THE 2013 SEASON HAS ARRIVED AND WE GOT 2 OF 3 GAMES IN ON SATURDAY.  ALL GAMES ON SUNDAY WERE CANCELLED DUE TO RAIN.

FIRST THE GOOD NEWS.. SANDLOT BEAT A GOOD HAVERFORD TEAM 5-3.   THE JR TEAM FACED GLENOLDEN AND LOST 5-1 BUT WILL GET A CHANCE TO EVEN THAT SCORE ON TUESDAY OF THIS WEEK..

OUR PREP TEAM FOUGHT BACK A LARGE DEFICIT ONLY TO END UP IN A (RAIN INFLECTED) TIE / POSTPONED GAME AT 12-12 IN THE MIDDLE OF THE 5TH INNING ... THEY WILL CONCLUDE THIS CONTEST WHEN THEY MEET AGAIN LATER IN THE SEASON.

MORE GAMES SCHEDULED ALL WEEK BY ALL TEAMS.

THE SENIOR LEGION WILL LIKELY POSTPONE THEIR GAMES THIS WEEK AS THE STRATH HAVEN VARSITY VIE FOR A SPOT IN THE STATE TOURNAMENT.

STAY TUNED FOR WEEKLY UPDATES FOR THE NETHER PROVIDENCE  BULLDOGS.

TRYOUTS AND INDOOR PRACTICE SCHEDULE

The following dates and times have been set for Indoor practices and Offical American Legion Tryouts:

All events are in the Strath Haven High School Gym

Indoor Warmups and Practices:

January 19th

13s  8am to 930 am

14s  900 to 11 am

January 20th

15s  9 to 11 am

January 27th

13 and 14s   830 to 11am

February 3rd

15s   9 to 11am

OFFICIAL TRYOUTS FOR LEGION BASEBALL ( YOU MUST ATTEND AT LEAST ONE)

fEBRUARY 10TH AND 24TH

13S (Prep Team)  8-930 am

14s and 15s (Sandlot and Jr. Legion)  9am to 11

16-19s  (Sr. Legion)  10-11 am

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2nd Sr. Legion Tryout 

Sr. Legion will tryout on Saturday, April 12 from 12-1pm at the SHMS Field

Folks, we are excited to offer the most extensive Legion program ever this season.  It is packed with clinics, professional instruction, professional coaching, tournaments, scrimmages, regular season play, post season playoffs and Legion tournaments.

This year we will offer an extensive 2 day clinic for any player 11 through 16 on March 16th and 17th.  This clinic will be held by professional coaches and assistants.  A modest $100 registration fee will include 2 days of high intensity instruction in batting, fielding, pitching and fundamentals.  We will also continue to offer free clinics (in February and March) at Swarthmore College and on Sundays in April.  Private lessions by our professional coaches will be scheduled and available on a first come first serve basis.  This year, our Jr. Legion team is scheduled to play a tournament in April, one in May and one over the Memorial Day Weekend.  Our Prep team program will be focused on making the transition from the 60' to the 90' diamond and will play in a Memorial Day tournament.  Our Sandlot team is scheduled to host our 4th Annual Memorial Day Tournament.  All teams will play upwards of a 20 game season in addition to pre-season scrimmages, playoffs and post season Legion tournaments for success in the playoffs. 

It has always been our mission to provide the best value and most competitive baseball for your son in the area.  Our committed staff and coaches work year around to be able to offer your son this opportunity.  We look forward to another great season of baseball.  Come join in the fun.  For additional information or questions regarding our program, please contact Ron Anderson at rdanderson4@comcast.net or Pete Atsaves at patsaves@gmail.com 

Our coaching lineup is now complete.  Heading up our Jr. Legion team will be veteran volunteers Mike Hapertefe and Seth Shore with Shane Raines assisting when available.    Our Sandlot team will be headed up by former Legion player and asst Sandlot coach, Joe Martin.  Heading up our Prep team will be Scott Renauro (Asst Swarthmore Coach) taking the rising 13s as they venture onto the big field for the first time.  Rounding out our teams and returning as head coach of our Sr. Legion team is Shane Raines. Welcome back Shane, Joe, Seth, Mike and newcomer Scott. 

We are excited about our coaching lineup this season and with the advent of an all Wood Bat season we are looking to concentrate our preseason activities with a two day clinic in March, individual clinics for our Prep, Sandlot and Jr programs and some Sunday Clinics in April. We also plan to attend a few tournaments and host the Sandlot Memorial Day tournament again. 

