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Mill Valley Little League officials hope to open the season by April but acknowledge that a parade and opening day ceremony is not in the cards for 2021.

In a typical January, Mill Valley Little League President Caroline Joachim and her board of directors are feverishly finishing tryouts and readying one of the biggest events in town, the Opening Day Parade from downtown to Boyle Park.

That, quite obviously given the current state of COVID-19 metrics and the current stay-at-home order for Marin that has effectively halted nearly every business sector in town, is not where things stand for Joachim and her team at the moment.

In the latest of a steady stream of communications to MVLL families, Joachim and the board made it clear that “the MVLL Board is planning for a spring season. Similar to our summer baseball program, MVLL has had to adapt and is ready to put our program into action. But we are optimistic for a return to baseball as recent State guidelines indicate that baseball is one of the sports that will be allowed when Marin County enters the red tier.”

The current plan calls for tryouts in late February, assignments doled out for younger players in early March and team practices beginning in mid-March, with games hopefully by the week of April 12.

All the hard work and preparation is obviously dependent on the hoped-for improvements in metrics, specifically the ICU capacity for the Bay Area region rising above 15%, which would allow Marin to get out from under the stay-at-home order. Marin would immediately enter the purple tier within the state’s framework.

From there, progress into the red tier would make MVLL’s goals attainable. 

“As soon as Marin County is in the red tier, we will be able to have real baseball games,” Joachim wrote. 

It’s been a long journey of fits and starts, Joachim says, but “We have a very positive, can-do group of people. We’ve been staying in extremely close contact with our parents and families, being clear about policies and talking about how we can get kids back on the field, always through the lens of the health and safety of the kids and their family members. Our sport is outside and we have an array of safety measures to keep the kids away from each other.”

REGISTER HERE FOR MILL VALLEY LITTLE LEAGUE.

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