MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Va. (WDBJ) – The Town of Blacksburg, the Town of Christianburg and Montgomery County say they are excited about this summer’s participation in recreational activities.
In Montgomery County, Baseball baseball, baseball, baseball, baseball has reached the state.
“I think people are more comfortable coming back and doing things again and everybody wants to go play, get off the couch, go outside, and we’ve got it ready for them,” said Montgomery County Parks and Rec’s Chris Slusher.
Slusher said more than 330 kids played basketball and soccer this past summer. Now, they hope to have a similar turnout on the football field this fall.
“Right now we are probably looking at four teams, so it would be good to have six teams across the country,” he said.
In the Town of Christianburg, participation in rec sports is on the rise.
“I went back and looked at our annual report numbers from last year to last year, and we have about 1200 participants compared to last year; we were about 800,” said Christianburg Parks and Recreation Director Brad Epperley.
He said that the epidemic caused the decline of youth sports but now it is on the rise.
“We want kids to be active, we want people in our community to be active, and we’re excited to be able to give them that opportunity,” Epperley said.
Dean Crane with the Town of Blacksburg Parks and Recreation Department said they’ve also seen a big decline in youth sports, especially on the gridiron.
“This summer, there are a lot of people coming back, a lot of camps going on,” he said. “The program was very well attended. We offered a football camp this year, and we had over 63 people come out and that’s double what we had last year.”
All three regions agree that the more kids that come out for sports, the better the experience for everyone.
“The more kids we can have, the more teams we can have, so the better competition we can have,” Crane said. “If we only get 16, it’s very difficult to play the team. If we get 30, then we can split into two teams and the kids can get more playing time.”
All three regions say their fall registration for sports is now open and there are plenty of games and activities for kids to try this fall.
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