New City Little League Celebrates Opening Day Saturday

It’s baseball season in New City and the New City Little League is holding its opening day celebrations at 8 a.m. Saturday at Zukor Park to commemorate the start of the 2011 season.

The ceremonies begin with all of the teams marching in, banners held high, and last year’s 11 and 12 year old all star District 18 championship softball team being honored for their achievement by raising the flag during the Pledge of Allegiance.

Announcing for the ceremony will be NCLL Executive Board Member Michael Forman, who has been the announcer for the past five years and on the board for 12 years.

“I've done this such a long time and I love it,” said Forman.  “What a great community outreach program it really is.”

The opening march, pledge of allegiance and raising of the flag will be followed by some words by NCLL President Lon Hofstein, who, among other things, will be leading two special presentation ceremonies.

The first is the Bill Berletic Junior Award for the volunteer of the year to be awarded to one of the dedicated members of the NCLL board.  Berletic was a player and later coach in the league who was tragically killed at the young age of 20 in a  car accident in November of 2001.

The second presentation ceremony will be in memory of John “The Corporal” Amendola, a dedicated board member and coach for NCLL who passed away last August from cancer.  The presentation will be made to his wife Patty and two sons, John and Michael.

“We called him ‘The Corporal’ and John Amendola gave many years serving on the board for the kids," said Hofstein.  "He died of cancer in August and, on opening day, we will present to his sons and his widow a plaque commemorating his service to the league and we will put it up at Zukor Park field.  New City Little League never forgets members like John who have done so much to help the program and help the children.”

To further commemorate Amendola, NCLL directors will have gold stripes put on their jackets and the juniors and seniors divisions will have gold stripes put on their sleeves.

In addition to the majority of the over 900 players in the league, their families, and the NCLL board, over 10 ten dignitaries from the Town of Clarkstown will also be present to help commemorate the event by throwing the ceremonial first pitch.

Each year, the NCLL brings in a special guest, usually from the Majors, to say a few words, throw a first pitch, autograph memorabilia and generally make the day a truly special one.  This year’s guest will be Howard Johnson, former 3^rd baseman and hitting coach for the New York Mets.

To make the day even more special, the Rockland Boulders announcer has agreed to be there and will likely be bringing a few players with him as well to autograph memorabilia. The Boulders, a CanAm league professional baseball team, is based at the new stadium being built in Pomona and is slated to begin play in June.

The ceremonies will close with two of the league’s younger players announcing loud and clear over the microphone “Play ball!”

With those words, the season will kick off in earnest, though due to the size of the league, they have already been playing some games prior to opening day in order to be on track with the rest of the county.

The league will be extra large this year, due to the cuts of freshman sports from the Clarkstown North and South high schools.  Thanks to the NCLL, these players will still have the chance to hone their skills in the Seniors division.

“The little league travel teams, those are the teams that had more kids come on, because they want to play,” said Forman.  “This is a huge baseball town and we need to let the kids play, which was something John Amendola always said, ‘just let the kids play.’  So that was our mantra so to speak and that’s why we’re giving this thing to Patty his wife and all of that.  So we are very passionate about what we do.”

Overall, it’s looking to be another exciting baseball and softball season for NCLL, where the welfare and happiness of the players is always kept at the heart of what the league does.

“We’re looking forward to another successful season of New City Little League baseball and softball,” said Hofstein.  “We’re looking forward to seeing our kids compete at the all star level in the upcoming season.”

Last year, the league had another wonderful season all around.  The stars of the show were the 11 and 12 year old softball Majors division all stars, who went all the way to last year and onto the Sectionals.

New City boasts a very strong softball program, whose Majors division for the past few years has made it to the championships in either the District or State.  They also have a solid baseball program which is constantly improving, though is not yet as strong as their softball program.

The NCLL is constantly looking to improve the quality of their program, which includes the facilities that they have available to the players.  Last year, they created the bathrooms at Strawtown field and installed batting cages at the field, too.  This year, the focus is on raising money to update the lights.

“This year, we’re looking to have various fundraising projects to put the money towards new lights,” said Hofstein.  “The ones we have there are a bit antiquated, so we really need to move up to the modern times of more cost efficient and energy efficient lighting.”

Once the regular and all star seasons have concluded, those teams that do not continue on to the state competition will have an opportunity to enjoy a week of competition at the annual All Star Baseball Tournament to benefit the ARC of Rockland in July.  This is always a highlight of the season for the NCLL and teams it hosts.  All proceeds from the tournament are donated to Rockland ARC.

“On the average, we raise $4,000 to donate back to ARC,” said Forman.  “So here you have a little league do what they can and we always try to give back to the ARC.  There’s a lot of good will and we really enjoy it.”

All in all, the NCLL is geared up and ready for another fun-filled season that will leave its players with more skills and many fond memories, both of which they will be able to carry with them long after they graduate from the league.

“I think we’ve made some great strides,” said Forman.  “We did some reorganization last year.  The boys did well, but I expect them to do very well this season.  I think we have a good set of coaches in place to do that and reach that goal.  It’s all about the kids and we have really good coaches in place to allow our children to play and succeed.”