Northstars will get to play ball

It has been a rollercoaster of a spring for the Havre Northstars American Legion baseball club, with a mix of uncertainty and hope that a season will come about in 2020. After all, summer baseball has been a huge passion in the local community for years.

Now though, with Montana Gov. Steve Bullock announcing in his press conference Tuesday afternoon that Phase II of the re-opening of Montana is to begin June 1, the Northstars have an even bigger shot at the season starting as soon as the phase kicks off. The news is a relief to many that are involved with the Havre program.

Northstars head coach Patch Wirtzberger gave an update on the progress that the Havre club and the Montana American Legion have made since the last update.

"The governor made his announcement Tuesday that we would be going into Phase II June 1," Wirtzberger said. "We have just started to plan our game-day operations. We're getting that plan put together so we can send it into the county and get their feedback on things that we may need to do to try and limit the spread (of COVID-19) here and keep everybody safe. That's kind of where we're at right now."

With Phase II ready to start June 1, the Northstars know they will have games this summer. With all the uncertainty at the start, there is now a path that leads to some baseball being played in the summer of 2020. All that Havre must do is once again get approval from the Hill County Health Board to go forward with a safe and responsible game-plan in regard to the games and travel.

It was earlier this month that the teams across the nation learned that the National Leadership of American Legion had made the decision not to officially sponsor any season this year but left the option for teams to compete as independent clubs to what the local and state levels saw as safe and responsible. Clubs, like Havre, had to find their own sponsorships and insurance policies and create a set of rules or guidelines regarding play to go forward with the season.

Things have changed again, however and, luckily, the Montana American Legion has gone forward as the sponsor for this year's independent season. Wirtzberger explained the slight adjustments that they had to make and the good news regarding the progress.

"The National Leadership of American Legion decided that they do not want to sponsor anything this year," Wirtzberger said. "But our state association has decided that they will. Basically all we had to do was get our own insurance policy and then the season will ride on with our Montana American Legion rules as planned before, so that was really good news for us that we didn't have to really change anything except for insurance policy."

Now, the Northstars will have a lot ahead of them when it comes to getting back on the field. The Havre club has gone through quite a bit if practices throughout the time since they were approved to do so by the local health board, working hard to make something out of what at first was to be a lost season. With a direct gateway to going forward with a season ahead, it is sure that the Northstars will be practicing even harder to improve.

With the puzzle almost complete, Wirtzberger is glad to see his team in high spirits going forward.

"It's exciting," Wirtzberger said. "I could see it in the kids at practice Tuesday night. They've just been waiting for some good news like this, and I know that they are just dying to get out there and compete. I'm excited for them."

Originally, Havre was to be the host for the 2020 Montana American Legion A State Tournament, which was to bring about a lot of fans, revenue for local businesses and elite teams from across the state to compete for a title. Since then, though, things have changed. The state tournament will not be held in Havre, but somewhere else that is as of now undetermined. Even so, Wirtzberger still had the set dates for the district and state tournaments, as well as the highly likely location for the district tournament.

"What they decided is that we would play our district tournament on July 29 and 30," Wirtzberger said. "We know that is going to be in Great Falls. The state tournament will be August 6 through the 9, but we don't know where that is yet, right now, but we know that it will not be here."

As of now, Wirtzberger and the Havre club are working to bring forward another plan to the Hill County Health Board for approval, which will give the Northstars the green light to go forward with an independent season, along with the many teams across Montana. What seemed like a lost season at first has now become a great chance for the Havre club to actually get on the field and play, with the hopes of all the hard work put in so far paying off.