 

 

For those of you who are new to the American Legion Baseball Program, here is a snapshot of what we offer as a program and a brief accounting of how our season and the NP Legion program works.

NP legion is offered to all Wallingford - Swarthmore School District age eligible residents, and including Ridley Townhsip, (from the border of NP to Rt. 420 and down to Chester Pike) Rutledge, Folsom, and Eddystone. If you are not sure if you live in our district, please contact Ron Anderson @ rdanderson4@comcast.net or call 610.565.1677.

2013's Legion program will offer the Legion "Prep" Team (primarily 13 year olds, 12 year olds may qualify if they are currently on the 7th grade school roster), a U - 14 Team (Sandlot), and our Main Line Jr. Legion League Team (13-15) and for our 5th year we will also offer a Sr. Legion program for players 16 to 19 years of age. Ideally, the Prep Team and the U-14 Team are key elements and venues to prepare players for the Jr. Legion Team. The Sr. Legion team is designed for players who want to continue to play baseball at a very high level throughout the summer and keep their skills sharp for the upcoming high school or college baseball season.

In January and February we will hold indoor practices and tryouts for all players interested in travel baseball who will still be no older than 15 on April 30th 2013. Senior Legion tryouts will also be held for players that are still 19 or under as of January 1, 2014.

From these tryouts the coaches will evaluate all participants and determine the talent level of each player. As a result of the tryouts and indoor practices, players that make the travel program will be assigned to a pre-season roster on either the Prep team (made up of mostly 13 yr olds), the Jr. Legion pre-season roster (13-15's) and or the U - 14 "sandlot league" Team. Understand that as the pre-season evolves players may be moved from one roster to another based on their skill levels until final rosters are determined. Senior Legion rosters will be set later in the spring as this league does not generally begin practice or games until all school ball has concluded.

Our preseason schedule will include weekly clinics at Swarthmore College with the coaches and players of Swarthmore College. This has proven to be a great tool to our success to sharpen our skills prior to the regular season. We intend to also offer special clinics for players who wish to attend that will be sponsored by our professional coaches.

Last year our Sandlot team was headed up by Asst Swarthmore Coach, Eric Pearlman (now Asst Coach at Ursinus). This year we are looking for Eric to return as the Head Coach for our Jr. Legion Team. We are also currently recruiting a professional coach for our Prep and Sandlot teams. If you are interested in being considered, please contact Ron Anderson @ rdanderson4@comcast.net and or 610-565-1677.

In March, April and May we will play (on weekends) several scrimmages and upwards of three tournaments as schedules and weather permit. Understanding there are many conflicts with other activities, school ball and social events, the preseason rosters allows us to continue to evaluate our candidates for the Legions regular season rosters. Legion, Prep and the U - 14 "sandlot league" travel team will not conflict with any School baseball schedules as the regular season schedule will not start until just before Memorial Day and go through mid-July and possibly late July and or early August, if a team advances to states in any playoff competition.

As this is the most competitive baseball for this age group, we expect a committment from the players and parents to have their son available throughout the entire season and especially playoffs which could run through July and possibly in early August. (please do not schedule any family vacations until August if you plan to have you son play on the Prep, Jr Legion or Sr. Legion teams)

The scrimmages, practices, clinics, and your performance will decide who actually makes the final roster on any of the the travel teams. Final announcements of team assignments will be made prior to roster deadlines outlined by each program. Regardless of your assignment, players may be dual rostered and schedules will be carefully planned to maximize playing time and minimize conflicts with another team (should your son be dual rostered). NPAA Baseball has capped the number of teams you may play on to two. This may include two travel teams or a travel team and our NPAA Senior league. Generally, all rising 13's (Prep Team players) will also be rostered on the NPAA Senior League. 14s and 15s that are not dual rostered on the Jr. Legion team are encouraged to also play NPAA Senior League in order to maxmize playing time and gain valuable extra "reps" and experience to sharpen their skills.

Jr. Legion, Prep Team, and 14 year old travel team players can expect to play upwards of 15-20 games in pre-season and another 20-25 games in the regular season. Senior Legion players will begin the season around Memorial Day and expect to play upwards of 15-20 games.

