Gregory Williams of the Vicksburg Parks and Recreation Department does work at Halls Ferry Park’s Bluff Field on Wednesday in preparation for the start of the annual Governor’s Cup, which starts Friday.On the field, competition is a wonderful thing for the Governor’s Cup. Tournament organizer’s could do without it off the field, however.(The Vicksburg Post/JON GIFFIN)

[07/25/02]Competition from other youth baseball tournaments in the region is causing Governor’s Cup organizers to go down to the wire to fill several age brackets at the two-weekend tournament, which begins Friday at 6 p.m. at Halls Ferry Park.

“We’re a little bit slower filling up this year. It’s a concern, but we’ve learned from the past,” Governor’s Cup co-director Stan Woodson said. “It runs us up to the end. It just makes it hard to organize and plan for.”

Many teams are still competing in state, regional and national tournaments, and wait until the last minute to send in their entry fees, said William “Boozer” Emerson, the other tournament co-director.

“The problem is they hear about it too late. They’re in other tournaments and they get eliminated and want to come here,” Emerson said.

The 11-year-olds age group will have just three teams competing this weekend, while the 14-year-olds’ bracket will have only four.

“Those are specialty age groups. They never have been real strong, and they have off years,” Woodson said.

Despite the dropoff in those two age groups, interest in the tournament remains strong.

The other two age groups competing this weekend, the 7-8-year-olds and the 9-10-year-olds, will have about a dozen teams each. Next weekend’s five age groups are also expected to fill up, with anywhere from 6 to 16 teams competing in each, and between 60 and 70 teams from Mississippi and Louisiana will hit the fields at Halls Ferry over the two weekends.

“We are going to have a tournament out there this weekend,” Woodson said on Tuesday. “We’re not sure how it’s going to fill out, but we are going to have plenty of baseball for folks to watch.”

The Governor’s Cup celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, and its eighth year in Vicksburg. Originally started as a joint effort by the Mississippi Department of Parks and Recreation and the Governor’s Council on Youth Physical Fitness, the tournament was played in Madison for three years before dwindling interest nearly ended it.

In 1995, Vicksburg Baseball Association officials helped bring the tournament to the River City and it has thrived. From 31 teams and three age groups in 1995, the number of teams had doubled to 62 in 2001, and the number of age groups has tripled to nine this year. Last summer, the tournament was spread across two weekends for the first time.

“Our success has always been that we are the last big bang at the end of the summer, and we have a lot of repeat teams coming at the end of the summer,” Woodson said. “I think we have a following there.”

Although originally designed to promote physical fitness, the connection to the state has been phased out in recent years. The Governor’s Cup name remains, but the tournament now is used mainly to promote the VBA it’s the league’s biggest fundraiser, bringing in nearly $15,000 last year.

“There’s a good thing about having two weekends,” Woodson said. “This is our primary fund-raiser, and if one weekend gets rained out we’ll have a chance to make up the funds.”