Put me in, coach: Ormond Beach Youth Baseball and Softball Association kicks off T-ball season

The Ormond Beach Youth Baseball and Softball Association's T-ball league opened with 130 kids on 14 teams on Saturday, March 7.

  • By Michele Meyers
  • | 12:00 p.m. March 11, 2026
  • Ormond Beach Observer
  • Sports
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Somersaults to first base, fielding ground balls from teammates, lots of laughs, and a few tears were signs of the opening day of T-ball for the Ormond Beach Youth Baseball and Softball Association on Saturday, Mar. 7.

T-ball league director Doug Wigley has been living in Ormond Beach for 40 years and spent 32 of those years involved with the OBYBSA. Throughout that time, he has been coaching T-ball at intervals. In 2023, he took over the league again as director when his granddaughter started to play the sport.

Wigley collaborated with the City of Ormond Beach on a public-private partnership to have the T-ball fields built and dedicated in February 2013. The Ormond Beach City Commission approved a resolution to name the fields after Wigley the year before the fields were completed.

“You can look around and see how nice these fields are—the field of dreams,” he said. “It’s a nice public-private partnership, and the city has stepped up big time, not just with our fields, but the whole sports complex is second to none, from the Wendelstedt baseball fields for the high school kids to the soccer fields. I’m surprised we don’t have some of the FIFA games playing over here.”

The league is for kids who are 5-6 years old. This spring, there are 130 kids divided into 14 teams, with 14 volunteer coaches and numerous assistant coaches. Each team has a sponsor whose name is printed on the back of the team jerseys of who they support.

We’ve got great parents out here. Anytime I feel like I need a fix on how good the next generation is, I come out here. These parents are amazing. It restores your faith in the next generation and the country to see the way they are raising their kids and being involved." — DOUG WIGLEY, OBYBSA T-ball director

Two years ago, assistant director Marisa Wigley started volunteering to help her father-in-law with the league. She said they were maxing out at 10 teams.

“This spring, we had people who wanted to coach, and we didn’t need them,” she said. “That doesn’t happen. Usually, we’re reaching out and asking people to coach, and this year, we didn’t have to do that.”

Marisa juggles three children—a 7-month-old, a 3-year-old, and a 7-year-old and is also the PTA president at Pathways Elementary. She compiles the league’s rosters and schedules. Her daughter was playing T-ball when she first started helping.

“I like to be involved,” she said. “I know a lot of the kids as the PTA president at Pathways where my daughter goes to school, so I get to come out and see the other kids. Now on my father-in-law’s team, we’ve got friends of my husband, who he grew up with, and their kids are on the team. It’s just kind of a generational thing.”

Growing up in New York, Doug was inspired by his dad’s commitment to community involvement.

“My dad helped run the Little League there,” he said. “He was also involved with Boy Scouts. I have two brothers, so there was no way I wasn’t going to get involved in coaching.”

He said he can head to the T-ball fields for some positivity.

“We’ve got great parents out here,” Doug said. “Anytime I feel like I need a fix on how good the next generation is, I come out here. These parents are amazing. It restores your faith in the next generation and the country to see the way they are raising their kids and being involved.”






 

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