New Softball League Format Coming in 2009!
Candy Gerber, our V.P. of Softball will soon be announcing a restructuring of our NLBSA Softball League for the 2009 season. These adjustments will narrow player age disparities within our Leagues as well as align our North Lincoln Divisions with neighboring communities.

I would like to congratulate all our North Lincoln All-star players and coaches on a very successful tournament season! Our Baseball and Softball All-star teams have performed extremely well in all the tournaments they have participated. That is a testament to the dedication of not only our players, but of our Directors, Coaches and Parents as well.

I would also like to acknowledge an extraordinary effort by a number of tournament volunteers who are not members of our NLBSA Board of Directors. While numerous parents, coaches and fellow Board members really stepped up to make our tournaments an outstanding success, we must give special recognition to the following people, as we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

First and foremost is Eric Danapilis! Frankly, without Eric stepping up to assume the Baseball Tournament Director position, our tournament would not have taken place this year. Words can not do justice to what Eric had to deal with because of the two days of rain during the tournament. He had to make countless "tough calls" that were not well received by a number of teams - to put it mildly! As I agreed with all of Eric's decisions during the course of the tournament, I did so at a reasonable distance as they were being communicated to the various managers involved. I never consider this before, but being over 6' and 220 pounds has to be a prerequisite of any future Tournament Director! Eric, thank you so much for an incredible job under some extremely difficult circumstances!

Then, there's Tammi Spiegel. There's no other Tower Director in her class! Eric's favorite description of her during the course of the tournament (affectionately, of course) was that she's a "machine". We were just amazed at how she moves games through a field, and for the most part doing it solo in the tower! She's constantly working the teams, umpires and even the grounds crew to move the games along - and in a pleasant way where they don't even realize that they're being pushed. I can not thank Tammy enough for her assistance with both the Softball and Baseball Tournaments this year....unbelievable job!!

Gary Young was another "multi-tournament" volunteer that did an incredible job for us this year, as always. Gary is someone that many of you may not know by name, but he's been working both our Softball & Baseball Tournaments for many years. He keeps an unbelievable scorebook! He probably doesn't know this, but we always joke that Gary writes more in his game summaries than the Herald Palladium sports page does for a World Series game! There's no one that takes his duties more seriously than Gary - and we are very thankful for his many years of outstanding assistance.

Fred Bournay has run the Peanut Tower for a number of years now. When he drives in the park we simply hand him some game balls and he turns in his game summaries at the end of the evening as he leaves the park. Talk about low maintenance, we never have to worry about a thing on his field! He takes care of scheduling the umpires and does all the announcing and scorekeeping by himself. He announces the games with a flair that can be heard all over the park. All the players and fans really enjoy playing on his field. Terrific job, Fred!

Tony DeLapa is another person you'll see around the park but may not know by name. One might think that he works for the Township, since he's the guy spreading fertilizer, mowing or helping Fred with field maintenance. He owns the front-end loader that you'll often see near the shed. Not only does he donate his time and equipment to the park, last weekend he specialized in water removal when the fields were flooded. He brought in pumps and tubing to help remove the water in record time. Frankly, he really made me look bad after I posted a (3) hour game delay on our tournament website. The next thing I knew, Tony, Fred and our grounds crew (Zane Spiegel & Kyle Sipress), had most of the fields ready to go within an hour and one-half. Along with the help of parents and even some umpires, this was just an incredible feat that these guys pulled off last Saturday!

Lastly, Mrs. Liggett stepped in to run a tower when we were forced to deploy resources to other areas during some rain makeup games last weekend. Again, she was pretty much on her own, but gladly stepped in to help out in a pinch. Frankly, I don't know what we would have done without her.

We also had members of our staff who really did an outstanding job for us during the tournaments. I'm always reluctant to single people out for the fear of overlooking someone's contribution, but there are a few people that must be given special recognition.

The first would be Candy Gerber. Again, without her stepping up to take on the Softball Tournament Director position, our girls would not have had a North Lincoln Softball tournament this year. Candy along with the help of Bob Yack did it all; from contacting the teams to scheduling all the games and volunteer help. Again, I can't thank her enough for taking the initiative to make this Tournament happen.

As always, Becky Wrobelwski was there to assume her thankless position of Concession Director. She would get to the park before 3pm to start the food preparation and generally wouldn't leave until closing. Whenever we couldn't find her and thought that she might have left the park, here would come her maroon Blazer with more hot dog buns, cheese dip and big league chew. Every shift change was always an adventure to see how may people wouldn't show up for their assigned shift. Becky was constantly on the phone trying to round up help to keep the food flowing out and the revenue flowing in. The gross concession receipts for the tournament were very impressive. In the (12) days of Tournament play we grossed approximately 64% of that for the entire regular season. Becky, thank you so much for making that possible!

Our Vice-president of Football, Ed Danapilis, lived in Tower C for the eight days of the Baseball Tournament! Once we got him up there he couldn't get down. The only downside to having Ed work a tower was that he kept calling either Eric or me to bring him food. Next year we’ll have to confiscate his cell phone before he gets up in a tower. That will add a couple percent profit to our bottom line at the concession stand! Seriously, Ed gave us an incredible effort after coming off two major surgeries in just the last couple months. There's certainly nothing wrong with Ed's heart!

Bob Salvano displayed outstanding leadership in bringing our Baseball Tournament together. Scheduling (78) teams with a three game minimum during an (8) day tournament is not an easy task. Once we made the decision that the Tournament was a "go", Bob went out and signed Eric Danapolis off waivers....which was a brilliant move on his part! We have to remember that Bob's son no longer plays at North Lincoln. This should give everyone a real indication of his commitment to baseball and this organization. Again, we couldn't have pulled this off without you, Bob!

Last, but by no means least, there's Fred Alten. Fred got real mad at me one day during the tournament because I actually beat him to the park. Other than that one time, he's always the first person there and the last person to leave. He and his grounds crew (Zane & Kyle) did an incredible job during both tournaments. The other time I saw him mad during the tournament was when he couldn't dress a field because Eric and I were pressing the umpires to get the game started because of darkness. Well, dressing 143 fields out of 144 games isn't a real bad percentage. Fred, Eaton Park wouldn't be the same without you.....thank you so much for everything you do!

There are countless other Directors, Managers, Coaches and Parents that came up to me during the tournaments and asked if they could help out in some capacity. As we are a volunteer organization, it really makes me proud of our organization and the community in which we live to have so many of our people identify a need and ask if they can help out. Thank you so much for your support and assistance during our tournaments as well as the regular season. As we've certainly identified some areas for improvement next season, everyone's collective contribution is what continues to make this organization an outstanding success!

Best wishes to all! Mark Coons

St. Joseph Rocket Football Registration for the 2008 Season is now CLOSED

- Non-contact Practices may begin on Wednesday, August 6th.
- Equipment will be handed out on August 13th & 14th.
- The Annual Rocket Football Jamboree will be held at Lakeshore on Saturday, September 6th.
- The Rocket Football Regular Season will begin on Saturday, September 13th.