Hartselle Youth Baseball will stay with Dixie Youth Baseball if president Mark Mizell’s compromise is approved by the board.

Mizell announced the changes in written statement, which was also signed with parks and recreation director Frank Miller, Mayor Don Hall and Council President Bill Smelser. He will present that statement to the board for approval at a meeting Sunday.

Read Mizell’s proposal here

Staying with Dixie Youth Baseball also means that the city leagues will be eligible to compete all-star tournament throughout the summer, but regular Saturday games outside of the T-ball and 5-6 leagues will not happen.

However, each league will play two or three league tournaments on Saturdays throughout the season.

Mizell said he hopes this compromise will help bring everyone back together.

“It’s not going to be perfect for everyone,” Mizell said. “We had to make a compromise, and I think we’re offering something that can work for us.”

Mizell said the reason why he wanted to make the changes was because of declining participating in city baseball leagues.

“We have to do something different to stop that trend or our league will die,” Mizell said.

In addition to those changes, All-star selections won’t be made until 14 days prior to the first tournament, which Mizell said will allow for longer league schedules. The coach of the winning team will have the first opportunity to coach the all-star team and select a team.

If the first place team coach declines, those duties would fall to the second place coach and so on until a coach accepts the all-star coaching position.

Dixie Youth Baseball also will only fund up to $750 in fees from Dixie sanctioned tournaments and expenses for out-of-state travel.

Instead, each league will play two to three interleague tournaments throughout the season.

“Only league teams will be eligible for these tournaments,” Mizell said. “This will allow for a few Saturday games through the season, but it also provides the flexibility to allow players to compete in travel ball.”

The city also will not bid on any tournaments unless the league makes a request to the Parks and Recreation Department, which will then be passed along to the mayor and city council.

Mizell said Harselle Youth Baseball will offer a travel ball league for six to seven weeks beginning in July if there is interest there.

“This will provide kids not participating in all-stars or other tournaments an opportunity to come and play more games,” Mizell said.

Mizell said the board meeting Sunday afternoon will be open to the public, but it will not be a public input meeting like it was on Jan. 18.