For the first time ever this past week, Newton County hosted the Little League district championship. Dwayne Mask, recreation administrator at Newton County Recreation talked with the Covington News for a couple minutes about his experience hosting the championship.

The Covington News: You told me earlier that you wanted to get a bid next year to host the state tournament. How do you think you guys handled the district championship?

Dwayne Mask: I think this week has been flawless. I think it’s been a very good week. We had the first day of rain last Saturday, but other than that I think the week has been good. We heard a lot of compliments, and the district folks seem to be satisfied with the week we’ve had. So I think we’ll have a good shot.

CN: Are you proud with the Newton 11/12 year olds winning the district championship? Is that something that matters to you?

Mask: Oh, yeah. Most definitely. The 9/10 year olds had a great ball game over there, they just came up a little bit short. These guys get a chance. They’re going to Warner Robins on the 19th to play for state. That’s just the next step toward the Little League World Series if they happen to get that far. So, yeah. Very good for them.

CN: Do you have any plans, as far as what you’re going to do when you make your pitch to get that bid for the state tournament?
Mask: This is kind of new to us, Little League that is. Dixie youth we’ve been in a long time, so we know what to do for their state. We’re just kind of asking questions and learning what we need to do to see if they’ll let our district host this one next year.

CN: What have you learned from this process already?

Mask: We’ve done a lot of tournaments through the years. We’ve done everything from districts, to states, to world series. All the guys know what to do and how to handle themselves, and that’s the reason it runs so flawlessly. All of these guys have done it so much, it’s just kind of routine for us. On this, it’s just a different league as in Little League compared to what we’ve done in the past, but still the same process as far as what we have to do.