More than 40 excited boys and girls came to the Village of Westbury Recreation ballfield this past Saturday, April 25, for the opening day of Westbury Little League.
For many of these youngsters, Little League marks their first foray into playing baseball. According to Beaumont Jefferson, who heads up the Westbury Amateur Baseball Association (which is affiliated with Little League), the program is in a rebuilding period. The once robust program faces the challenge of declining enrollment, and Jefferson said the focus now is instilling the love of baseball in the community’s youngest players.
“We plan on really trying to rebuild from the young kids and getting them a good experience,” Jefferson said. “We’re spending a lot of time with clinics that teach the game to youngsters, to the 4 to 6 year olds, and starting with a nice feeder program.”
Part of the Westbury Amateur Baseball Association (WABA)’s declining enrollment can be tied to the changing demographic, shifting interests and overall change in culture. In its heyday, the program boasted more than 20 teams, but over the last 10 years the numbers have severely dwindled. This season, there are only four teams, primarily in the 4-6 and 9-11 age ranges.
Ken Little played Little League when he was younger and volunteers with WABA with the hope of helping keep the program alive.
“I remember when the program was a lot more vibrant than it is now and I would hate to see the program die,” Little said. “I’m trying to do a little bit to help keep baseball alive in Westbury, with the hopes that it will regenerate.”
Little played baseball from age 7 up to when he went off to college. He remembers everyone in the community being involved with the league.
“You always played,” he said. “Everyone’s dad was a manager or a coach or something. It was a way of life.”
Former Westbury resident Claire Kelly has similar memories. She was one of the first females to play on Westbury’s Little League team, and said when she was a kid, everyone played baseball.
“In the ’70s, baseball is what we did when our parents tossed us out of the house and told us to go have fun,” Kelly said. “Everyone played pick up baseball and you had this common bond. You just went out and played. And when the Little League season came around, you all regrouped. Everyone wanted to play and you cared about which team you were on and who you played with.”
Kelly lived on Dryden Street and at that time, there was a baseball field right across the street where kids would play baseball every day.
“Kids from all over Poets’ Corner would show up to play,” she remembered. “You could walk to the baseball field and be left there and your parents didn’t have to mind you. It was really a part of your life.”
But now, pick up baseball games are few and far between. Kelly attributes much of the decline of Little League to the changing culture.
“The way kids play has changed. Kids don’t play outside as much,” Kelly said. “They’re not playing unsupervised. Parents arrange play dates now and with baseball, you need at least 10 kids and you don’t arrange a play date for that many kids.”
Jefferson said there’s also been a change in what children in the community are playing.
“Some of the residents who live in the community come from countries that don’t play baseball, soccer is their national sport,” Jefferson said. “There’s a lot of competing interests for baseball.”
One of the challenges with baseball is also its slower pace. To tackle that problem, WABA is now focusing their efforts for younger players on clinics, as opposed to full games. By helping Westbury’s youngest players fall in love with the sport, Jefferson is hoping to help build up the program again.
Teaching those 4 to 6 year olds the basics of playing the game through these clinics will be a crucial part in building the program back up. The three T-ball teams will have clinics one day a week where they are rotated to different stations to learn basic skills such as pitching, batting, catching and fielding, and a modified game on weekends.
Due to the dropping enrollment, the organization is also partnering with the Central Nassau Athletic Association. The partnership will allow for more opportunities for the league’s 9-11 year old players.
“We had the need to partner with them,” Jefferson said. “For us to keep Little League successful, we have to almost be like a company. We have to merge and find new ways to give people a different experience. We’re trying to get those partnerships going.”
Running a successful Little League program requires numerous volunteers to help in a variety of ways, including coaching, event planning, administrative work, field maintenance and more. Jefferson said he’s always looking for more parents to get involved and help.
“Whatever you can do will help build up the Little League,” he said.
And building up the Little League program will teach kids a lot more than just how to play baseball.
“It’s about being part of a team and learning about teamwork,” Little said. “It teaches them how to get along, how to share, how you need to depend on people and people depend on you so you have to try your best all the time. There’s a lot of life lessons.”
See more pictures of Little League Opening day here
