Kenton Lakes?

[bogey021]

Anybody ever play in a league at Kenton Lakes? How's the quality of the diamonds and park in general? Is it better or worse competition than leagues at the other NKY parks?

[stallings18]

played there for the 1st time a few weeks ago. The fields are just as good as Riverstar and eggelston. I think if they weren't in No where land it would give huddy a hard time. All the fields are level, fences are great and they have a great consession stand for us fat guys who love beer. They have there own Beer only line!! Syndicate played Friday league nights down there.

[bogey021]

Syndicate kicked our ass all over the field in Riverstar's fall league on Monday nights so I'll try to avoid that night. lol

I think E league might be more suited for my team. Does anyone know if Kenton Lakes offers lower-level leagues like that?

[Kenton Lakes]

Just a little info for next year leagues the friday night league will probably have an upper and lower division. and play under the same format all the teams were either D or E on fridays.

The major problem for teams next year is we will only do a Wednesday ,Friday and Sunday evening league in the spring again next year. The rest of the weeknights will open after baseball finishes in June. We will take teams for the summer / fall league and the prices will be consistent with this years pricing.

Wednesday is currently open for teams that wish to play and I would like to make wednesday an upper level with good C and D teams with the HR limit open to the league input keep in mind we will supply the balls but will be added in to the leagues cost. We will also limit the number of teams to 12 in the double header format but would expand if league wanted to play single games rather than double headers. NSA will allow us to award world series berths to league champs but the teams must validate the berths according to NSA rules. If the league is a mix of C & D teams we would award berths to both classes.

Bill Martz
Kenton Lakes
park 859-359-4263
Cell 513-233-1502

[Kenton Lakes]

Chris,

Thanks for the kind words we have worked real hard to provide one of the best parks around and will continue to improve the park a little at a time.

Bill

[bjpierson24]

Very nice park, played down there a couple times with the guys' NSA team this year. Stallings hit the comparison head on. Imagine Riverstar being dropped about 20-30 mins away from civilization.

[B-Dunc]

I don't think it's that far from civilization. Kenton Lakes is only about 15 minutes from Huddy. It just depends on where you live. Hopefully gas prices will continue to go down and make it easier on our wallets to make the drive. It's definitely worth going to Kenton Lakes for doubleheaders. I'm sure they wouldn't even mind keeping doubleheaders as back-to-back games. That alone is worth the extra drive time. It can be frustrating at times having an hour plus wait between games.

[slamit93]

It can be frustrating at times having an hour plus wait between games.

It's frustrating to me NOT getting the 1 hour break between games... That's beer time.

For anyone living on the north half of Cincinnati Kenton Lakes might as well be Lexington... But other than that I'm sure it's a great place to play.

[Hollywood 37]

Anybody ever play in a league at Kenton Lakes? How's the quality of the diamonds and park in general? Is it better or worse competition than leagues at the other NKY parks?

It's all about where you live, I suppose. I am from the East Side, so unless my team is playing somewhere else, I am a magnet for Expressway, and the Star.

Bottom line is, Kenton Lakes is a hell of a facility. For tourneys, it's well worth the drive. If you are in the general area (NKY'ish) there are plenty of ways to get there that take just as long as it does to get to some other parks, and it's well worth the trip. My son's baseball team that I coach played there for years in SW Ohio ball for either Tourneys, or regular season games. They do it right, and the place looks nice. I promise you that if gas was $1.50 again, I would play there a couple nights a week.

[stallings18]

Thanks Bill, Like I said you do put a lot of work into that park. Years past it started to go down hill. Now its one of the premier parks. The only thing that holds you back is NSA. Hopefully some teams will play NSA up here more and bussiness will sky rocket. Or you can get a few USSSA tournaments up here. Either way i know people will be pleased with the facilities as long as you keep running them the way you have!! Top Knotch!

[slamit93]

Thanks Bill, Like I said you do put a lot of work into that park. Years past it started to go down hill. Now its one of the premier parks. The only thing that holds you back is NSA. Hopefully some teams will play NSA up here more and bussiness will sky rocket. Or you can get a few USSSA tournaments up here. Either way i know people will be pleased with the facilities as long as you keep running them the way you have!! Top Knotch!

