Petaluma American Little League reaches out to the community

On-diamond success helping Petaluma American Little League reach out to the community|

Petaluma American Little League officials are looking to expand, and not just on the diamond.

“We would like to get more people involved and hold more community events, not always with baseball,” explains Petaluma American Board Member Frank Untalan. “We want more people to find out what it means to be part of the Petaluma American Little League family.”

Petaluma American is well situated to host any number of community events, along with Little League tournaments at its three-diamond complex at Lucchesi Park. Its Major League diamond is the only lighted baseball field in the community. Adjacent to the Little League facilities are an all-weather playing field used by both kids and adults for soccer and lacrosse, two playgrounds, a pond, turf area, picnic areas and the new Miracle League diamond for special needs youngsters.

The hope is to use the league’s location and lights to attract more youngsters to baseball and more parents to involvement in the community.

League officials also hope to build on the excitement created last summer when Petaluma American Little League teams not only dominated city championship play, but also sent both its 11-year-old and Major League All-Star teams deep into post-season tournaments.

Although it is the smallest of Petaluma’s three Little Leagues in geographical size and number of participants, Petaluma American last year had six of eight finalists in the City Championship Tournament, with Henris Roofing winning the title and going on to take first place in the District 35 Tournament of Champions. Petaluma American also won the city AAA championship.

All-Star success followed with the Americans coming to within one win of reaching the 9-11-year-old Section championship and one win of winning the Major League Northern California championship.

“We want to celebrate our accomplishment and build on them,” says Chase Parker, American League Board President.

But, it isn’t all about winning. It is also about building community around baseball.

One of the plans for this spring is to expand the use of the lights. Prior to this year, the lights were used only for Friday nights and special occasions. This season, the plan is to play some games on Thursday nights and to also make the lighted field available for rent by Petaluma’s other two Little Leagues, the National and Valley.

“The kids like to play under the lights, it makes them feel special,” says Parker. “We want to give more kids that opportunity.”

The league will continue to work with the Trevor Smith Foundation to host the annual all-city Home Run Derby and this year will add the Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit and Run competition.

In the future, the Americans would like to add its own T-Ball program. Youngsters can begin in Little League baseball competition at age 5, but 5-year-olds must have a year of T-Ball play to compete. Currently, the T-Ball program is run only through the Boys and Girls Clubs.

On the other end of the age spectrum, Petaluma American is planning to expand its involvement in Little League’s 50-70 program that utilizes a playing field that is slightly smaller than a full-size diamond for 11-13-year-olds.

The league has added a new board position to oversee the division, and filled it with Blaine Clemmons, who guided the league’s Major League All-Star team to within a win of the Northern California championship and is well acquainted with the league’s incoming 13-year-olds.

Eventually, the league would like to add one or two Senior League teams for 14-16-year-olds.

“What we really want to do is put the emphasis on the kids,” explains Parker. “That’s what we’re here for - the kids.”

But it takes adults for the kids to have the Little League experience. “Little League can only function if you have volunteers,” he says. “And it can’t be the same people. It takes a lot of people to maintain the fields, work the snack shack, run the scoreboard keep the scorebook and do all the other things that need to be done.

“It takes a village to raise a kid and baseball is a village.”

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