For the first time in over two decades, the Albert Lea Colonels baseball team won’t take the field this summer.

Colonels coach Bill Trygstad said Thursday that the team didn’t have enough players, though he wouldn’t give the exact number that had on board. He said he needed 13 to 14 players to field a team and he “didn’t have a commitment from very many.”

This is the first summer the Colonels, an amateur team that played at Hayek Field, won’t play in Albert Lea since 1990 when Joe Sczublewski and Jimmy Johnson resurrected the team after a hiatus. Amateur baseball in Albert Lea has a rich history, though, dating back to the 1930s.

Albert Lea Parks and Recreation director Jay Hutchinson said the city had no financial agreement with the Colonels for use of Hayek Field and that the city maintained the field for free.

Trygstad coached for the Colonels for 17 consecutive seasons and hopes to restore the team next summer. He said he had a nine-game schedule made up for this season and that the opposing teams have be notified of the change.