­cuse for why our rec league can’t flourish,” Maciejewski said. “This is a baseball community. This should be the proto­type of what a rec league should be.”

Maciejewski said overtures to the rec league to coordinate — such as conducting coaching clinics — have been “pushed away.”

“If we can develop coaches in these rec leagues, we can develop players,” Maciejewski said.

Brad Wingo said that the league doesn’t maxi­mize the use of its fields, when sometimes games can run until 10 p.m. with only one of four fields be­ing used.

Last spring, a regular season lasted only eight games, and players would go more than a week without playing, said Greg Rice, a Maul­din rec coach.

The league has its ad­vantages, participants said. The cost is low — $75 for city residents, $95 out of city — and older neigh­borhood parks like Springfield Park with its natural mounds and in­field grass are charming to those who aren’t enam­ored with the newer sports complexes. Councilman Larry Goodson said that the Mauldin City Council re­cently approved spend­ing $750,000 to replace ball field lighting. The city is trying to limit the light installa­tion’s impact on base­ball’s opening day a month from now. Howev­er, Goodson said that once installed, lights can be turned on from a far­away, remote location if need be.

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