Two months after the BankFirst Yards SportsPlex officially opened off Highway 82 in Columbus, the eight-field complex will play host to youth baseball teams from across Mississippi and into Alabama this weekend.
A total of 28 all-star teams from three different age groups — 11 of them from the Golden Triangle region — will play in the Grand Slam Sports rec all-star state tournament, with pool play taking place throughout the day Saturday and a single-elimination tournament for each age group Sunday.
“This is a brand-new complex. It just opened,” said Mike Narmour, the state director for Grand Slam Sports in Mississippi. “We did a soft opening on it in October last year, and this has been their first year. This is about our fifth or sixth event there this year.”
The tournament’s two younger divisions — 6U and 8U — will be coach pitch, while the 12U division will be player pitch. Just six teams are in the 6U division, including two from Starkville and one each from West Point and Caledonia, with Houston and Mathiston rounding out the field.
The 8U division is the largest, with 14 teams. The field includes a pair of squads from Caledonia and one each from Columbus, Starkville and West Point. Columbus and Starkville each have a team in the 12U division as well, and will play against teams from as far away as Booneville and Carthage.
“All-stars, I still have a special place in my heart for that,” Narmour said. “I was fortunate enough as a kid growing up to win a couple of state championships playing all-stars out of Greenwood, Mississippi. They didn’t have the travel ball then, but by this time of year, because we have these travel tournaments every weekend starting the third weekend of February, I’m pretty exhausted, especially mentally, by now.”
Narmour said he will get a much-needed break for the next five weekends after this tournament, which begins Saturday at 9 a.m. and runs through Sunday evening. An optional prayer service will be held Sunday morning before the bracket games begin.
Grand Slam Sports operates mostly in the Southeastern United States, with some incursions into the Midwest and Northeast, as an alternative to Little League and to give young baseball and softball players an avenue to play on travel teams from an early age.
“In today’s world, if your child doesn’t play travel baseball, his odds of playing high school baseball are going to be way down,” Narmour said. “Little League, they only have one all-star tournament and play 12 or 14 league games, so they don’t get a whole lot of reps there. The travel side, some teams may play as many as 80 or 90 games in a year but on average, I’d say 40 to 50.”
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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 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