The cost of Legion or travel baseball is considerably more expensive than our NPAA Senior League due to the type of baseballs used, umpire fees, Clinics, Insurance, and uniform requirements. In an effort to keep prices as low as possible, we will hold our annual fundraiser "tag/bat-day" on the saturday before Easter, and all players are expected to participate, while parents are encouraged to participate as well. Each year we also sponsored a U-14 tournament over Memorial Day and hosted a snack bar on multi-game weekend days that generated additional funds. As this is a volunteer organization, all parents are asked to get involved and volunteer for one or more of our fund-raising programs.

Registration will begin just after the new year and all participants will first register for NPAA and those making the travel and or legion progams will be assessed the difference between NPAA senior program and the Legion fee. If you make a travel program roster (and pay the Legion fee), you will not have to pay extra to play NPAA Senior league and or a second travel team. NPAA will have a registration table at our tryouts.

As "Bats" were a hot topic last season. The Legion program has decided to use wooden bats in the 2013 season. All Legion program will be using wooden bats in 2013.

If you have any questions regarding our program, please contact NPAA Travel and Legion Commissioner, Ron Anderson for details.
Ph: 610.565.1677, Cell: 610.724.0033, rdanderson4@comcast.net

2013 LEGION BASEBALL WILL BE USING ONLY WOOD BATS FOR ALL TEAMS.


There are some specifications that we will post in the next couple weeks that will outline which bats will be Legion approved. 

FYI:  A new rule enacted last season will prohibit players in their first year of college to play for their local Legion team if they were not on the roster the preceding year.  Most college coaches will want to have their players play summer ball after their season is over in May and Sr. Legion Baseball offers the highest competitive community baseball in the state.  Please keep this in mind when you are considering playing or not playing Sr. Legion baseball as a Senior in High School. 

The Sr Bulldogs took on UD/Clifton in the final game of the semi-finals and after spotting UD 6 runs in the first inning, they fought back inning by inning. In the top of the 7th inning, down by 2 runs, hits and walks loaded the bases. UD walked in a run making it 6-5. With bases still loaded Matt Raimo sent a long ball into left center and scored 2 runs putting Nether up by a run. Strong pitching by Kevin Bosco and closer Andrew Karahalis put UD away in the 7th. Nether wins and claims Co-champions of the Main Line Sr. Legion.

Nether will be headed to Springford for the Regional tournament on Saturday with their first opponent (Bristol) to be played after the 9:45 game. Estimated time of start around 12:30.

Great job by coaches Raines and Bosco leading this team through the playoffs with the youngest team in the league.

Concluding a great season by the Nether Providence Jr. Legion, finishing 1st in the regular season, 2nd in the league behind Wayne, moving on to and winning the regionals in Boyertown, and finally to the Legion State Finals in Homer City, the Bulldogs are proud to claim 3rd in the State among 186 legion teams. We are very proud of our boys and their accomplishments this season. Thanks to all the parents and supportors of our program, thanks to the all the coaches and the endless hours of committment, and thanks to NPAA/SRA Baseball for supporting our Legion Program.

The Bulldogs, after winning the first two games, were beat by Northampton and Bloomsburg in the semi-finals who ultimately lost to the State Champions Northampton club. Hats off to Northampton on their great season.

A great ending to a great season.. good luck to the 15s who will be moving on next season and to all ...... have a great summer.

NP Jrs beat Lower McGungie this afternoon 6-2 to win the Boyertown East Regional Tournament. This win earns NP a berth in the State Championship against 4 team from the West, Bloomsburg, North Hampton, and Concord.

Donovan Davis get the win today as we are now headed to Homer City to bring home the (state) Gold.

Making it a NETHER Season..

Congrats to the NP Bulldogs.

Nether Jrs claimed the Main Line Crown with Donovan Davis's 6th win with no losses. Andrew Karahalis's home run sparked the Bulldogs with an early lead and the team never looked back in this 6-2 victory over a very good Wayne team.

With this win, Nether Jrs earn a berth in the Jr. legion Regionals that will start on July 23rd. Up next for the Bulldogs is Aston on Thursday to finish the regular season and then will host the first game of the playoffs on Wednesday July 6th.

Bob Quinn Photography ( a hometown photographer ). You probably have seen Bob around the diamond. He has a collection of Legion photographs that are available for purchase. Please visit his website and see your son in action. His link in on our "LINKS" tab to the left.

HITTING LESSONS:
Strath Haven baseball Assistant Coach Marty Burman available for hitting lessons and private instruction. Please call 610-299-2046.

