Cal Ripken state tournament coming to Warren
December 18, 2009
WARREN - Burbank Park has been selected to host the 2010 Ohio Cal Ripken League State Championship Tournament July 9-11.
The announcement was made by the Ohio Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Leagues' State Commissioner.
The Warren Athletic Club, a chartered member of Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken League Baseball, will serve as host for the tournament.
"We're very excited to have Warren, Ohio, hosting this tournament," said David Harries, State Commissioner for the Ohio Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken League Baseball. "The numerous and extensive improvements and upgrades to Warren's Burbank Park certainly played a large role in securing this tournament for the City of Warren, the Warren Athletic Club and Trumbull County."
The tournament will consist of district championship teams from throughout Ohio competing in the 9-and 10-year-old Minor League divisions and the 11-and 12-year-old Major League divisions.
The double-elimination tournament will begin on July 9 with the Championship games scheduled for July 11.
Winners will advance to compete in the Ohio Valley Regional Tournaments scheduled to begin July 23 in Louisville, Ky., Mount Sterling, Ky., Logansport, Ind., Brandywine, Mich., Vincennes, Ind., and Lexington, Ky.
Regional champions in the 10-, 11- and 12-year-old divisions will advance to the 2010 Cal Ripken World Series.
The Warren Athletic Club consists of teams and players residing in Trumbull County. The organization's affiliation with Cal Ripken Baseball provides membership for youths ages 4 to 12, and offers divisions for T-Ball ages 4 to 6, Rookie League for ages 7 and 8, Minor League for ages 9 and 10 and Major League for ages 11-12.
Babe Ruth Baseball offers several programs and divisions for youths ages 13 to 18, all of whom play on a regulation diamond.
Dec. 18, 2010 Vindicator article
Warren picks up state Babe Ruth tournament
Friday, December 18, 2009
WARREN — Warren’s Burbank Park will be the site of the 2010 Ohio Cal Ripken League state championship tournament next July.
The Warren Athletic Club, a chartered member of Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken League Baseball, will serve as host for the tournament.
The 2010 tournament will consist of District Championship teams from throughout Ohio competing in the 9 and 10-year-old Minor League divisions and the 11 and 12-year-old Major League divisions. The tournament will be a double elimination and will begin on Friday, July 9, with the championship games scheduled for July 11.
Winners will advance to the Ohio Valley Regional tournaments scheduled to begin in Louisville, Ky.; Mt. Sterling, Ky.; Logansport, Ind.; Brandywine, Mich.; Vincennes, Ind., and Lexington, Ky.
Regional champions in the 10, 11 and 12-year-old divisions will advance to the 2010 Cal Ripken World Series.
“We’re very excited to have Warren hosting this tournament,” said David Harries, State Commissioner for the Ohio Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken League Baseball. “The numerous and extensive improvements and upgrades to Warren’s Burbank Park certainly played a large role in securing this tournament for the City of Warren, the Warren Athletic Club and Trumbull County.”
The Warren Athletic Club consists of teams and players residing in Trumbull County. The organization’s affiliation with Cal Ripken Baseball provides membership for youths ages 4-12 years-old and offers divisions for T-Ball ages 4-6; Rookie League for ages 7-8; Minor League ages 9-10; and Major League ages 11-12.
Babe Ruth Baseball offers several programs and divisions for youths ages 13-18 who all play on a regulation diamond.
Ohio Cal Ripken Tourney Set for Warren
Dec. 18, 2009 WARREN, Ohio -- Warren’s Burbank Park will be the site in July of the 2010 Ohio Cal Ripken League State Championship Tournament. The Warren Athletic Club, a chartered member of Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken League Baseball, will serve as host for the tournament.
The 2010 Tournament will consist of district championship teams from throughout Ohio competing in the 9- and 10-year-old Minor League divisions and the 11- and 12-year-old Major League divisions. This tournament will be a double elimination and will begin July 9, with the championship games July 11. Winners will advance to compete in the Ohio Valley Regional Tournaments, which begin July 23 at six sites. Regional champions in the 10-, 11- and 12-year-old divisions will advance to the 2010 Cal Ripken World Series.
