T4 = TEAM MARKOWITZ

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On October 18, the LBA held its annual meeting, at which business was conducted to choose officers and positions for upcoming terms.  This year marked the retirement of several long time board members, and so personally for me I entered this meeting with a lot of anxiety. A small town like ours has only so big a volunteer pool, and I was worried that the league would end up short-handed. Thankfully, the meeting was well attended, with several new people who have kindly stepped up to serve the league. Thankfully, my concerns are no more. As is almost always the case with a turnover in leadership, there will be change as well as bumps in the road. Luckily for us, we know where the retirees live, and can tap their knowledge and experience pretty easily! The new faces will bring new ideas and fresh enthusiasm, both of which are needed to run an organization and to bring it to new and better places. Following is a list of current officers and directors on the board. Please join me in welcoming and thanking all for their willingness to “step up to the plate!

Officers:

Directors:

We should also take a moment to thank those who are retiring this year for their past, and continuing, service. Many of them will continue to help in smaller, but still important, ways, which will help ensure a smoother transition as the new team takes over. My thanks go out to them, and for their willingness to help the new folks transition to their new positions:

Pam Bumbaca, for her efforts as a player agent, registrar and online operations coordinator. Sean Munnelly, for managing all of the league equipment and keeping it in good repair. (And to Nancy for putting up with what I'm sure was a huge amount of hanging around in their garage and basement!) John Prendergast, for his efforts over the years in instructing our coaches on how to teach the game of baseball. Paul Damphousse and John Ferlan, for their day to day management of operation of the league.

These people represent not only many years of directorship to the league (I'm guessing close to 30 years), but also countless hours of actual time volunteered as part of their service (probably thousands of hours). It takes a huge amount of preparation, each year, to prepare for a season, and these folks have been doing it for a long time, and some of them are doing it having no children playing in the league. They were doing it for love of the game and our community. Everyone should thank them for their efforts, and likewise for the continuing board of directors.

It won't be long now before the new team starts the whole process again for the 2010 spring season. So until then, enjoy the holidays, and see you next spring!

The Litchfield Arsenal AAU Baseball Club will be hosting tryouts for their 2009-2010 U11 team on Saturday October 10th and Sunday October 11th at 4 PM at Griffin Memorial School on Route 3A in Litchfield, NH. Tryouts are open to anyone (not just Litchfield residents) who will still be 11 (or less) on April 30, 2010. There is a $30 non-refundable registration fee to tryout. You are welcome to attend one or both of the tryouts for the single registration fee.

Litchfield Arsenal AAU Baseball offers professional training throughout the fall and winter and competitive AAU baseball games in the spring. For more information, or if you are interested in the team but can not make a tryout, please contact Paul Damphousse at pbdamps@comcast.net or 598-9803.

Tryouts for the Litchfield Arsenal U12 & U11 AAU Baseball teams will be held on Sat Sept. 20th from 9-11:30 at the Griffin Memorial School on Route 3A in Litchfield and Fri Sept 26th starting at 7P at Extra Innings in Nashua. Registration will begin ½ hour prior to the tryout. The Arsenal play each weekend from April to June in the NE AAU season as well attending at least one other tournament. This team is in addition to your regular Little League or Cal Ripken. The U12 team season culminates with a trip to Cooperstown Dreams Park. Players must bring their baseball equipment (gloves, catcher's gear, bats), wear baseball attire, something to drink, and be prepared to exhibit skills in a couple of positions. There is a tryout fee of $30. 

U12 Team: Players for the U12 team are requested to start showing up starting at 8:30AM for registration, stretching, and warm-up followed by a 9AM workout.  The U12 Team will again be Managed by TJ Sheedy.  If you have specific questions about the team, please contact TJ directly at Extra Innings, Nashua - 598-5200 or via e-mail at tj@extrainnings-nashua.com. The U12 team will play an aggressive schedule, with many 4 game weekends during late April, May, and early June. That is 2 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. A majority of the games will be local.  

U11 Team: Players for the U11 team are requested to start showing up beginning at 9:45AM for registration and registration, stretchin, and warm-up followed by a 10:15 workout.The U11 Team will be coached by Marc Pantazis, also from Extra Innings in Nashua. Marc's e-email is marc@extrainnings-nashua.com. The U11 team will play at least 2 games every weekend during late April, May, and early June. 

The tryout format for Saturday Sep 20th will be primarily running, throwing, and fielding skills.  Skills will be timed via stopwatch and/or radar gun.  It is expected that by the start of their scheduled time, players will be properly warmed up.  If you cannot make this tryout, please let TJ or Marc know.  For those players, there will be an option to show up early to the Friday Sep 26th tryout in order to get their times recorded.

The tryout on Friday Sep 26th will be held at the batting cages at Extra Innings in Nashua. See the Extra Innings website for directions and information (http://www.extrainnings-nashua.com/). If you cannot make this tryout, but did make the Saturday tryout, please let TJ or Marc know so alternate arrangements can be made to hit.

If you have any general questions about the Litchfield Arsenal program, please contact the LBA President, John Ferlan at john.ferlan@verizon.net.

The exact cost of each team is still being worked. The cost of each team is entirely borne by the parents.  The LBA makes no money on this program and it cannot afford to lose money.  Parents of players on the U12 team can expect to pay between $1500-2000, while the U11 program generally costs $1000.  The majority of the cost for the U12 program is the trip to Cooperstown Dreams Park, which costs $850 per player. The second highest cost is the indoor workout program each team decides to use.  All costs can be offset by fundraising, the LBA and the Litchfield Arsenal have 501.3(c) IRS tax exemptions. Previous U12 teams have raised $5-7K in order to offset their costs, while the U11 teams generally raise $2-3K.

To save time print out a registration form (see the handouts link) and bring it with you.