51^st Goosetown 2025 CANCELLED

The 51^st annual Goosetown USA softball tournament has been cancelled as Anaconda Deer Lodge County & Goosetown could not reach an agreement over the softball complex facility use.  In February and March, I met twice with the Parks director and in March I met with ADLC CEO about the concession stand contract which USA softball had for the past 15 years. I explained that the contract included all the little league games as well as USA softball games.   I told the CEO that I did not want to bid on the contract as I only wanted the 3 days for the Goosetown softball tournament.  I felt that the little league should get their own concession, and it would not interfere with Goosetown as their season finished at the end of June, and Goosetown did not start until July 11^th.  Goosetown would be willing to pay an additional fee along with the $1000 it pays to rent the cym complex. I explained that the concession stand was essential to our event as we fed all the Goosetown workers and umpires, which was around 60 workers.  Goosetown hires workers to clean up the cym complex inside and outside fields as well as the Ben Goodmen and Washoe park. Goosetown also had to rent dumpsters from Anaconda Disposal to put all the garbage in.  This clean-up was continuous for 3 days, and it was important to have the facility spotless when finished.  Without the concession contract, we could not run the tournament in an efficient manner as we have for 50 years.  We also felt we needed to control the product and the opening and closing hours of the event.

In March, the contract was put out to include the Little League games as well as Goosetown. The contract was awarded to a group that has sabotaged the concession and Goosetown for the past 3 years.  Last year, during the middle of the tournament,t we received a text from the group telling us we could not store our awards in the main storage room and accusing me of breaking into the room. I did not break into anything.  We have stored our awards, shirts, and sound system in this room since 1993, and had permission from the county parks director to store anything we needed in the room.  The group was notified by the park director to make sure if they had anything in the room to get it out as the room as it was to be used by Goosetown for the weekend. The group ignored the park’s director’s message and sent me a text on Saturday of the tournament to try to disrupt our event. Some local businesses tried to negotiate with the group and were turned down. To say we have a toxic environment is an understatement, as I or my employees cannot run our event under a hostile environment.

I apologize to the local merchants who will lose their best economic weekend of the year with 4000 people coming in for the event for 3-5 days.  Half of these people are from out of state, which provided a great opportunity to showcase our community.  I also apologize to the teams and sponsors, as 80% of the teams return every year.  These people loved Goosetown and our community.  It took me 50 years to make this a national event for our community.

Goosetown owes huge thanks to the following people who helped to make our event a success throughout the years. Traci Thomas umpire in chief, Tony Huot my right arm, John Leo Sladich, Joe Ungaretti, Doodles Mccabe, Chris Zazher, ADLC parks dept,  Chief of police Bill Sather, Fire Chief Cody Tocher, Bino Dahood sound system, Doc Savage, Rodger Walker, Pete Smith, Anaconda School District, Dale Markovich Mile High Beverage, Lydia Jonasko, Anaconda Community Foundation, James Rosin Leader Sports, Ray Jack Peterson, Peterson Electric, R & M septic, Jim Pelligrini USA State Commissioner, Ron Rowling USA vice president. Alen Clark Anaconda A’s, Anaconda Disposal, County Road Dept, Terry ,Grace & Steph Galle, Doc Savage, Rodger Walker,  Warren Dodge, Arizona Gloves, Jeremy All American Athletics Portland,  Jordi’s and Stageline Pizza Anaconda, John and Shane Universal Athletics, Uptop, Torry Hill  Ethan Haug, Regie Hill, Braxton Hill, Niki (Ranger) Lakel, Jim Buck Deer Lodge, Mike Flink, Shawn Wetzel announcer, UM football team, All the umpires in state and out of state. RIP John Pelligrini, George Fiddler, Rick Kruger, Dusty & Mike Skokolich. This list could have had over a THOUSAND people as its been an incredible ride.

All teams entered this year will receive a full refund. 

It was difficult for me to see it end.             

 Bill Hill USA softball district 3 commissioner & Goosetown tournament director.