To the Avon Baseball Community
This past year has been one of expansion for our Avon Baseball League. In addition to continuing sponsorships in the Connecticut Twilight, Babe Ruth, Junior Legion, Jaycee/TD Bank & Transition Baseball leagues, we successfully expanded our baseball program to include entrance in the Senior Legion program. In response to diverse player interests, we offered a wide range of playing opportunities from recreational to highly competitive baseball. Members in our community now have an opportunity to play baseball here in Avon starting in our Little League program through adulthood in the Twilight program.
In 2009, Avon Baseball provided opportunities for 186 players ranging from ages twelve to adult playing in 231 games on fourteen teams in spring, summer and/or fall programs. We have been very successful at all levels in improving baseball skills, teambuilding and character. We also excelled on the field. Six Avon Babe Ruth teams made the playoffs with one spring team making it to the final game and one team now in the fall finals. Our Junior Jaycee/TD Bank team made the first round of the summer playoffs. Our Twilight team fought its way to the final four in the Greater Hartford Twilight League. In our first year since the return of Legion baseball in Avon, our Senior Legion team made it to Connecticut Legion State Baseball playoffs – a first ever accomplishment for Avon.
Our local business community leaders provided the important financial support needed to expand our programs, with continued support from our loyal sponsors including Able Electric, Avon American Legion, Avon Plumbing & Heating, Hoffman Auto Group, and Georges Pizza. In addition, we welcomed Battistons Cleaners, Carmon Family Center, First & Last, Goldberg, Yolles & Lepore Consulting, Kerr Agency, Maher’s Paint, Max-a-Mia, O’Neills Chevrolet and the Woodford Agency as new sponsors. Thank you for your contributions to our program!
To support our growth, we worked to enhance the infrastructure required to administer the programs. This included expanding use of the Avon Baseball web portal
www.avonbaseball.net to include automated player registration, roster management, scheduling, recording results, sponsor advertising, and improving communications. We now have over 15,000 hits on our web portal!
A great effort is required from many individuals working as a team to support such a large community program. We are fortunate to have the dedication of many volunteers who have acted as managers, coaches, umpires, scorers, and fund raisers. The Avon Recreation Department and the Board of Education field crews and our team managers did heroic field maintenance work given the challenging rain fall this year. The Avon Baseball Board of Directors has been marvelous in managing the various programs, fund raising efforts, and directing the program for success. Most important, thanks to all the young men who participated as players and represented our town in a consistently professional manner.
Dave Beaulieu, President, Avon Baseball