I don't think NSA holds KL back one bit.

I think there is plenty of room for NSA in Cincinnati...

The Problem is it's location (for alot of us)

[YoungGuns]

does KL plan on running any NSA "upper" level ball next year?
B qualifiers or anything?

[stallings18]

They always have qualfiers for NSA all levels. I was not saying NSA is holding him back, its just there isn't a lot of participation in the cincinnati area like there is USSSA and ASA. There has a chance of NSA becoming huge in Cincinnati because of all the regulations in USSSA and the New ball specs. NSA is getting big in Lexington, So hoefully some of those teams come up for the tournaments.

[YoungGuns]

i know next year we ( american dream/evil empire/wessel/YG ) plan to travel to indy and lexington and Virginia to play NSA

[LittleLeager24]

Played in the friday night league with a bunch of buddies from high school. We had a blast playing at Kenton Lakes. Everything Stallings said is exactly what I think of the park. Bill we hope to be back next year with either the Syndicate or Buzzin Buddays...

[Sproles08]

The park is nice, and Bill has done a great job since he has been there. I know that people complain about location, but teams will go where the competition and NIT's are.

Unfortunately at this time, KL does not have any USSSA NIT's. Teams will travel for NIT's. In qualifiers you will usually have teams staying close to home. If KL could get a Super Qualifier then teams might travel. Once you get down there, then you will realize how nice it is.

The only issue with NSA, is that USSSA is kind of spoiled some teams. Some teams that are trying to get that world berth, look at taking a weekend to play NSA hurting them. Their view is they could of been playing USSSA to get points.

[Kenton Lakes]

OK guys since this thread has not been hijacked and stayed on subject and seems to be discussing Kenton Lakes Options I would like to share some info.

The park has in the past tried to host Utrip events with little success, at the time we could not get an NIT to show off the park to the majority of teams that play tournament ball. We were told we would need to register at least 60 teams. The answer from many teams were always the same "its to far away and we can play right here in town why travel." So I made the decision to improve our location by offering NSA. teams would not have to travel to Indy, Columbus, Lexington , or Louisville to play NSA. As far as hosting NIT's I have lobbied NSA for an NIT for 2009 but keep in mind NSA still only hosts a limited number of NIT's and Super NIT's which accounts for why each of their NIT's still have 30 to 40 teams minimum.

Could we do a Utrip NIT next year? YES if we wish to pay the bid fees.

As a business person ask yourself if your park only has about six open dates for adult softball ( March through July) Do you host a tournament that cost $600 to $1000 or do you do a tournament that the organization pays you to host the tournament?

I feel I understand the mentality of the Utrip teams and the desire to make it to worlds and play in the big show but one point that I like about NSA is that ALL teams must win at some level to progress to the next level and from there they must continue to win at the next level to move on to the next upper level. When teams finally reach the worlds and super worlds they have proven that they belong in the tournaments and are among the best teams in the country even if the tournament does not have 200 teams at the final tournament. Bigger and more numbers does not always mean that every team belongs there and I do recognize any team that can survive a 200 plus team tournament and finish in the top 25 should be proud of its accomplishment. Cincinnati area teams can and do compete on the national level and will continue to compete and the teams continue to prove it each year in all the sanctioning bodies of softball. NSA is just an alternative for teams to make the big show.

Having traveled the country with both my daughters playing fast pitch( ASA, NSA, USSSA, and USFA) and I spent a lot of time talking with players, Tournament directors, park managers and owners I have realized if a park is going to survive it must adapt and follow the trends. We will continue to offer youth competion in the spring and early summer with limited adult softball (leagues and tournaments) and in july we will offer adult softball for the recreational and tournament player at a discounted rate on the nights no longer used by baseball. (Monday ,tuesday and thursday)
Teams that wish to play in the spring need to think about signing up or calling since the friday night league currently has a few openings and wednesday will be limited to 12 teams. Sunday evening is coed and recreational only and do not expect to fill up.

Bill Martz
Kenton Lakes
Park 859-359-4263
Cell 523-233-1502

[wells21]

Very good insight into the thinking of a local park. Thank you.

