National Wiffle League Association bringing tournament to Canonsburg

For the past four years, Jacob Davey and the WIFF is Life wiffle ball team based out of Canonsburg have traveled to the National Wiffle League Association tournament in Michigan.

He and his team won the tournament in 2018 and placed fifth last season. The trips created fun memories, exciting moments and accomplishments they’ll never forget. Then, this past winter the NWLA opened up bidding for a new location for the tournament after it was held the past two years in Morenci, Mich.

It was an opportunity Davey, who is a senior communications major at Pitt-Greensburg, couldn’t pass up, so he got together with the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency and put together a bid to bring the national wiffle ball tournament to Canonsburg.

“We submitted a bid with about four or five other cities and it came down to us and Indianapolis,” Davey said. “Then, the committee decided to go to Indianapolis; they actually have like a wiffle ball facility built in Indy.”

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Davey said the NWLA committee had to delay the tournament until September. But as the tournament date approached, and the pandemic remained, Indianapolis had to cancel.

Davey jumped on the opportunity.

He got back in touch with the tourism department and they were still willing to help out; Davey informed the NWLA that Canonsburg would be happy to host.

“The fact of having the national tournament in your backyard, that’s a pretty cool thing,” Davey said. “We all love going to it and we like the travel, it’s awesome to have the tournament here. I like putting on these types of events and the Washington County Tourism was a big help too.”

Sixteen teams from New York, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, West Virginia, Illinois and Pennsylvania will travel to North Strabane Park in Canonsburg to compete for the NWLA title.

“It’s definitely really cool,” Davey said. “We just started going to the tournament about four years ago and now were hosting it.”

Davey and the NWLA are in the process of putting together guidelines for the tournament to keep players as safe as possible. Davey said they aren’t sure if they will allow fans, but if they do, it will be in a limited capacity while following social distancing guidelines.

They also have other guidelines in place like each team will have their own bucket of balls to use, dugouts will be spaced out, and players will wear masks in between games.

“We are putting together our guidelines,” Davey said. “North Strabane Park asked for a list of what we’ll do, and our committee is working on that right now.”

This tournament isn’t just a normal wiffle ball tournament in the backyard. The NWLA will have four fields spread across the outfield of the North Strabane Park baseball field and even if they don’t allow spectators, you’ll be able to find stats and even a livestream on the league’s social media accounts.

Tournament play will start in the morning of Sept. 19 with three pool play games, and a 16-team bracket will begin that afternoon. The tournament will conclude Sept. 20.

Normally, there is an all-star game and home run derby on opening night, but the league will try to limit group gatherings this year with just a home run derby Sept. 18.