The Mercer Island Boys and Girls Club, in conjunction with Mercer Island baseball and softball enthusiasts, is pleased to announce some exciting changes to our community’s baseball and softball programs effective for the 2006 season.  All Mercer Island residents interested in the future of MI youth baseball and softball are invited to an informational meeting on Sunday, November 6^th from 4:00-5:30pm in the MIB&GC gym to hear about these changes and get their questions answered.

The centerpiece of this change will be the creation of a new Mercer Island Little League, enabling Mercer Island to join the Little League Baseball organization, the oldest and largest youth baseball program in America, which serves more than 3 million kids worldwide.  Mercer Island Little League, serving ages 5-12, will replace the PONY-based baseball and softball programs previously offered by the MI Boys & Girls Club.  By virtue of overlapping age brackets, and playing rules that are more suitable for youth players, we believe that participating in Little League will give parents greater choices, enable all our kids to have more fun playing together in a single league, and allow our most talented young players to be fully challenged without overwhelming those developing more slowly.   Little League participants at ages 10, 11 and 12 will also be eligible to represent Mercer Island in the exciting Little League All-star tournament at the District, State, Regional or even World Series level.  In addition, in order to provide even more challenging playing and developmental opportunities for the most competitive players, the MI Boys and Girls Club is creating a series of “Islander Travel Teams”, 1-2 teams each for ages 9, 10, 11 and 12, to supplement those players’ regular Little League program through inter-league and tournament opportunities both in-season and post-season.  Finally, we are developing an in-depth coach development and training program and an off-season Advanced Development Program to help our most committed players reach their highest potential.  Both of these programs are being developed in consultation with the high school coaching staff to ensure that a consistent instructional framework is applied from the youth through high school levels.

The Mercer Island Little League and the new Islander Travel Teams are being created in response to several factors.  First, there are a large and growing number of Mercer Island families who have chosen to go “off-island” for baseball, oftentimes in pursuit of more challenging, competitive playing opportunities than island programs have previously offered. By providing a comprehensive program better suited to both developing and competitive players, our hope is that these players will choose to play in these new Island-based programs instead and ultimately help to better develop and support Mercer Island’s youth and high school programs.  Second, the Bellevue/Mercer Island Thunderbird Little League, based in the Newport area, has grown too large by Little League standards and is no longer able to support both south Bellevue and Mercer Island.  As a result, Mercer Island residents will no longer be able to register in the Thunderbird program (existing Thunderbird players and their siblings will be allowed to continue in Thunderbird if they so choose – though we expect that the vast majority will switch over to MILL).  Third, the MIB&G Club’s addition last year of girls-only Tee-ball and softball has resulted in an explosion in the number of girls in our programs – but a shortage of quality opponents within a convenient distance to Mercer Island.  By joining Little League, the softball program will more frequently play teams on Mercer Island and from neighboring communities, again attracting larger numbers of players and teams.

Mercer Island Little League will be overseen by an independent, volunteer board of directors and will operate in close cooperation with the Boys and Girls Club.  At the meeting on Nov. 6, Mercer Island families with one or more children who played baseball or softball last season will be eligible to vote on a constitution, which will serve as the by-laws of the new league, as well as elect its initial board of directors.  If you are interested in serving on the board, please contact Brian Emanuels (BrianEm@Hotmail.com, 232-0556).  Beginning approximately Dec. 5, you will be able to register your kids to play in MILL and volunteer to coach, as well as sign them up to try out for an Islander Travel Team, all via the MI B&GC website:  www.MIPositivePlace.org.  If you are interested in coaching an Islander Travel Team, applications are due to Todd Bale by Nov. 15.  For more information on Islander Travel Teams, contact Jerry Goldberg (JerryGold64@aol.com, 275-1011).  Much more information about all the programs will be forthcoming via email and the MI B&GC website as the season approaches.

We are excited about these changes and look forward to sharing them with you and answering whatever questions you may have.  There are plenty of opportunities for parents and coaches to get involved to help us bring this new vision to fruition, from coaching, to umpiring, to serving on the MILL Board of Directors or as an officer of the league (many of which require little or no baseball expertise – just a desire to help create a positive, fun program for our kids).  We look forward to sharing those opportunities with you on November 6th.  In the meantime, if you have any questions, or if you are interested in volunteering, please feel free to contact Donna Eken (DEken@PositivePlace.org, 232-4548) or Brian Emanuels (BrianEm@Hotmail.com, 232-0556).

Sincerely,

Todd Bale                                                          Brian Emanuels

Executive Director                                              (Acting) President

Mercer Island Boys and Girls Club                         Mercer Island Little League   

MILL Board of Directors (acting):

Todd Bale

Dave Bennett

Kurt Boyd

Terry Coe

Meredith Cutting

Kurt Dammeier

Dick Ehrig

Donna Eken

Brian Emanuels

Gary Furukawa

Jerry Goldberg

Henry Hamilton

Dean Holbrook

Walt Ingram

Geoff Jiranek

Bill Lawler

Kevin Peck

Tom Pedreira

Tom Pellerin

David Phillips

Chris Pugel

Eric Rothenberg

Nate Walters