CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – The local travel ball organization G1 Athletics is hosting tryouts Saturday, Aug. 1 through Sunday, Aug. 2 at Civitan Park.

G1 Athletics is a Christ-centered baseball and softball league based in Clarksville.

Their mission, according to their website, is to “lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ while providing a rewarding and competitive travel team experience… G1’s main goal is that everyone, both inside and outside the organization, will experience the love of Jesus Christ through their coaches, players and families.”

“G1 stands for God first,” said G1 Athletics president Travis Cocke. “We developed this organization a couple of years ago. We started out with one baseball team and one softball team. At the time, we never really had plans to expand beyond that. We wanted to be able to allow young men and women to kind of express their need for God in their lives, as well as the parents and coaches.”

“People saw the message that we had going out on social media and on the back of our jerseys with the moniker #GODFIRST. We had our first organizational tryout last summer about the same time and the response was overwhelming. We had close to 300 kids show up and we were just shocked at the turnout we had. After that tryout, we went from two teams to 16 teams basically overnight.”

Cocke spoke about the difficulties of holding tryouts in today’s climate presents.

“We’re no stranger to the effects of COVID,” Cocke said. “It’s affected everybody’s life in some way. We’ve really leaned on the leadership from Governor Lee, Mayor Durrett and Mayor Pitts to kind of let us know exactly what would be safe for the kids and our families. We had to shut down for several weeks at the beginning and have since tried to follow the different phases the absolute best that we can. Now we’re pretty much back to what the new normal is. We’re still trying to social distance, use hand sanitizer and that sort of thing.”

According to Cocke, excitement levels are at an all-time high surrounding G1 Athletics as they look to expand their presence across the board.

“Just from the amount of pre-registrations that we have and interest on social media, we’re expecting anywhere between 400 and 500 kids to show up,” Cocke said. “I think the players are just grateful for the ability to get out and do something away from their homes, enjoy being with their friends and to have their grandparents come out and watch a good day of ball.”

Those planning to attend this weekend at Civitan Park should keep a few things in mind while making their way to the field.

“Number one just have fun,” Cocke said. “A lot of kids are nervous when they go to a tryout. We’re going to do our best to make sure that they’re comfortable. We are going to have to take some COVID precautions. They’ll be some waivers to fill out. We’ll be offering temperature screenings, masks are recommended and we are going to ask our parents that are watching the tryouts to social distance the best they can.

“One thing we won’t be able to offer are concessions. We’ve spoken with the county and they just didn’t recommend that we have a food truck on site. Really we just want people to come out, enjoy being outdoors and have a fun day at the ballpark.”

Tryout times

Saturday, Aug. 1
9 a.m.-12 p.m.: 15/16/17/18U Baseball
12 p.m.-2 p.m.: 13/14U Baseball
2 p.m.-4 p.m.: 11/12U Baseball
4 p.m.-6 p.m.: 9/10U Baseball
6 p.m.-8 p.m.: 6/7/8U Baseball

Sunday, Aug. 2
1 p.m.-2:30 p.m.: 6/7/8U Softball
2:30 p.m.-4 p.m.: 9/10U Softball
4 p.m.-5:30 p.m.: 11/12U Softball
5:30 p.m. -7 p.m.: 13/14U Softball
7 p.m.-9 p.m.: 15/16/17/18U Softball

Players who are interested can sign up by sending an email to G1Athletics.org@gmail.com that includes their name, birth date, graduation year, parents’ names, address and phone number.

You can learn more about G1 Athletics at their website http://g1athletics.com/ or on their Facebook page at https://m.facebook.com/G1AthleticsTN/?tsid=0.4519930731116837&source=result.