West Cook News

The River Forest 12u Little League two-time defending state champs are among the casualties left on the sidelines by the league’s baseball-softball board of director's decision not to hold play this season, organizers said in a notice that was updated today.

In the online post, league leaders shared that "after extensive conversation as a board, with local leaders and other youth sports organizations, we have made the difficult decision to not move forward with an adapted season this summer.”

In arriving at their decision, board members cited Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order limiting the number of individuals allowed to meet for public events. Pritzker’s five-phased Restore Illinois plan moved into Phase 3 this week, but no more than 10 people are still allowed to meet in group settings “with no competitive play," the league said in the post.

“We would need to move to Phase 4 before even considering having a season and there is no guarantee of when or if that will happen,” board members said in the notice. "Time is not on our side. The safety, health and well-being of all of our baseball and softball families is our number one priority and upon careful review and lengthy discussion of the Phase 4 guidelines and safety measures that would need to be put in place, we don’t have 100% confidence that we will be able to execute these guidelines fully to ensure the safety of all of our players and volunteers.”

League officials committed to hosting small group skills development and scrimmage opportunities for players later in the summer if the chance becomes available.

“We will keep you updated on those opportunities, by division if they arise,” they said in the post.

League officials added they are still in the process of working out a refund process for parents and sponsors that will be in place by Wednesday, June 10.