The Legion program requires all players to produce "original" Birth Certificates when we submit or official rosters to the League Administrators. Having said that, we will need the official "original" birth certificates on or before May 8th (exact date to be announced). We will only need it until we have our roster meeting. They will be returned on the next practice or game after we submit our rosters or may be picked up if requested.

The following are never acceptable as legal birht records: Baptismal certificate, hospital certificates or records, school certificates or records or xerox copies of birth certificates.

If we do not have your original certificate at our roster meeting, your son will not be able to be placed on the roster or able to play until it is reviewed by the Legion Administrator (who is not local). So please have original ready. Note: the one you got at the hospital when your son was born, is not......not...... the original birth certificate. You must have secured it from the state (if from Pennsylvania).

If you do not have the original you may get one at the following address:

Division of Vital Records
PO Box 1528
New Castle, Pa 16103

The cost is $4.00 I think. You may send away for it ( I recommend doing it now, as it might take some time )... if you need an expedited delivery, you may call 724-656-3100 and pay by credit card.

The Legion if very strict on this policy and you may not play or be included on our official Legion roster without us presenting an original to the league commissioner. Again, we will not keep it, but we must physically present one to our league commissioner when we meet in early May to submit our official roster for the season. For those of you who may not have been born in Pennsylvania, please see Coach A for more information.

Back Row: Asst Coach, Erich Schoenman, David Simpson, Dan Walters, John Lynn, Will Currier, Donovan Davis, Christian Cook, Head Coach Ronnie Anderson, Keith Decindis, Brian Vendetta, Shane Holford, GM Ron Anderson.
Front Row: Will Rocci, Jack Eiel, Nolan Green, Caedon Saltis, Robbie Straff, Steve Hall, Matt Raimo, John Fender. Not Shown: TJ Much

Congratulations to our NP Prep (U-13) Legion team as they won the SEPA league championship in their first year of entering the league. Coach Scott Bosco and Asst's Alex Van Gorden and David Geiger led this team throughout the season to within one game of the State Championship. A great first season.

The U-14 team (hoping to be legion sanctioned next season) finished just under 500 in their first season in this new league. This team had to share players from both the Jr. Legion and the Prep team as the season progressed and beat some of the premier teams in this league. Coach Randy Straff and assistants Larry Elias and Domenic Giacobello molded these talented players into a competitive force and prepared them for next years Jr Legion program.

Private Lessons are now being offered by the coaching staff at Swarthmore College. Please contact Stan Exeter at 610-331-2480 or exeter1@swarthmore.edu for details.

Back Row: Coach Greg Klucznik, Coach Ronnie Anderson, Norm Donkin, Brian Vendetta, Keith DeCindis, Shane Holford, Coach Erich Scheonman, GM Ron Anderson
Middle Row: TJ Much, Brandon McNeill, Jake Haldeman, Drew Lewis, Will Rocci, Nolan Green, John Lynn, Jeremy Ritter-Wiseman
Front Row: Chris Keenan, Alex Geosits, Joe Martin, Anthony Gerace, Brian Bosco
Not pictured: Jack Eiel, Bobby Ashjian, Matt Ramio, Paul Rode, Ryan Myers, CL

FROM THE PAGES OF MAIN LINE JR LEGION WEBPAGE....the following

Nether Providence Wins Main Line Title
July 15, 2008 - 09:10 PM Nether Providence capped their amazing playoff run with a 10-1 victory over Glenolden and in the process won their first Main Line Championship. Entering the tournament as a #6 seed, they won 4 road games to secure the title and earned a berth in the East Regionals at Spring City beginning on Saturday 7/26. Congratulations to Ron and Ronnie Anderson and their fine team.

The 2007 Jr. American Legion Team went 14-3 during the regular season and placed 2nd in the Main Line Legion behind Roxborough who went 15-2. Nether lost 2 of 3 games between Roxborough and split with Wayne repesenting our 3 losses.

Back Row: Head Coach Ronnie Anderson,James DeVita, Matt Robinson, Josh Karahalis, Joe Martin, Anthony Gerace, Alex Geosits, GM Ron Anderson
Middle Row: Mark Dolphin, Ryan Myers, Drew Lewis, Steve MacArthur, Brian Bosco, Chris Keenan
Front Row: Captains Mike Raimo, Evan Cline, Mike Stranix
Not Shown: Jeremy Ritter-Wiseman, Brandon Davis, Will Rocci

Directions to all fields are posted on the "Directions" page.. Just click on directions and go to the field you need directions to and you can print directions right off this website.... see you at the game.