The Ohio Valley League didn’t have any games this season, but that doesn’t mean the process stops in making the OVL a premier destination for collegiate athletes.
The OVL recently announced a 10th team would be joining the league as Full Count Rhythm, out of Hendersonville, Tenn., will field a squad in 2021.
“I do think Full Count is going to be a really good franchise,” Owensboro RiverDawgs manager Vic Evans said. “It shows that our league is a well-funded, growing, good league.”
With the new addition, a realignment was needed as each division will now have five teams.
The North Division will be the RiverDawgs, Dubois County Bombers, Henderson Flash, Madisonville Miners and the Muhlenberg County Stallions.
The South Division will be the Franklin Duelers, Full Count Rhythm, Fulton Railroaders, Hoptown Hoppers and the Paducah Chiefs.
Evans said the league is doing what it needs to do to make it the best it can be.
“I give a lot of credit to our president John Bruce. I think he’s done an excellent job when he came on as the president,” he said. “I also give a lot of credit to the president before him in Cub Stokes, who’s involved in the Fulton franchise. Those two guys have worked really hard in growing the league.”
Evans said the new alignment will cut down on travel with the league going to an unbalanced schedule.
“You will play teams in your division more than you will play teams in the other division,” he said. “Theoretically, you’re traveling more often to the places closest to you.”
Evans said in his early years in the OVL, they played 18 straight days at one point in the season. He said the players have to be ready play daily if they want to continue playing the game they love.
“If you’re lucky enough to play in the minor leagues, you play a Thursday night game that gets done at midnight then you’re on the road for eight hours and playing a 6 p.m. game the next day,” he said. “You learn a little bit about how to take care of yourself.”
When the decision was made earlier this summer to cancel the 2020 season, Evans said it was tough to swallow.
“You work so hard, our GM and myself, on making the contacts and getting the players,” he said. “It was kind of double tough because you had the the college season that shut down early and so then you had all these groups of players, especially pitchers, who are normally shut down after their college season because they play so many innings that they now all of a sudden, they were looking for a place to play.”
In the OVL, a player must have at least one year of eligibility to play in the league but when the NCAA granted another year to last spring’s seniors, it started another wave of recruiting.
“There was a whole second rush of trying to help as many people as you can play,” he said.
Evans said it was difficult to crush a player’s dreams for the second time in just a couple of months.
“You felt so good about you’re getting really good talented players that maybe we weren’t going to get before, and you’re really excited for the league then you get the vote to shut the league down,” he said. “It’s crushing for us because we were excited about the product we were going to put on the field but those guys already had their heart broken with their college season canceled, then you’ve got to call them again.”
The process has already started for the 2021 season as the first game is scheduled for June 4. The league will celebrate its 10th season next year.
Teams will play 44 regular-season games including their division foes for 24 of those games.
