As the time for the 10-year-olds’ Cal Ripken state tournament draws nearer, the tournament officials have begun to increase their work to make it run as smooth as possible.

The state tournament has been anxiously awaited sense last year when state commissioner Eugene Reynolds unofficially told Cal Ripken District 10 president Rob Pearson that the tournament was theirs to hold.

The league officials have been planning tournaments for this since becoming a member of the Cal Ripken League. In fact, it was one of the major reasons Demopolis youth baseball decided to switch over to Cal Ripken from Dixie Youth.

With a little less than a month to go, parents are focusing on the banquet that will be held on the opening Friday night, and the presidents of the district are gearing up to make things run well.

While this is a tournament that will be held at the Sports-Plex with all of the outside monetary business, it will be the district that is hosting.

Workers will be provided from a different group each day, and the revenue from the tournament will be split with those who help.

This was important to the officials who worked to bring the tournament to Demopolis.

“We wanted to be able to market the area, above just marketing Demopolis,” said Pearson.

The ability to bring the entire district into it means that there will be a different set of people available to work each day of the tournament.

“We told everyone that we will all share the revenue if we share the work,” said league president and tournament director Art Evans.

This work sharing will allow the fans of teams who will be participating a chance to watch the games from the fans perspective instead of just working.

While the work and profits will be shared, it will be the Sports-Plex that once again gets to put on the show.

The venue has been the site of state tournaments before, and Pearson said those tournaments have helped everyone involved make this one better.

This trend will look to continue as both Evans and Pearson will continue to fight to get state tournaments here in Demopolis.

“Our goal is to host one every year,” said Pearson, “and we have the facilities to do it.”