Piqua police bring wiffle ball to summer park program

Piqua police will bring wiffle ball to Pitsenbarger Sports Complex for a July 14 stop in the city’s annual Police in the Parks series, a free 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. pickup game for youths entering grades 4 through 8. Drinks will be provided, and the setup points to a casual park activity built for easy participation rather than a formal league night.

That is the point of the series. Piqua says Police in the Parks is designed to give young people opportunities to take part in recreational activities alongside police officers while building positive relationships in a public setting. The department also says community policing and problem-solving are core philosophies, which makes a low-barrier sport like wiffle ball a natural fit. The game does not ask for much from the kids beyond showing up, grabbing a bat and stepping into a friendly, supervised setting.

The July 14 stop is one part of a broader summer slate that stretches across several parks and several sports. Cornhole opened the run on June 11 at Lock 9 Park. Kickball followed on June 25 at Lower Mote Park. Pickleball is set for July 8 at Pitsenbarger Park, then wiffle ball moves to Pitsenbarger Sports Complex on July 14. Soccer comes next on July 22 at French Park, and basketball closes the listed schedule on Aug. 6 at Pitsenbarger Park. Every event runs from 10 to 11:30 a.m. unless otherwise noted, and every one is free.

That rotation matters because it shows Piqua is not treating wiffle ball as a one-off attraction. The city’s 2026 announcement calls Police in the Parks an annual program, and the calendar already shows a wiffle ball stop from July 15, 2025, which gives the series a clear track record. The repeat scheduling gives the city something more durable than a single afternoon’s turnout: a regular summer touchpoint where officers and kids can recognize each other by face, not just by uniform.

Chief Byron has led the department since 2019 and has served as safety services director since 2024, putting the program under leadership that has already tied public safety to neighborhood outreach. In practice, the success of a stop like this will not come from a scoreboard. It will come from whether the same families keep circling back through the summer slate, whether kids who show up for wiffle ball come back for another park stop, and whether Piqua keeps turning a simple game into a reason for officers and young residents to talk without pressure.