The local tournament was announced by David Harries, commissioner of the Ohio Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken League.
The Warren Athletic Club consists of teams and players residing in Trumbull County, Harries said. The organization’s affiliation with Cal Ripken Baseball provides membership for youths ages 4 to 12 and offers divisions for T-Ball ages 4 to 6, Rookie League for ages 7 to 8, Minor League for ages 9 to 10 and 70-foot Major League ages 11 to 12. Babe Ruth Baseball offers several programs and divisions for youths ages 13 to 18 who all play on a regulation diamond with a 60-foot, 6-inch pitcher’s mound and 90-foot bases.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio
Another regular season is in the books and some special recognition goes out to the following teams:
Regular season results:
11/12 year old champions : Lakeview
11/12 year old runner up: Athletics
9/10 year old champions: Reds
9/10 year old runner up: Orioles
7/8 year old champions: Giants
7/8 year old runner up: Indians
2009 WAC tournament results:
11/12 year old champions: Lakeview
11/12 year old runner up: Reds
9/10 year old champions: Reds
9/10 year runner up: Indians
7/8 year old champions: Giants
7/8 year old runner up: White Sox
Dec. 27th, 2008 Tribune article
Warren Athletic Club preparing for its new season
By VINCE PELUSO Tribune Chronicle POSTED: December 27, 2008
WARREN - Although it is only 20 degrees outside, the Warren Athletic Club is already geared up for baseball season. The club has renovated its fields and reformed its leagues in preparation for the 2009 summer season.
The Burbank, McKinley and Perkins' leagues have combined into one and will play under Cal Ripken (ages 9-12) and Babe Ruth (ages 13-15) leagues for the first time next season.
Tony Dipaola, president of the WAC, is excited about the new leagues.
"We looked at Little League, but these leagues gives you more control of your own league than others," he said. "As long as we play 10 Babe Ruth or Cal Ripken teams, we are eligible for the all-star tournament."
The new formation allows the WAC teams, which also includes softball for the same age groups, to play teams from other communities.
"We've had interest from Niles and Champion," Dipaola said, "So if either sends a team and they only want to play 10 league games they're still eligible for the all-star team and they can still play teams in their own division."
Dipaola believes the WAC teams in the Babe Ruth league will struggle during its first season as they adjust to the new rules.
"There definitely will be some adjustments for the first year," he said. "We're not used to stealing, but now once the ball leaves the pitchers hand you can go. There is also bigger dimensions on the field as the bases are 90 feet apart."
The Harding baseball program is also working with the WAC to help ensure that the league's players are ready once they arrive in high school, according to WAC treasurer Scott Masters.
"The Harding baseball and softball programs participated heavily in our program this year," Masters said. "Mike Mcmillion is the head softball coach at Harding and Tom Elder is on the Harding baseball staff and both helped out with the program. Ed Shaker and Tom (Elder) helped coach fall ball this year and the main focus was really trying to teach these kids the fundamentals of the game."
The fundamentals of baseball is something Masters believes most youth leagues fail to teach.
"That has been a real difficult stumbling block for youth athletics," Masters said. "The win at all costs attitude doesn't help the young kid or young player to put the skills together when they reach high school. We try teach these kids what they need to know."
Although there will certainly be adjustments, WAC teams had success last season so the talent is in place.
"Our 11- and 12-year-old boys all-stars went to the Niles tournament and in our own tournament and went 10-0 overall. while finishing first in both," Masters said, "Our 9- and 10-year-old boys won our tournament (WAC All-Star tournament). Our 7- and 8-year-old all-stars came in second in our tournament and placed in the top four at the Howland tournament."
Dipaola thinks the move to the Babe Ruth league should help prepare the WAC players for high school, which is a goal of the league.
"We want to give the kids a chance to advance and play better competition," he said. "This should help better prepare themselves for high school because once they hit high school they'll be ready for the dimensions with two years of experience under their belt already."
