EAST PALESTINE — There weren’t really doubts whether the children of East Palestine would be able to “play ball” this spring after the Feb. 3 Norfolk Southern train derailment.

Most adults that are responsible for organizing spring sports activities in the village were on top of things and continue to be.

It does not mean, however, that circumstances are the same as before the derailment.

East Palestine Girls Softball Association president Kevin McKinstry has been involved with his organization for 32 years. He’s seen the transformation of the sport from favoring slow pitch to the fast-paced one that is common now. He weathered the postponed season of 2020 due to COVID to find numbers increase to 62 in the program for 2022.

Once registrations got going in February, he wasn’t sure what he’d see by the end of sign-ups. Some families, after all, scattered to hotels or to live with relatives or friends elsewhere due to the uncertainty of the safety of living conditions in the village.

“I did wonder what numbers we were going to have,” McKinstry said. “It was a real concern because you were hearing a number of things in terms of whether some people would leave town. As time went on, I realized we going to have enough people to field a team in each division and I was happy with that.”

He estimates that this year’s number for the entire program will be around 53 to 54 girls, but he is quick not to point a finger at the train derailment.

“Last year was a bigger year for us,” McKinstry said. “I’m not sure this is the exception or last year was the exception to be honest with you.”

East Palestine Youth Sports Association runs the youth baseball programs in town and president John Simon said he has 80 to 84 kids in the program which is normal. The EPYSA will run two 8U, two 10U, two 12U baseball teams as well as a Pony team.

Simon said he already had a lot of kids signed up at the time of the derailment and wondered what would have happened if just a few kids couldn’t participate.

“So with a lot of people talking about possibly moving or being relocated, we were concerned at first about what happens when you field the team with 11 kids, if you lose two, you don’t have enough to play,” Simon said.

Simon said indoor practice attendance in the month of March had been strong and he doesn’t think he will have to worry about player participation.

Since the EPYSA plays the vast majority of its home games in the Columbiana County Youth Baseball League on Next Level Complex fields about 3.4 miles away near Unity there aren’t too many issues regarding game scheduling. Practice scheduling is a different beast.

One field near the exit of the park is on the edge of Leslie Run which continues to be treated by contractors on site. That won’t be used this season — for games or practice.

“Our plan right now is to not use that until the cleanup area down there is done,” Simon said. “But we are planning on using two fields up at the very top of the park. And we also have the softball field in the center that we use for Tee-ball.”

McKinstry’s 15U team utilized the old high school softball field at the center of City Park in recent seasons, but he said he did not want to do that this season as the backdrop of the game would be the sights and sounds of the equipment and vehicles treating water on Leslie Run.

“It’s just not a very good visual for people to come in and see the creek they are trying to clean,” McKinstry said.

All of the 15U softball games will be played on the road, while the 8U and 12U softball teams use different fields that are located at two different facilities in Unity.

“I don’t think anyone will have a problem coming there, but if someone does we will go to their field and hopefully we can make up that home game with somebody else,” McKinstry said.

Simon said he has met with other presidents in the league that includes Crestview, Columbiana, Salem, United, Lisbon and Leetonia organizations and he’s had no pushback from the organizations about playing games in East Palestine.

“They’ve mentioned that they’ve have questions from some parents, but at our last meeting all of our presidents were on board unless it’s declared a disaster area or some information comes out that it is not safe,” Simon said.

Simon admits it has been tough dealing with the daily planning for the baseball season as well as all the other stresses coming along with the aftermath of the derailment.

“I mean, the businesses are getting killed right now on all aspects,” Simon said. “I have a used car lot I do on the side, and I haven’t had one customer since this happened.”

He doesn’t mean sales either. He has not had one person show up at his dealership since the derailment. During the same time frame last year he had 15 to 20 people stop by the lot.

“I had a guy from Pittsburgh that reached out to me on Facebook,” Simon said. “He saw my ad on Facebook, and he said, where are you located? And I said, East Palestine and his exact words were ‘O.K., I’m not interested.'”

It’s not as bleak for the EPYSA’s finances. Norfolk Southern donated $65,000 to the organization to cover all of its annual expenses. The league will also be getting new catchers’ gear as well as bat bags and other accessories for every kid that is playing this season.

“Fundraising is a huge part of every organization,” Simon said. “So when you have families that are somewhat relocated and are not really knowing exactly what’s going on, hopefully we can limit the amount of fundraising we have to do or people don’t really feel obligated to do it.”

Next Level Sports Complex owner Jim Vance said everything for the spring and summer is moving ahead as planned at the 6-year-old facility that features six fields and an indoor practice facility.

“We lease it out every weekend,” Vance said. “We have tournaments every weekend starting April 15 until July 21.”

He said some tournament directors have reached out to ask what is going on, but he said the only pushback he’s heard about it is some teams from the Pittsburgh area dropping out of some tournaments. He fully expects he’ll see teams from Ohio, Canada, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia this season which peaks with the Battle at the Border on June 9-11.

“Business is good for us,” Vance said. “I don’t think we’ll see any after effects from (the derailment) but you never know down the line what might happen.”

mburich@mojonews.com