It's been a complicated game of musical chairs for many school sports teams across the state. Last week, many school districts rescheduled nighttime games played outdoors, setting earlier start times and pushing several games to the weekends, following an advisory from the Rhode Island Department of Health (DOH).
DOH urged towns and schools to practice "smart scheduling" after several pools of mosquitoes across the state tested positive for Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE) and/or West Nile Virus. Games and practices have now been scheduled to avoid the early morning or dusk – when mosquitoes are most active.
To help teams displaced by the scheduling, a new business in town is offering up its space for free. Wide World of Indoor Sports just opened its second location in Quonset Business Park (behind the former Lowe's building) in North Kingstown this week and is scheduled to hold its grand opening Oct. 3. The facility is offering up its four, non-boarded fields to local sports teams in need of practice space.
"We're new down here," said Jim "JR" Rodrigues, general manager at Wide World of Indoor Sports. "We want to be part of the community. Everyone's going to be giving to us, we have to give back somehow."
Wide World of Indoor Sports offers adult leagues, youth leagues, youth classes, camps tournaments and parties. The facility offers sports including soccer, flag football, field hockey, lacrosse, softball, volleyball, wiffleball and more. Learn more here.
