Growing up in Utah and then Florida, Eric Orsini played just about every sport he had time for, from basketball to flag football to baseball to golf. So he understands as well as anyone what recreational youth sports can mean to a community.
“Not everybody is going to get asked to be on a travel team,” Orsini said. “That’s really what the rec league is all about, for those kids. If they play in those travel leagues, phenomenal. We want them as well, but it’s really just for anybody who wants to play a sport, get outside, exercise, have fun, meet new friends.”
Orsini is now in his fourth year working with Starkville Parks and Recreation through The Sports Facilities Companies – a third-party contractor that has managed the city’s parks since 2021. He started his current role as operations and event manager last spring.
Orsini first came to Starkville in 2016 to study at Mississippi State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology and communication and a master’s in sports administration, with a concentration in sports marketing.
He knew he wanted to be involved in sports in some way and considered becoming a high school athletic director or working in operations for a college athletic department. But he had a friend already working for Starkville Parks and Recreation, and when a position opened for the department’s athletic programming coordinator just three weeks after he finished graduate school, he took it.
He remained in that position until taking on his current role in May 2024.
“It’s really cool to put on and coordinate all those leagues now for the children who live in Starkville currently. That’s where the passion comes from,” Orsini said. “It’s not supposed to be considered a competitive league. It’s supposed to be more of a fun, learn-the-sport, develop-your-skills kind of thing. That’s what, in my opinion, the recreation program is all about.”
With several athletes from Starkville and Oktibbeha County having played high-level college and professional sports, the city’s sports facilities often host events for those local stars to come back and help teach the next generation.
Tennessee Titans defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons, who grew up nearby in Macon and starred at MSU, holds a free football camp at the Starkville Sportsplex every summer. Simmons has brought along several other NFL players to help him out, including former Bulldog standouts Chris Jones, JT Gray and Montez Sweat.
“He’s a great guy,” Orsini said of Simmons. “He definitely likes giving back to the kids, likes hanging out with a lot of the athletes from all over Mississippi who come for the camp. He’s very generous. He loves to bring all of his old Mississippi State teammates.”
In addition to advertising the leagues for kids and parents to sign up, Orsini is also responsible for hiring game officials — referees, umpires and scorekeepers — and coordinating with them about scheduling. Officiating shortages have been a nationwide issue in youth and high school sports in recent years, and Orsini said Starkville is not immune to those problems, especially when close to 10 fields are in use each night.
“Some sports, we have plenty. Some sports, we don’t have enough,” Orsini said. “We have a good mixture of college kids and older adults.”
Baseball and softball games are played at Cornerstone Park, which opened in October 2023 and boasts 12 diamonds and two t-ball fields, so a large number of umpires are needed for every game day. Soccer can also be difficult, with 10 to 15 officials required each night.
But Orsini got creative, working with his old department from his undergraduate days to find students who are willing to help out.
“It was just an idea I had a few years ago when I needed more soccer referees,” Orsini said. “A lot of our soccer (officials) are college students. We have an agreement with the kinesiology department. We reach out to them and ask them to send out emails, saying, ‘If you’re interested in being a soccer referee, reach out to these people.’ We do that for a lot of our sports if we’re in need of some people.”
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