According to Masters the league is in no shortage of players.
Last year the WAC had 44 teams between boys baseball, tee-ball and girls softball with 510 participants in the summer league. The WAC also ran a fall ball program that had 115 participants.
The WAC also improved its fields for the upcoming season. According to Masters, the Northwest Home Owners Association helped replace bleachers at the fields and the Burbank fields have received new fences.
"A lot of organizations stepped up to the plate to give us a hand," Masters said. "We'd like to thank the Trumbull 100 Club, Warren Chamber of Commerce for the contributions and the work they've done. The NHOA gave a lot of manpower and volunteers."
Masters is pleased with the progress the league has made and hopes it continues this season.
"For the first time out of the box it was pretty good," he said. "I think it's been better than we could have expected. I think we're headed in the right direction."
The biggest problem the league has ran into is a lack of coaches for the large number of teams it has attracted.
"We had more kids and we kind of ran out of coaches," Masters said. "Anyone interested can call Tony or visit our Web site http://www.warrenathleticclub.com/ for applications."
Saturday Nov. 1, 2008 Vindicator article
Ruth, Ripken baseball coming Saturday, November 1, 2008
The Warren Athletic Club is expanding youth baseball to all of Trumbull County.
WARREN — Youth baseball under the direction of the Warren Athletic Club will be expanding in 2009.
Coming to Trumbull County will be the Babe Ruth League and its Cal Ripken division for boys and girls from ages 5 through 17, said Dave Harries, a WAC board member.
Official charter documents will be signed today at the Buena Vista Cafe at 4 p.m. Mark Watson of Evansville, Ind., and Bill Lowe of Wisconsin, commissioner and assistant commissioner, respectively, for the Ohio Valley Region of the Babe Ruth League, will be on hand.
Harries said national affiliation will give young players many advantages that they didn’t have before, including the opportunity to compete in district, regional and national tournaments.
In addition, Harries said players will have better coaching, programs and more suitable fields with bigger dimensions in some cases, plus the fact that the leagues will be open to all of Trumbull County and not just Warren.
Babe Ruth will cover five age divisions: 13-17, while Cal Ripken is for two age divisions, 9-10 and 11-12 — all divisions for boys and mostly all for girls.
Harries said the WAC operated in 2008 as a first-year merger of three leagues to provide baseball and softball for players ages 5-17 years old, and that 600 kids participated on fields at Perkins and Burbank parks.
But he said the teams didn’t have any district, regional and national tournaments to advance to because the league had no national affiliations.
“We looked around and felt that Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken would best fit our situation, especially the 11-12 boys. The fields are a little bigger than the typical Little League field, and the bigger dimensions will suit the players better because it prepares them for the next step in baseball where field dimensions are greater.”
Harries also said the new league will have higher standards.
“All of the coaches have to pass a certification test that will be provided by Babe Ruth baseball. This will insure more qualified and better prepared coaches, and they also have to pass a criminal background check.”
Harries also sees more player participation.
“We will be able to grow our league to be more inclusive and be open to all players from Trumbull County.
“We also are working on permission to use the Warren Harding High baseball team as a consulting body. The Harding coaching staff is heavily involved in this because they know that it will benefit the Harding baseball team as a good feeder system.”
The WAC president is Tony DiPaola, while Bill Gadzalski is vice president, Tabatha Johnson, secretary; and H. Scott Masters, CPA, treasurer. Elder also serves as the boys commissioner while Mike McMillion is girls commissioner.
All six also serve on the 10-member WAC Board with Harries along with Nick Graham, Allan Harris and George Callow.
March 16, 2008 Tribune article
Something we can all get behind By JOSHUA HUDSON Assistant Sports Editor March 16, 2008
When it comes to any type of issue, Warren happens to be a divided community.
Just take a look at the arguments over what to do with the facade of the high school. Ask people in Warren what the school colors should be and you won’t get a consensus.
The youth baseball leagues in Warren were run the same way. Three different leagues competed against each other for kids, sponsors and funding. Yet all three leagues represented Warren.
