Kids in Goshen will go from playing “backyard ball” in recent years back to the world of sanctioned recreational league play beginning Saturday.

New league president Ashley Granados said it’s a great start for the community, although it will take a few years to fully realize the goal.

“We just started trying to get a few teams sanctioned; hopefully in the next few years we will get other teams sanctioned,” Granados said. “We’re trying to bring up their skill level so that when they get to JV, they know what they’re doing. It’s been just kind of playing backyard ball; the kids weren’t really getting to learn all the rules of baseball, so they were having to start from scratch. Everybody in the community is excited about being sanctioned.”

Granados said the league was sanctioned once before, 10 to 12 years ago, but it “kind of fell off” and the league consisted of three teams playing each other the whole season.

Now that the league is sanctioned again, Granados said the team will be able to travel to play other leagues such as Luverne, Elba and New Brockton.

“We’ll also be able to go to tournaments and to the state level,” Granados said. “We just talked to all of our parents and they were willing to do it, willing to jump on it. It’s been a lot of work; we had to do a lot to our field to get it ready, get a franchise number and insurance and all of that. We’re going to take this year as a learning year. We’re trying to build our program and it’s going to take a few years to get where we want to be, but we’re headed that way.”

Goshen Mayor Darren Jordan said this is something that the town has been looking to do for several years now.

“I think it’s great for the kids in the community to be able to go into other communities and enjoy time with other kids while promoting the town in a positive way,” Jordan said. “I think sometimes on the baseball diamond it’s more than just a game. Kids learn life lessons; it means more than winning and losing for a lot of them – it’s about learning responsibility and teamwork.

“As mayor I’m proud to see it happen. We talked about it for a year or two and we weren’t sure of the funding and how to make it happen. Our new president and vice president were able to talk to Dan Smith and David Dickey of Troy Recreation and they were extremely helpful in guiding us through the process. We thank them for their effort to increase kids’ involvement in sports.”