One of the consequences from the population surge in western Prince William County during the last decade is the Gainesville District Little League grew almost too fast.

Before the league gained access to the new Catharpin baseball and softball fields, practices were being cut short, games could only be played on particular days, and teams were often scrounged from time and playing space.

Most of those problems went away with the new fields, but another lingered. The GDLL is focused heavily on baseball as its prime sport, which meant the softball program did not get enough attention according to Rhonda Roe, who sits on the board of directors for the newly created Prince William County Girls Softball Little League.

"It was kind of a secondary side," said Roe, adding that the particular focuses of the GDLL were on boys baseball and girls T-ball. Softball was not "fully integrated," she added.

She and others amicably split with the GDLL last month to form their own league dedicated to youth softball for girls age 7 to early teens. Roughly 170 players make up the 15 team league that also features former teams from the Coles Little Little.

The PWC GSLL still has some ties to the GDLL. For instance, this season, player registration went through the Gainesville league and female t-ball teams are still run by the GDLL.

"We still work with their board and their president," said Roe, later mentioning, "We're going to have a lot of the same protocols that (GDLL) has."

There was one drawback from the separation of the leagues as parents with multiple children in the Gainesville league no longer received registration discounts for their softball players.

Also, because the bulk of the league's players come from Haymarket, Gainesville and Bristow, there is a lot of overlap with the GDLL which could lead to coordination issues. According to Roe, who has a son that plays baseball and a daughter playing softball, parents in a similar situation to her are likely used to conflicting schedules anyway. The boards of directors essentially will just need to keep up communication efforts to minimize that.

Softball practices for the new league began this past Monday and opening day ceremonies are scheduled for April 17. The regular season for the rookie, minor and major leagues is due to wrap up in June prior to playoffs.

"I just think it's just fostering more growth on female empowerment," said Roe of the softball league.