Youth baseball coach disputes characterization of team’s exit because of COVID concerns
The coach of a youth baseball team asked to leave the 3&2 West baseball fields in Shawnee Friday for violating Kansas’ COVID-19 quarantine guidelines disputes the characterization that his team was kicked out of the complex and escorted away by police for refusing to leave.
Doug Doll, who coaches the Competitive Edge Baseball Club 13U team, told The Star Saturday that he was awaiting word from his attorney at the field Friday to see if his team and players could remain in the Under Armour Championships tournament. They had been told they had to leave by tournament officials for failing to quarantine for 14 days, per Kansas Department of Health & Environment guidelines, after recently playing at another tourney in Alabama.
Alabama is one of five states considered high-risk for COVID exposure by the state of Kansas.
The coach said that when his attorney informed him that his team would not be able to participate in the tournament, he and his players left peacefully. Shawnee Police spokesman Maj. Jim Baker said Friday that once someone is asked to leave such a property by an authority figure and does not do so, it is deemed trespassing.
Doll said he had notified Midwest Sports Productions, one of the event’s organizers, earlier in the week that due to injuries and family vacations his team didn’t have enough players available to play in the Shawnee tournament after recently competing at the tournament in Alabama. Doll said he had requested that his team be allowed to withdraw from the tournament.
Tori Blake, director of operations for Midwest Sports, said that she was not aware that Doll had mentioned in his email that the team had played in Alabama. Blake said that if she had known, Midwest Sports would have immediately enacted the proper safety protocols. She said Midwest Sports has since issued a full refund to Doll for the participation fee that the team paid to play.
According to the coach, he and his Missouri-based team did not know about the KDHE mandate calling for a 14-day isolation period after visiting higher-risk states. He said he was not told by tournament officials about the problem until they were on-site Friday, about to play their first game.
“I told Midwest Sports Productions on Monday that we were in Gulf Shores playing baseball and I could not play in the tournament because I couldn’t get enough players,” Doll said. “They never said anything about being quarantined in Kansas about not being able to play.”
The KDHE quarantine guidelines regarding to out-of-state travel currently apply to five states: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida and South Carolina. According to the KDHE website, the state health department uses a formula to evaluate new cases in states across the country and compare them to coronavirus numbers in Kansas. If COVID-19 rates in other states are approximately three times higher, those states get added to the list.
Doll said the Alabama trip was to have been his team’s last tournament of the summer, but a few additional KC-area tournaments were added to their schedule because others were canceled due to the pandemic.
Doll said he sent multiple emails to Midwest Sports about pulling out of the Shawnee tournament. He shared one of those with The Star. Unable to withdraw, the coach said he added another player from a lower-age group team to his 13U squad and on Wednesday paid the tournament fee required to participate starting Friday.
Notified at the field shortly after 11 a.m. Friday that his team wouldn’t be allowed to play because of the Kansas quarantine guidelines, Doll said, he called his attorney and had the lawyer speak with 3&2 executive director Jeff Chalk to see if they could find a way for the team to play as scheduled.
“We’re doing our best to follow the rules as laid out by the state of Kansas,” Chalk said in a Friday afternoon interview with The Star.
While his team warmed up for the game, Doll said, an on-site 3&2 official agreed to wait for the outcome of that conversation. Doll said he explained this to the Shawnee Police officers when they arrived; not long after that, Doll said, his attorney called back and told him that any further dispute about the team not being allowed to play would have to continue in court — they would not be able to play Friday after all.
Doll said that at that point he explained the situation to both his team and the opposing team’s coaches, and then he and his players left the field peacefully.
This story was originally published July 11, 2020 at 6:43 PM.