Bremerton shuts down 'massive' unauthorized softball tournament at Pendergast Park

BREMERTON — City parks officials and Bremerton police shut down a large organized softball tournament at Pendergast Regional Park over the weekend, which featured more than a hundred people congregating a few dozen feet away from a county coronavirus testing facility.

Several citizens called to alert the city early Saturday morning about a large gathering at the park, which since October has been home to the Kitsap County Emergency Operations Center drive-thru COVID-19 testing site.

Anna Mockler, a Bremerton resident and former city council candidate, was walking her dog at the Pendergast dog park around 9 a.m. and noticed dozens of vehicles in the parking lot and people playing softball. Mockler called 911 to report a non-emergency and another citizen called Bremerton Parks & Recreation director Jeff Elevado directly.

“My reaction was that it should be stopped because we have to be here for each other,” Mockler said. “We are all very sick and tired of the pandemic, but it won’t do any good to be physically sick as well.”

Teams were playing games on all three of Pendergast’s fields, with several more teams waiting for their turn to play, according to Elevado. He estimated there were more than 100 people at the event and between 50 and 60 vehicles in the park’s parking lot. Spectators sat in the stands; someone moved the city’s barricades and signs and hauled in grills and food for a makeshift concession stand.

“I think it wasn’t very random, it was definitely well-organized, kind of an underground social media kind of a deal,” Elevado said.

Athletic fields at all Bremerton parks have been closed since March, even as the city reopened parks for some outdoor recreation like walking. The city has fielded reports of occasional pick-up basketball games or small softball practices, but nothing on the scale of Saturday’s “massive” tournament, Elevado said.

“It was a party atmosphere, and I will say there were a number of people that were wearing masks, but I would say an equal number that weren't,” Elevado said.

The COVID-19 testing center at Pendergast Park was forced to move testing further down the parking lot but did not seem to be otherwise affected by the tournament, Elevado said. The Bremerton parks director witnessed about five or six cars pulling into the drive-thru testing site Saturday morning.

Bremerton police responded and asked all the players and fans to leave because they were trespassing, Sgt. Duke Roessel said. Residents complied peacefully and left Pendergast within about an hour.  

“They all had jerseys on, their teams and stuff, it looked like a normal Saturday in the summer pre-COVID,” Roessel said.

City officials were not able to identify the tournament organizer or organizers. Ron Moore, who runs numerous softball tournaments in Kitsap and Pierce Counties under the sanction of the United States Speciality Sports Association, said he also didn't know who put the tournament together.

"I heard about it last minute and I thought, 'Those guys are probably going to get in trouble,'" Moore said. 

Related:Kitsap Public Health District reports 29th COVID-19 death

Moore hasn't been able to run tournaments all year because of the COVID-19 pandemic but said that underground tournaments have been happening around the state because people want to play. 

"I'd love to play too because I also play, I'm not willing to sacrifice my status with the state and national office and have the insurance taken away," Moore said. 

Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler said no one was cited or punished for their involvement in the tournament. 

“We're like everybody else, we're fatigued from the pandemic, everybody is in the city but what this means for me is we actually have to double down on our efforts to help the citizens get through this,” Wheeler said.

“Right now we're at a very dangerous point in the pandemic and relaxing rules and relaxing the restrictions and creating opportunities for people to gather flies right in the face of trying to get a handle on this pandemic.”