[stallings18]

Bill what do you think about having 1 major USSSA tournament there? Say kinda like the Bash at the beginning of the year. Or even talk to Bill Chard and see about getting your park included in the fields used in the bash. I mean he used Pastime and Huddy last year. Although pastime is a great park it is way farther to pastime from riverstar than KL to Riverstar. Also they tried using Huddy.. Everyone on here has there own opinion about huddy.

[Kenton Lakes]

Request was sent a while back and th ball is in Bill and Johns court. although I expressed reservations about getting on the fields that early and tearing up the fields without time to repair for the remainder of the season.

I would probably do it and would be able to help with classification of teams coming from NSA that drop one or two classes that were on a mandatory move up from NSA.

NSA has expressed an interest in offering an NSA division for the bash which will not happen due to the politics from Utrip.

[frog]

Great place

[Hard Hitting]

doesn't the bash do mostly ASA or WSL? NSA would be a sweet addition. I'm looking forward to playing some NSA next year.

[Hard Hitting]

BTW, Kenton Lakes has some of the nicest fields in the area. Everyone should try and check it out at least once. I played there this year and was shocked by how nice the fields are. The just need more shade in the area of the diamonds.

[b-pick]

I just don't get it. I keep hearing all these complaints about U-Trip, about park admission fees, about haivng to supply your own balls, yet then when there is a park that goes against that, its seems that teams find a reason to not give it at least a try. On top of that, entry fees are a bit cheaper.
I was there with prior ownership, and from then to what it is now, it is night and day. Bill, has put a lot of time, effort, and money into the park, and I think the softball community, the true softball community that loves the game, and want to compete without finding reasons not to, need to at the least give it a chance.
Personally, I think local teams need to make a statement here to NSA. I get tired of hearing all these teams in Lexington, Louisville, Paris, Cynthiana and other places around Kentucky saying that none of the teams around here stand a chance of competing without the faking, juking and flat pitch. I like to think not, but in some form, is this true, or will we continue to never know.
In order to have big tournaments like NSA NITs and Super NITs, the teams have to show they will come to that park to compete. We here is this area will complain about how far Kenton Lakes is, but I've seen first hand how teams from around Kentucky that play NSA will travel to wherever they have to, and a lot less quality ball parks to play.
I thought it was crazy to travel to Prestonsburg, KY (where you can basically smell West Va and Virginia) to play, and after being there. A top quality park with some of the best scenery around (mountains and hillbilly babes). I would go there again.
I heard nothing but good things about the Friday night league at the Lakes. Competitive and fun. Would not mind playing, or if enough interest, put together a throw together team.
Bill, need to have a challenge tournament where we can get those teams down there in Kentucky up here to compete against local teams. Maybe No Ky teams that are tired of getting short ended in the Metro would have some interest in bragging rights for the Bluegrass.

[Kenton Lakes]

Brett, Since you frequent the ky softball board I know you have seen the county / community program that Mickey Blue put together as trial program with NSA. I saw the results and wow what a tournament.

We will try to offer the tournament next year but have not come up with a good date.

The only team restriction is all of the teams players had to currently live in the same county / community or had to graduate from the same High school.

Each team was allowed to have two free agents (two players exempted from the restriction)

Northern Ky will include the tristate area in its district next year.

I looked at the results of the state tournament and it looked like scores from the old days with many of the games being one or two run games but still scoring 25 plus runs by both teams.

I know that Cinncinati could field some excellent teams and this tournment does not care what class a player plays in nor does it interfere with a players regular team.



Given the weather forcast for this weekend I would like to invite any players or team coaches and managers to stop by the park on saturday afternoon. I am there all day and will be happy to talk about next year. the friday night league started about the same way when Paul from Redneck Auto stopped to ask questions about league play for this year.

Any teams wishing to play or look at the park are welcome and I will be happy to discuss what teams want or feel would work best. If a group of teams wish to start a private invitational league this is your opportunity to get it started and have saome major input on what softball should be like.

Thanks to all the players that have hyped the park we are working hard to provide one of the best places to play in Northern Ky. The only thing we need to continue to improve the park is more teams and time.

Bill Martz