Alexandria Potomac Little League

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Alexandria Potomac Little League
Founded Tuesday, November 18, 2003
Organization Virginia District 9/Little League International
Based in Alexandria (Fairfax County), VA
President Paul Delaney III
Official Website Alexandria Potomac Little League

Alexandria Potomac Little League is a member of Virginia Little League District 9, located in Fairfax County along the Potomac River on its eastern border and just south of Old Town Alexandria, Virginia. Alexandria Potomac Little League is additionally both the oldest and newest league in District 9.

Contents

[edit] History

Some of the geographical area that is a part of Alexandria Potomac Little League was once owned by Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The university had bought a huge tract of land in the Fairfax County part of Alexandria as a business investment during the early 1940s. After World War II, Bucknell sold the land to developers and the area became known as 'Bucknell Heights' and 'Bucknell Manor.' Most of the homes in the area were built in the early 1950s.

In 1951, a group of parents from the community formed Bucknell Little League, thus becoming one of the first leagues of its kind in Northern Virginia. As a matter of fact, in 1951 there were around 700 Little Leagues in the United States. In 1952 Little League grew to over 1,500 leagues.

Bucknell Little League proudly served the needs of families of the 'Bucknell Heights' and 'Bucknell Manor' communities. Shortly after Bucknell Little League was formed, Hollin Hall Little League, a precursor to Fort Hunt Little League, played to the south of Bucknell's border.

Both Fort Hunt Little League, which formed in 1956 and Woodlawn Little League, which formed in 1964, came from areas once represented by Bucknell Little League.

During a time period from the 1950s through the early 1990s, Bucknell Little League enjoyed tremendous success throughout the community it represented.

In the summer of 2002, Bucknell was being geared up to fold into Fort Hunt Little League, when a dedicated and tireless group of parents and volunteers decided they would roll up their sleeves to try to rebuild the organization. On Monday, July 29, 2002, a new board of directors moved forward with taking over Bucknell Little League with the hopes of saving the league and helping it grow.

During the spring of 2002, the league had only 129 children in the program. The new Bucknell board worked to reestablish contacts with as many families who had participated in Bucknell in the past, to reinvite them back to the league. The first step in the process was the First Annual Bucknell Little League Fall Baseball and Softball Clinic and was held with great success at Bucknell Elementary School with over 150 children participating. The following spring, in 2003, Bucknell kicked off the season with 325 children ready to "play ball!"

With the success of the spring season, then president, Pat Malone, embarked on promoting the 2nd Annual Bucknell Fall Baseball and Softball Clinic to various schools and business in the community. During his travels thorughout the league's boundaries, Malone found that people were somewhat disenfranchied from being a part of the league because it represented only one community, primarily Bucknell, within the league and not the community as a whole. Malone returned with his findings to the Bucknell board, telling them of his interest to change the name of the league to better represent all communities within the league's boundaries.

Malone worked with the Bucknell board to form a 'Name the League' Contest, where parents and children could fill out forms at the concession stand at Bucknell Elementary during the Fall Clinic. When the drawing was completed, 52 names were suggested. On Tuesday, November 18, 2003, the Bucknell Little League board of directors convened for their very last time. That night, with the help of board member Mike Aitken, 52 potential names where pared down to 20, then to 12, then to 4 - South Alexandria, Mount Vernon Colonial, Alexandria Patriot and Alexandria Potomac.

The final two names selected were Alexandria Patriot and Alexandria Potomac. The board, through discussion and deliberation, unanamously selected Alexandria Potomac as the new name for the league.

Thus, Alexandria Potomac Little League was officially born on the night of Tuesday, November 18, 2003.

[edit] 2004

Alexandria Potomac kicked off Opening Day Ceremonies on a rainy Saturday, March 27, 2004, in the gymnasium at West Potomac High School in Alexandria (Fairfax County), Virginia. The ceremony was officiated by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerry Connolly (D). Paul Sattler III of Outback Steakhouse additionally served burgers and hot dogs for lunch.

The Historic 'First Game' of Alexandria Potomac Little League

On Monday, March 29, 2004, at 6:08 p.m., at Bucknell Manor Park, in a contest against Alexandria Potomac's Tee Ball 'Rangers,' Michael Ribich, age 5, who played for Alexandria Potomac's Tee Ball 'Angels,' took the very first-ever swing for the league, making history with a line drive shot into right field. The historic ball was immediately recovered for posterity by John Medina and Pat Malone for Michael and his family.

