Baseball galore: Chocowinity will host four age groups in District 6 baseball tournaments

Published 8:08 am Thursday, July 3, 2025

By Jason O. Boyd

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CHOCOWINITY, N.C. — There’s a famous quote in the baseball film “Field of Dreams” that goes like this: “If you build it, they will come.”

For around a year, Chocowinity has been building up to the start of the District 6 Tarheel Leagues tournament play. Baseball teams from Beaufort County and surrounding areas in four age groups will come together at the town’s complex starting this Saturday to play a week’s worth of baseball. The winners will advance to state play at various other locations.

Chocowinity has had a long tradition of recreation baseball and softball teams playing in and winning on different levels. The chance to take part again in something like this, which is so big and important, was one that Chocowinity Recreation Director Charlie Elks and his team couldn’t pass up.

“We’re going to be all day Saturday, all day Sunday, and then every night Monday through Friday, and then maybe even to the next Saturday,” Elks said. “So just trying the logistics of figuring out how we’re going to do the entry and the admission fees and stuff, and where we’re going to set up the gate fees at, and medical tents because it’s hot, and coordinating with EMS and fire department and different things, and trying to talk to local churches about people helping.”

Elks said one of the factors in making sure Chocowinity could host such a big event was having lights on the main field at the complex. That was taken care of before the start of the recreation season, and a special dedication was held on Opening Day for the recreation department.

With that final piece of the puzzle in place, the rest was left to teams playing, winning and coming to Chocowinity to continue their seasons. The town’s recreation department has been busy getting volunteers to help with everything from keeping the scorebooks to running the concession stands and prepping the fields before and after each game. The crew has been busy doing everything else this week before the July 4 holiday.

“I think it was, I want to say 30-some different teams,” Elks said. “But each team, you know, has 10 to 13 kids on each team, and then the parents. And we have, I think it was 12 8U teams alone, which involves bringing in all the parents and the grandparents.

“Hopefully, every one of them will stop somewhere and, you know, buy groceries, buy drinks, and orders and all that before they get there. And then what they spend there, because we’re actually providing breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday, and then the normal concessions.”

Elks said, despite the fact Chocowinity has hosted various tournaments before, this is the first for him and his wife. Things like ordering T-shirts, making sure there’s plenty of parking and plans in place if it rains are just some of the many things they’ve had to contend with overall. However, he believes everyone is ready to put on a good tournament and let the children and coaches do the rest. That includes his son, who is on Chocowinity’s 15-and-under team.

“You’ve got, I would say, eight games for each age division, and then you obviously break it down from there, and it becomes eight, four, two, whatever, and then you’ve got double elimination and whatnot,” Elks said. “So you’re probably talking, you know, what, 50 or more games that you’re going to be playing all together with the different age groups. So, it’s just a lot of planning and logistics.”

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