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10

Aug, 2015

For "The Show" -Brightondale Links Construction

The Show is a combined league where the kids will be playing 12 games of in-house ball on the traditional 46 feet pitching mounds and 60 feet bases, and then 12 games on the new 50 feet pitching mounds and 70 feet bases with the addition of high school rules, where kids can lead off, steal before the ball crosses the plate and get picked off by the pitcher (this is typically known as 50/70 ball).

Many of you may already see parents and players leaving leagues like ours across the country and in our own back yard after they reach the age of 10. The main reason is that the parents and kids want to develop the skills necessary to be successful at the high school levels and beyond. So they leave and play in the 50/70 ball systems.

Williamsport Little League, our underwriting parent organization, has realized this and created an Intermediate Division which plays 50/70 ball. We are just taking it a step further and actually integrating the system into our in-house program versus having one intermediate team and traveling from town to town playing games (like one game with South Milwaukee, one with Franklin and so on).

We are hopeful that this hybrid system "The Show" will enable the parents to play 50/70 on a local and affordable basis; therefore, desiring to stay in our Lakeland Little League Family through the kid's 12 year old year and potentially beyond. Please understand that just because we are doing this does not mean that we are not doing Travel Ball with the Stars and Stripes Teams for the various age groups in the coming year. Rather we are doing this in addition to the Travel Teams so that all the kids can develop the skills that these Travel kids get to develop when they go to the 50/70 tournaments.

More opportunities more development - win / win for the entire pool of kids not just a select few. Now you may be asking yourselves how are we going to make this work and play locally on different base paths.

Well I have petitioned the Kenosha County Parks Operations Director with a detailed proposal to make many changes to first Brightondale and then if needed Spencer Field. This proposal was approved. This fall we will be doing drain tile work at Brightondale, which will improve drainage from rain and moisture. The fields do drain well after they dry out but the County did not hook up the tiles and put the outgoing line in the ground when the complex was built - so we need to do that. At Brightondale for the fields (and then the same at Spencer in the coming years) we are doing the following: all four fields will have home plate moved back approximately 3.5 feet, there will be two sets of base posts on each field (one for 60 feet bases and one for 70 feet), the current mound will be expanded and the existing rubber remains, there will be a temporary removable rubber for the 46 feet 6 inch mounds, the infield grass lines will be adjusted for the base paths as well as the out field lips, then the fences on two of the fields will be raised to 10 feet in Left Field and Right Field from the foul pole 100 feet towards Center Field on each side (and Center would stay at 6 feet high fences), then on two of the fields we would be leaving Left and Right Field at 6 feet high fencing and raising Center Field to 10 feet high for a total distance of 150 feet (75 feet towards Right and 75 feet towards Left), we also asked for fence mesh to be approved and we will install depending on the costs. That is not it either, as we have approval for 4 score boards and up to 8 batting cages. The main location of the cages would be behind the Right-Center Fence of field #1 (currently there is flat gravel between the fence and the parking lots). We also have the ability to move the fences back if needed but will wait to see about demand before we do this. The score boards will be a project that will occur in the next couple of years as there is a grant that we can apply for and that will cover much of the cost. However, we are doing the fencing, bases, and some of the batting cages this year and into next spring before the season starts. That is not all though...

I was able to contract with Fielder's Choice to block off time that the in-house teams will be able to use for indoor practice from Monday, March 28, 2016 through Friday, April 22, 2016. Fielder's Choice is an indoor facility with a full little league infield with turf, a pitching tunnel of 70 feet, 4 netted T work stations, 4 batting tunnels of 55 feet, and 2 soft toss tunnels of 35 feet. There are balls, screens, mounds and pitching machines there too. Everything is netted in the facility.

It is located on HWY 31 on the East side of the road behind Capone's Driving Range just South of HWY 142, in a long blue metal building. We will have practice there from 5:30 - 8:30 available every Monday through Friday. The time slots will be 1 hour and 30 minutes and there will be 3 teams per slot, totaling 6 teams per night.

The practices will consist of 30 minutes of field time and pitching tunnel time for each team and 1 hours of cage time - rotating stations.

EACH IN HOUSE TEAM WILL GET TO PRACTICE AT LEAST ONE TIME PER WEEK INDOORS for AA, AAA, THE SHOW, JUNIORS and SOFTBALL.

We will also be doing hands on clinics for coaches and players in the spring. With the weather in Wisconsin we need these kids to be in a warm enough environment to feel their hands and fingers so that they can work on the fundamental skills they need to be ball players. We still have gyms open to us to use but this facility is set up for efficient practices and it will be worth the time to get these kids out of the element for training. There will also be several camps that we are working with Fielder's Choice to schedule during the winter and you will see these on our Facebook and Web Pages as the dates and formats are being created now. The camps will be run by former major leaguers and one of which is a former Lakeland product, Daryl Maday. They had one camp this summer but the attendance was down, which in part I believe was due to it being the week of our in-house year end tournaments. But continued play and camps are great ways to get the dust off these kids in the off season and sharpen skills - especially when the cost of the camp is reasonable.

NOTICE: we will also be doing REGISTRATION earlier than ever. We will be starting REGISTRATION for the 2016 season this in the Fall of 2015, so that we can have a better idea of what our numbers are going to be. There will also be a discount in the price for the registration fee.

The early fee is now going to be $150.00 for early registration and $175.00 for registration after December 31, 2015 (except for Instructional which remains at $60.00 per kid and Softball which is yet to be determined).

This will help plan for ordering of jerseys as we are going to a NEW UNIFORM MATERIAL. Except for the Instructional, we will be going to a higher quality dry fitted jersey. And if we know the numbers earlier we can, not only plan for the upcoming season (coach and team wise) but also getting a lower price in pre-ordering uniforms. If you have not figured it out yet I am a person who not only loves kids and baseball but I desire to see these kids succeed in the long run.

To have fun playing ball but to also get an education or develop the team work and work ethic necessary to be successful in the real world. I played in Lakeland when I was a kid and that opportunity and privilege is what I credit in regards to many of my life accomplishments, which number one is not playing baseball after high school or college or coaching in the World Series, rather it is meeting my wife, Dana and having my two girls, Maya and Frankie. FAMILY! I believe that the more we give back to the community the better opportunities we create for the next generation. This is my first year as the President, and we have had a great first year. In the beginning all of our board members really united and made sure that we all took on our tasks diligently before and during the season. Then as the season progressed the parents, coaches and players really made this year special.

Coach Argersinger and his 10U Stars Boys Team won our District 6 tournament and then last week came out and WON THE STATE Tournament. What a way to cap off the year! So in closing I want to say THANK YOU ALL for making this a great and special year for all the families in our Lakeland Little League. Really without the great families that are involved this organization would not be what it is today. I CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR AND INTRODUCTION OF..............THE SHOW!

Frank Gagliardi, President of Lakeland Little League
Attorney at Law Gagliardi Law LLP
24414 75 Street Salem, WI 53168
P: (262) 843-3400

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F: (262) 843-3147

E: [email protected] Visit Our Website At: www.gagliardilawllp.com

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Amelia Island Youth Soccer

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10

Aug, 2015

For "The Show" -Brightondale Links Construction

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