American Legion season approaches

By Sun Advocate

The 2005 American Legion Baseball season is approaching.
The first game will be played June 9 at a tournament in St George. The Helper Tournament will start Thursday, June 16 and will conclude Sunday, June 19. This tournament will include eight teams, including, Cyprus, Kearns, St. George, Taylorsville, Delta, Colo., Cedar City, Helper and Spring City, Nev.
This year, Helper will be involved in the Salt Lake Valley league again. This will be a 12 team league. The North League will also have 10 teams and the South League will have six teams. There will be a total of 28 teams participating in the state’s American Legion program this year.
Helper will once again be one of the favorites to win the state title.
The last four years, Helper has finished no worse than fourth in the state. The league nights will be Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Half of the league games will be played at home and the other half will be in Salt Lake.
Helper will also be participating in a tournament in St. George on June 9 through June 12. The state tournament will begin play on July 29 and will be held at Oquirrh Park in Kearns and at the new high school park at Kearns High. There should be a total of about 40 games this summer.
American Legion baseball is for youth under the age of 18, and Helper will have about 20 kids on the team this year. Anyone is eligible, kids from Moab, Greenriver, Carbon and Emery were on the team last year.
It is very important to American Legion to have local support and sponsors to help out. Last year, the program cost $12,000 to run. This included league fees, insurance, hotel rooms and travel expenses, equipment for the year and repairs to the field.
All money was donated by local sponsors along with a golf fundraiser and the money made of their own tournament.
The cost was $50 per child last year, but had to be raised to $100 this year. This cost is below the average of $400-$500 paid by most teams.
The field in Helper has become one of the nicest fields in the state after several improvements that have been made over the last few years. The state 2A High School Tournament was held at the field last year, and was a big success. Future tournaments may now be scheduled in Helper.