[edit] 2005

At the end of the 2005 season, a new board of directors was chosen for Alexandria Potomac' 2005-2006 season. Paul Delaney III, who had served on Bucknell Little League's board in the 2002 season and was president-elect during Alexandria Potomac's inaugural season of 2004, assumed the role of president of the league, thus establishing continuity of working with the board, parents, guardians and other volunteers to help to build up the league. Pat Malone, past president of both Bucknell and Alexandria Potomac Little Leagues remained on the board until November of 2005, upon gracefully 'retiring' from the league. Malone began his Little League experience as an assistant coach on his son Brian's tee ball team, the Bucknell Little League 'Reds,' in the spring of 1995.

[edit] 2006

Paul Delaney III was reelected as president for the 2006-2007 season, along with vice president Mike Aitken, treasurer Mary Reed and league information officer John Medina. Delaney, Aitken, Reed and Medina are the only board members left from the original board that took over Bucknell Little League in 2002.

[edit] Alexandria Potomac Little League's 'Zero Tolerance' Policy on Verbal Abuse

Alexandria Potomac Little League strictly enforces what is the strongest 'zero tolerance' policy on verbal abuse among youth sports in the Washington, DC metro area.

Our policy is simple: If a team manager, coach, umpire or any league volunteer verbally abuses a child, no matter what the reason or circumstance involved, that person is immediately dismissed and permanently banned from participating in any future Alexandria Potomac Little League activity. The dismissal will be swift and absolute to ensure that we keep our program as one of the best for children in our area. As such, shouting or yelling at children will absolutely not be tolerated.

We feel that children should be involved in activities where they can have fun and be in a safe and nurturing environment, free of verbal abuse. Parents should know that we are diligent with our zero tolerance policy on verbal abuse, and, to date, since it was first instituted in 2003, we have not had one single instance of verbal abuse to any of our children in Alexandria Potomac's program.

[edit] Location

For registration purposes, Alexandria Potomac Little League covers four zip codes that either fall into or are within our borders:

  • 22303, which is solely in Alexandria Potomac;
  • 22306 and 22307, which we share with Fort Hunt Little League, and
  • 22310, which we share with Central Springfield Little League.

"Alexandria" Little League is in the city of Alexandria and borders our northern border. Central Springfield Little League borders most of our western border, from the Beltway, through Rose Hill, down Telegraph Road, past the runway of the Coast Guard station, down to Hayfield. Woodlawn Little League borders us on our southwestern border up to Hybla Valley and Fort Hunt Little League borders us on our southeastern border on Sherwood Hall Road, through Paul Springs, up to Wake Forest Drive off of Fort Hunt Road.

[edit] Levels of Kickball, Baseball and Softball offered

[edit] Nature of play

Alexandria Potomac Little League is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization and follows rules and policies set by Little League International, based in Williamsport, PA.

[edit] Kickball

Alexandria Potomac has an organized scheduled kickball program for children, ages 3 to 4 years old. Volunteerism by parents and guardians are set for 100 percent, due to the fact that most games are held for only 20 to 30 minutes in length.

[edit] Baseball

Alexandria Potomac's baseball program begins with tee ball, for children ages 5 to 7 years old. Tee ball offers children, parents, guardians and volunteers an excellent opportunity to learn the game at the grass roots level.

The next level up from tee ball is machine pitch, which is for children ages 7 to 9 years old. Machine pitch baseball is more faster paced than tee ball and offers all who are in the program to progress to kid pitch baseball.

The following two levels up from machine pitch are 'Minors' and 'Majors.' The ages for these levels are 10 to 12 years old.

[edit] Softball

Alexandria Potomac offers the only 'official' Little League sanctioned girls softball program in its immediate area. The only other Virginia District 9 Little League to offer girls softball is DTQ (Dumfries-Triangle-Quantico). Fort Hunt Youth Athletic Association, located to the south of APLL, offers girls softball but they are not officially sanctioned by Little League International. Neither is girls softball offered by the City of Alexandria's Parks and Recreation Youth Sports Program.

[edit] Fall Baseball & Softball Clinics

Alexandria Potomac Little League holds instructional baseball and softball clinics each fall. The clinics start on a Saturday in mid-September and last for seven weeks. Guest instructors have come from various colleges and universities in the Washington, DC area, such as Georgetown University, George Washington University, Howard University, University of Maryland, College Park, United States Naval Academy and George Mason University, to name a few.

[edit] Structure of league

The league functions solely on the support of volunteers and umpires.

[edit] Media

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Pat Malone		 Alexandria Potomac Little League
2004–to present		 Succeeded by
Paul Delaney III
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