Mailed program guide includes youth soccer, Halloween walk, Easter egg hunt,
Fishing Derby, softball & hoops
(EDITOR'S NOTE: The ages for the youth soccer league have expanded to ages 4 to 7 since this release was published. That has been changed in the text below.)
COVINGTON, Ky. – The 2022 Covington Parks & Recreation Guide will be landing in your mailbox soon, and its pages reveal a robust year of programs and events throughout the city.
This year will see the return of longtime favorites, like the Easter Egg Hunt, Adult Softball League, and Fishing Derby at Prisoner’s Lake. It will also feature new additions like a Youth Soccer League pilot program, a Jack-O-Lantern Walk, a Pickleball Series, and a Basketball Club.
It’s a welcome change from 2020 and 2021, when COVID-19 brought many programs and events to a halt, including both indoor programs and outdoor activities like the Easter Egg hunt, the 2020 swim season, and even park shelter reservations.
After two years of being extraordinarily creative and flexible to set up activities and events that residents could enjoy amid pandemic protocols, Parks & Recreation Manager Ben Oldiges said he’s excited about a new year full of comprehensive – and well-conceived – fun.
“This year, we have a lot of things going on, but we also wanted to establish certain goals,” Oldiges said. “We wanted accessibility, affordability, and diversity.”
To that end, he said programs and events will be easy to walk to, taking place throughout the city’s neighborhoods and parks. Plus, nearly every activity will be free, so everyone can participate. And there’s something for every age.
Details about the events will be shared in timely fashion in media releases, on the City’s website, and on the City’s and Parks & Rec Facebook pages, @covingtonkygov and @covparks. The program guide can be seen HERE.
Here are some of the things to look forward to:
- Urban Hike Series, exploring Covington’s urban core, beginning April 23.
- Youth Soccer League beginning April 16 at Austinburg Park.
- Covington Pickleball Series beginning April 16 at Austinburg Park.
- Pool “Covtivities” (arts and crafts activities at the city’s pools and water park).
- Men’s Softball League this fall at the Bill Cappel Sports Complex in Latonia.
- Covington Basketball Club.
- Outdoor Movie Nights at five different parks, beginning May 27.
- Annual Easter Egg Hunt on April 9 at Devou Park Bandshell.
- Earth Day at Devou Park’s Breaden Shelter on April 23.
- Fishing Derby at Devou Park Prisoner’s Lake on May 21.
- Pups at the Pool at Goebel Pool on Aug. 6.
- Kentucky Symphony performances beginning July 9 at the Devou Park Bandshell.
- Shakespeare in the Park’s family rendition of “Twelfth Night” on July 23 and Aug. 20.
- Jack-O-Lantern Walk along the Licking River Greenway Trail on Oct. 22.
Oldiges said he’s particularly excited about the new Covington Youth Soccer League, which debuts in the spring for ages 4 to 7 but could grow in the future.
“Hopefully this will springboard us into a more robust league in the future once this program has more of a following,” he said. “We recently made a partnership with FC Cincinnati (Cincinnati’s professional soccer club), so we’ll be incorporating some of their programming into this program as well.”
The Covington Basketball Club, which Parks & Rec has had in the past, returns as a combination of skills and drills, instruction, and games, Oldiges said.
“We’ll have games, but we also wanted to have structure with this as well,” he said.
Oldiges said the 2022 Parks and Recreation Guide is the most robust program guide they’ve produced in the last several years and he hopes to build on that with even more programs and events in future years.
“We want this to springboard us into 2023,” he said. “We want to increase the number of programs we have to offer and build off the success of the programs that work.”
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