Cove American Little League briefs council on program

There’s a new ballgame in town—or at least that’s what California transplant Chuck Taylor hopes. During Tuesday night’s city council workshop, Taylor presented a proposal to the council to start an official Little League baseball program in Copperas Cove. Taylor was involved in the Little League program in Alpine, Cal. for 18 years, where he started as an assistant coach, then coach, became an umpire and the umpire chief, followed by becoming vice president and then president of the board for that city’s program. On Tuesday night, Taylor briefed the council on what having a Little League program could mean for Copperas Cove. Boys and girls ages 5 to 18 have the opportunity to play. “This brings baseball and softball under one umbrella,” Taylor told the council. “We would take that off you.” An added perk to the community is that the City Park’s ball fields have lighting, so the Cove league could potentially host tournaments for out-of-town teams. “We’re ready to go the minute the city sits downs with us and tells us what we can and can’t do,” Taylor said. What Cove American Little League would need from the city would be use of the ball fields for practice and games, along with use of the civic center for registration and uniform pickup night. He stressed that the Little League organization is made up of all volunteers on the local level. Killeen and Gatesville both have Little League teams, and he presented a map of where the Copperas Cove league’s boundaries would be. The area stretches as far west as Kempner and as far north as nearly to Pidcoke. Taylor said he hopes the leagues boundaries will go as far east as Venable Village on Fort Hood and Highway 195, but that has not been determined yet. The local area makes up Little League District 9 and includes the communities of Crawford, Gatesville, China Spring, Robinson, Lorena, Hewitt Midway, Waco Southern, Lacy-Lakeview, La Vega, Waco Eastern Little League, Lake Air Little League, West Little League, and Central Texas (Killeen). Councilman George Duncan said it was a worthwhile program, and Mayor John Hull said there were “a lot of things that need to be worked out” with bringing the program to Copperas Cove. The city is currently in the process of hiring a new director for the Parks and Recreation Department, so the council is holding off on any action until that director is in place later this month. Taylor told the council that the goal is to begin registering players starting in January 2016, and that the Cove league would need access to the ball fields from mid February through mid June.