How Summerside is taking the 'politics' out of baseball team tryouts

Summerside, P.E.I., baseball officials are trying to take the "politics" out of choosing players for its top teams by appointing an independent tryout committee.

Tanner Doiron, president and general manager of Summerside Area Baseball Association (SABA), said the three-member committee will be responsible for evaluating and selecting players for its AAA and AA rep teams. Previously, the teams were selected by the SABA board of directors with input from coaches.

"We looked at it and looked for an opportunity, a way we can improve the process, and just in general how we could kind of take away the politics per say out of sports when it comes to the tryouts," Doiron said.

3-person committee

"It's an important time of year for the kids and parents and whatnot and we want to make sure that the the whole entire selection process is done right."

Sometimes you know there's conflict of interest that arises.— Tanner Doiron

The tryout committee will be comprise of Nick Hahn of Summerside, Matt Barlow of Charlottetown and Chuck Grady of Kensington.

Doiron said the committee members, who have no ties to kids playing in the system, will bring more transparency and an unbiased eye to the selection process. He said they will be in the stands during the tryouts and will have no interaction with any coaches and or parents during the entire on-field process.

Coaches still have input

While the final roster decisions remain with the committee, volunteer coaches will still have input into selecting the teams. At the end of the tryouts, head coaches can submit their own rosters to the committee for to review and cross-reference, Doiron said.

"In fairness to them, it's their team for the rest of the season. So we don't want to necessarily strip away their right of naming the team."

Doiron said for the most part, the team lists will line up. But there may be some differences in picking the final few roster spots.

"There's been some concerns and I know from being around multiple sports that it's not only baseball, but you see it everywhere, where sometimes you know there's conflict of interest that arises or whether it be politics per se that people like to call it."

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