Haverhill Little League, a cornerstone of community sports for decades, has been benched for the 2011 season. Due to a lack of enrollment and volunteer support, the league has cancelled its season.
"We had to say to ourselves, do we risk putting out a bad product with the potential to disenfranchise a lot of families, or do we give these kids a chance to play competitive baseball somewhere and not miss tryouts?" said Kevin Clancy, president of Haverhill Little League. "The longer we waited, the riskier it got in giving these kids a chance to try out to be evaluated by another league."
In a letter to the players, parents and fans of the program, Clancy said that his league had sent all of the registration forms to the Riverside-Bradford Little League program, which has grown over the last 10 years.
"The RB program has served the community well over the years and provided kids with a safe and fun environment to play and learn baseball," he said in the letter.
Clancy, who has been president of Haverhill Little League since 2007, said Riverside-Bradford has done an admirable job showcasing its program.
"They've done a good job marketing their league," he said. "If four out of five kids are on the street playing in Riverside-Bradford, where's the kid on the fence going to go?"
One of the major differences between the two leagues is the minimum-playing requirement.
In Haverhill Little League, each player must have two innings in the field, or six defensive outs, and one plate appearance. For Riverside-Bradford, the rule is that no player can sit on the bench for more than two innings in any given game.
Clancy said that while the difference may have contributed to the decline in enrollment in the Haverhill Little League, it wasn't a major factor.
"I don't think that's the reason we were losing kids," he said. "Our rules were the same as theirs up until the major league division. As kids aged, we made the decision that kids need to learn that not everybody plays every inning, and we allowed the coaches the flexibility to manage the playing time based on their own decisions, while maintaining the minimum-playing requirements."
In 2000, Clancy said, Haverhill Little League was boasting numbers close to 1,300 players per season. By 2005, the number had dwindled to between 400 and 800. Last season, the league had roughly 200 players, ranging in age from 5 to 12.
Clancy said that a solid league needs at least four divisions with four teams each and 12 players per team, for a total of 192 players.
With two weeks left in the tryout period this year, the league's numbers weren't close to Clancy's parameters.
"We were at less than 100 kids in mid-March," he said. "It was really about giving the kids a chance to play good, competitive baseball. With the decrease in numbers, you could see the decline in play, from division to division. You might see some really talented kids playing with other kids who might be playing at a level above where they should be. This year, we had to make a decision."
The future of Haverhill Little League is uncertain, Clancy said.
"You need motivated volunteers," he said. "At some point, a parent is going to realize there's a void here in Haverhill. It's going to take a block of parents to volunteer and do all the things necessary to get a league going."
Tom Simes, president of Riverside-Bradford, said his league has brought in about 60 kids who had previously signed up to play for Haverhill Little League.
"It didn't affect us at all," he said.
Enrollment in Little League baseball is down across the Merrimack Valley, Simes said, and the Riverside-Bradford is seeing lower numbers, as well. In 2010, the league boasted 1,027 players on 82 teams in eight divisions. This season, the number has declined almost 7 percent, to 960 players on 82 teams in eight divisions.
Simes said several factors may have caused the decline.
"There's more lacrosse going on, it was a tough winter, so registrations were a little later," he said. "There's spring basketball now. I guess there are more outlets."
Riverside-Bradford adopts Cal Ripken format
The Riverside-Bradford league became affiliated with Cal Ripken baseball, the 4- to 12-year-old division of the nationally recognized Babe Ruth Baseball program in February.
"We decided that Cal Ripken would be a closer model for what we do, as far as having a national resource," said Colin LePage, the former president of Riverside-Bradford Baseball. "It's just to help us become a more structured organization."
One of the benefits of the affiliation, LePage said, is the access to Ripken's coaching manuals.
"He has a ... program, he's written a couple of books, and we'll now have access to Cal Ripken's coaching, which we'd like to have all of our coaches take part in," he said. "That will all be available to us."
Additionally, the league will be able to participate in various tournaments and games across the area.
"There are resources that the league can now use," LePage said. "We can do regional and state tournaments now, and we'll be able to enter the kids in those."
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