This past January all of that changed with the formation of the Warren Athletic Club. The Burbank, McKinley and Youth leagues are all working together under the same umbrella. All working together to represent Warren and the kids.
The new league held its first tryouts on Saturday at Western Reserve Middle School. Nearly 200 kids from across Warren showed up to begin playing in the new league.
It was a welcome site to league president Tony Dipaolo, who also was the president of the Burbank league.
“This is something that the city has been wanting for a long time,” he said. “We were able to put all of our differences aside and get this done.”
It’s unfortunate that something like this took more than 25 years to happen. But better late then never.
But like all new things, there have been bumps in the road.
Many people still are trying to realize what just happened. DiPaolo said he was still being asked when signups for the Burbank league were happening.
People are going to be interested to see how this new league works. If they have a successful season, more people will jump on board and any leftover doubts should be erased. The burden of proof is with the organizers of this new league.
But if Saturday’s tryouts were any indication, this should be a very successful year for the Warren Athletic Club.
The kids went through several areas of instruction from fielding ground balls, hitting off a tee and throwing across the gym. Members of the Warren G. Harding baseball team and coaching staff were on hand to offer instructions and ensure the tryouts went as smooth as possible.
That in itself is something that didn’t happen before.
It was difficult for the baseball team to be a part of something like this in the past. It was impossible for them to support three different leagues.
Now that Warren has just one organization, coach Ed Shaker and the rest of the Raiders can throw all their support behind it.
“Instead of these kids coming together at the high school level, they get to come in and play together now,” he said. “It allows them to build chemistry and it’s easier to help the kids.”
The organization will have one more set of tryouts from noon until 4 p.m. on March 22 at Western Reserve Middle School. Any kids still interested in playing baseball or softball this summer can sign up.
If anyone still has any doubts about whether this can work, just stay awhile and take a look at the kids being helped during the tryouts. Isn’t that what it’s all about anyway?
The creation of the Warren Athletic Club is something that we can all get behind.
Joshua Hudson is the assistant sports editor at the Tribune Chronicle. E-mail him at jhudson@tribune-chronicle.com
January 19, 2008 Tribune Orchids and Onions
Orchids and Onions January 19, 2008
ORCHID: To the City of Warren on merging three separate youth baseball and softball leagues into one new organization called the Warren Athletic Club. We praise the administration and the officials involved in cooperating and bringing the city together in a way that will benefit youths. Warren will be more competitive in local tournament play and with the transition into high school.
January 18, 2008 Vindicator article
Three youth baseball groups in Warren merge into one
By Tim Yovich
Friday, January 18, 2008
The new organization will be called the Warren Athletic Club.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN — Three city youth baseball leagues have merged to become the Warren Athletic Club to increase the competitive level of players.
This year will be the inaugural season.
For years, boys baseball, girls slow pitch and fast pitch softball and T-ball have been operated by Warren Burbank Baseball, Warren McKinley Baseball and Warren Youth League.
Mayor Michael J. O’Brien said the three leagues were dividing the community and youth. One club is designed in part to continue to bring the community together.
Safety-Service Director William “Doug” Franklin said Thursday that the Warren Athletic Club was formed as a result of meetings with the three league officials late last year and this year.
Tony DiPaolo, who has been involved in local baseball, said members of the three leagues “put their differences aside” to provide a safe baseball environment for an estimated 500 to 700 players this year.
Another adult involved, Nick Graham, said one of the drawbacks of the three leagues is that they played in tournaments together “and beat themselves up.”
The new setup means this mean they would now be playing other teams from other places.
Franklin noted that the one club will set higher standards for coaches and parents because they all will pledge to abide in good sportsmanship.
It was also noted that the one club would be a better feeder to Warren G. Harding High School’s baseball teams, because the players will have know each other.
Graham said the city park system has been underutilized and that these will become first-class facilities.
Also, some tournaments will be held here so city teams would not always travel to other communities for tournament play.
