Little League off to strong start

Volunteers start to come in, but more needed, according to officials

It was a good day for America's pastime. A mild wind blew across the field; the sun was warm on the players' faces and the morning felt ripe for baseball. A spark of energy could be seen in the eyes of each kid who went up to bat.

Eighteen young ballplayers made their way to the Williams Little League field altogether March 10 in order to try out for positions on this year's little league teams. Players who missed the March 10 tryouts will have a chance to tryout this Saturday at the little league field across from the Howard Johnson on Grand Canyon Boulevard.

"We actually had a good show-out today. We're watching (kids) field grounders, throwing to first base, catching fly balls and hitting. Those are the areas we judge off of," said Little League coach and Williams Police Chief Herman Nixon. "Each coach has a list of every kid, then each coach has their own way of rating them. They may rate them one through four, one through five, with one being the lowest, five being the highest."

Nixon said those kids will then be put on a draft list for coaches to choose from for major league teams.

"The major league teams will draft kids from that pool of kids that tried out," Nixon said. "Each team needs about five kids, so each coach will have a chance to pick five different kids and they'll go in order, they go in order from the team that came in last to the team that came in first ­ that's who gets the choices. The team who came in last gets first, then second place gets second choice, then (the) first place team gets their choice of drafts. We have to draft 12-year-olds first. The 12-year-olds have to play in the majors. We'll draft all those kids."

Nixon said he expects to see a number of ballplayers Saturday who were not at the March 10 tryouts.

"We know some of the kids were in Laughlin watching their brothers play high school baseball (March 10), so we'll have some more kids next weekend," said Nixon, who added that the kids who showed up March 10 can also return Saturday to try and improve their overall rating. Both the Williams High School Vikes and Lady Vikes teams traveled to Laughlin for a two-day tournament March 9.

"These kids can come out next Saturday if they want to try and improve their chances to get drafted. The kids that aren't drafted on the major league team will be sent down to a minor league team, so everybody gets to play, (though) they may not play in the majors."

Volunteers begin to surface

Volunteers were in limited supply at the offset of this year's little league season, prompting some concern over the number of teams that would be available to area youth. While they could still use help, Nixon said the league is beginning to see more and more volunteers come forward.

"Volunteering is going pretty good. We got a lot of people out here today, we're starting to do okay," said Nixon. "We still could use a couple of coaches. We could use people who want to umpire, to go through our umpiring program, we need score-checkers this year. There are lots of things volunteers can do; they don't have to coach. If they're not comfortable coaching, they can come out and do lots of other things."

Registration and tryout times will be from 10 a.m. ­noon this Saturday. Ages for ballplayers are from nine to 12. The league is also sponsoring a juniors softball team for girls ages 13 and 14. Juniors and seniors boy's teams are also signing up, according to league officials, for ages 13­18. One tryout will be held March 24 for the minor leagues. The tryouts for that day will be held at the Williams Little League Ball Field from 10 a.m. to noon. Players should be between the ages of 7 ­ 9. Softball tryouts will be March 26 for girls 9 to 12 years of age. Time and location, according to player agent Liz Otero, have yet to be determined. Children 5 and 6 are not required to try out. They will automatically be placed on T-ball teams.

For more information on the league, or to sign up, call player agent Liz Otero at (928) 635-2406 during evening hours. Anyone interested in volunteering for little league can call Ted Casteneda at (928) 635-4491.