Baseball runs through the Houk family. In particular the Douglas County Amateur Baseball Association has deep roots in their clan. Walt Houk was one of the original signers of the league when it began back in the early 1970’s. Kent Houk, the current commissioner of the 10-and-under division, field operations manager and coach, played on DCABA’s first team, the Jets. Now his kids play for the Jets, the oldest franchise in the league.

This year, Houk is helping bring about some change and improvements to the league, in hopes of raising the level of competition and assuring the participants have as much fun as possible. The first major change is team entry for the 10-and-under and 12-and-under age divisions. There will be no draft as anyone can organize a team to enter in the league.

“We really want to keep Lawrence players and teams in town,” Houk said. “We also want to be competitive with some of the other leagues by upgrading our facilities.”

Kent Houk, left, John Carmody and Ray Buffalomeat work on putting netting up behind the backstop at the 4-H Fairgrounds fields on March 11.

Some upgrades include adding small press boxes, updated scoreboards, yellow fence caps in the outfield and improved field conditions. The players will notice these changes at the 4-H Fairgrounds as they walk to Travellers/Wrigley Field or Quizno’s/Fenway Park on opening day in mid-April. They may even spot a miniature Green Monster at Fenway. Everything is geared towards keeping kids in town instead of bolting to other leagues outside Lawrence.

“It’s just a manner of sprucing up the fields a bit,” Houk said. “We want the kids to have a sense of pride about where they play and enjoy being there.

The plan to spruce up the fields has met little adversity over the past four months. Even the storm system that wreaked havoc across Lawrence and caused millions of dollars of damage to Kansas University’s campus seemed to have had some mercy on the DCABA fields.

“The winds knocked the roof off the home dugout at Wrigley, but other than that there was only minimal damage,” Houk said.

Chris Turner and his son Tim, repair a fence by the dugout at the 4-H Fairgrounds on March 11. Volunteers worked to make field improvements before the season starts on April 24.

Other small changes were made in the fundraising and sponsorship areas. Each field at 4-H Fairgrounds has a business sponsor to go with its major league name. The individual teams are in charge of their own fundraising for uniforms, travel and other team needs, but DCABA is still active in gaining sponsorships for the league and selling ad space on the outfield fences, which in turn has helped fund the field improvements.

In the end it’s about having fun. With more teams – the 10-and-under division nearly doubled to 15 squads – combined with upgraded facilities, there should be no shortage of fun had during the upcoming DCABA baseball season. Coaches like Kent Houk, with a tradition of baseball running through their families, will make sure of that.

“I just really enjoy teaching baseball and watching the kids improve as the season goes on,” Houk said. “With a greater level of competition and more kids participating, this season should be really fun.”