O’Brien noted that other teams, such as from Howland, Canfield, Poland and Boardman, had better look over their shoulders — because Warren will be fielding better teams.
Archie McMillion, who has been involved in the city baseball since 1965, said he is “really happy for the kids” playing for one club.
It will cost those playing on the boys ages 7 to 16 and girls slowpitch and fastpitch $60 per season. Co-ed T-ball players ages 4 to 6 will be charged $40. Family discounts are available.
The locations to sign up will be posted on the city’s next water bill.
yovich@vindy.com
January 18, 2008 Tribune article
Youth is served: Warren leagues merge By STEPHEN ORAVEC Tribune Chronicle
January 18, 2008
Warren’s three youth baseball leagues have decided to play ball together, announcing Thursday that they have merged into one new organization called the Warren Athletic Club.
Organizers and city officials said at a morning press conference that the new league will help bring the community together — and help make Warren a baseball powerhouse in the region.
Play with an estimated 500 to 700 children and 50 teams will begin this spring. Signups start Saturday. Games will be held at Perkins and Burbank parks.
In the past, the three leagues — Burbank, McKinley and Youth Baseball — competed against each other and divided the community, Mayor Michael O’Brien said. However, Tony Dipaolo said the children all end up in the same high school, so a combined league will give them a chance to get to know each other.
Now, the mayor said, ‘‘It’s all Warren. Everyone will work together.’’
The new league also will raise the standards for coaches and give players greater opportunities. There will be background checks for coaches and pledges of good sportsmanship for parents, coaches and players.
Instead of teams from each of the old leagues competing against each other in tournaments, there will be one Warren team. Organizers are hoping that will give kids an opportunity to go further in tournaments and perhaps play for a Little League World Series championship on TV.
Bill Gadzalski is looking for benefits from the new league to carry over into the Harding High School teams. He said he is hoping for more involvement and clinics with the high school so the teaching of fundamentals can be consistent all the way through the program.
Archie McMillion, who has been coaching since 1965, said, ‘‘I’m happy for the kids.’’
Councilman Vincent S. Flask, D-5th ward, was also pleased to hear the news.
“Today’s announcement of the city’s three youth baseball organizations combining to operate as one league is a welcomed move and long overdue.
“As president of Burbank Baseball five years ago, we began the process of inter-league play with the thought of eventually combining leagues. Sitting on the appointed parks committee four years ago, great discussion was held on how to best utilize our parks. Today, with determination, a combined league that services all of our city’s youth has become a reality. At a time when our city is looking at ways to cut costs and combine services, we could take a few pointers from these groups. This action will create a stronger league, provide more opportunities for our youth in competition and allow the citizens of Warren to interact from all four corners.”
Flask isn’t the only one who thinks the merger is a good idea.
‘‘We’re looking for Warren to have a first-class baseball program so parents will say they want their child to play here,’’ said Nick Graham.
O’Brien added that he’s looking forward to seeing Warren compete with other communities in the area.
‘‘Howland, Boardman, Canfield and Poland better look over their shoulders because Warren is united into one,’’ O’Brien said. ‘‘Warren baseball will be a force in the Valley.’’
WKBN Article
Warren Athletic Club by Peggy Sinkovich
Three little league teams are now merging into one. And everyone involved in youth baseball and softball in Warren agree that the decision to join forces is a grand slam.
For at least the past four decades, boys baseball, girls slow pitch, fast pitch softball and T-ball have been operated by three different clubs: Warren Burbank Baseball, Warren McKinley Baseball and the Warren Youth League. All three will now be part of the Warren Athletic Club.
League organizers say having one organization will not just make it easier for the coaches and kids but also for sponsors, who for years were asked to help support all three leagues. Coaches also say they believe the one organization will help make powerhouse teams.
Warren Mayor, Mike O'Brien says Warren baseball will now be a force to be reckoned with in the Mahoning Valley.
Even though it's a little too chilly now to start thinking of baseball, the season is right around the corner and sign-ups are starting this weekend at the YWCA in Warren.
