By Henry Luzzatto

Correspondent

 

Suffolk Parks and Recreation is gearing up for its fall sports season. But while the department is known largely for its activities for children, this fall’s schedule will have a different focus — active adults.

“We saw that we do a good job with youth, but need to offer more for active adults,” Recreation Manager Mike Frickanisce said.

Registration for the fall adult sports leagues offered by the city opened on July 18 and is open until Sept. 2. The city offers four different sports leagues for the fall season: co-ed volleyball, men’s softball, co-ed softball and co-ed kickball.

This is a big contrast from last year, where the city offered no fall sports for adults.

“Last year, interest didn’t do well so the leagues didn’t happen,” Frickanisce said. “We’re trying to get them off the ground again.”

Each of the four sports leagues requires players to register as a team, so players must organize their team before signing up.

If each league has six teams sign up to play, it will be considered a success for Suffolk Parks and Recreation, Frickanisce said.

“Five teams would be good, because we would be able to have a double elimination tournament and keep it fun,” he said. “I would be happy with five, but six would be a success.”

The fall leagues come in the wake of a successful year for the Department of Parks and Recreation, he said.

“Winter and spring are our busiest seasons, and it’s been a really good year for them,” Frickanisce said.

He said they hope to continue that success in the fall season.

Though softball, kickball and volleyball may seem like an odd collection of sports to put together for a fall league, Frickanisce said the sports have a good following.

“We’re always evaluating programs and seeing what the community wants,” he said. “Softball especially has a large following.”

Frickanisce said the city evaluates the needs of the community to find out what they want to see in the future. Even though the last year was a down year for adult sports, Frickanisce said they are willing to give it another chance, and they hope it will be a success.

“Last year was a down year, but we weren’t ready to say the programs were declining,” he said. “A nice solid year would give us a good idea what the people want.”

Parks and Recreation plans to increase the turnout for this year by getting the word out. Frickanisce said the city plans to put up signs and advertise more aggressively to get the word out. Though there haven’t been any sign-ups so far, Frickanisce said he is seeing increased interest.

“We’re getting interest,” he said. “We think we’ll see more once signs go up and we promote more on social media.”

Registration has to be done in person at the Parks and Recreation administration building at 134 S. Sixth St. The team registration fee is $350 for co-ed and men’s softball, $175 for volleyball and $220 for kickball. Registration closes on Sept. 2.