Merrimack Legion

I agree why does every small town think it needs a legion team? Obviously Merrimack can't support one if it keeps folding. A senior babe ruth team would have made much more sense with any top players playing on a regional legion team. Even if they get enough numbers for a roster how good will that team be? Where did you hear this news?

I've heard this multiple times but most recently from the Derry Legion Coach.

I like the Jr Legion program. Unfortunately Nashua doesn't have one. I assume it is a numbers thing as you have the Legion team plus 3 Senior Babe ruth teams as well. I don't know how many 15yr olds would make a Jr Legion team but my son would have loved the opportunity to tryout for it. I know Hudson has one so he could always look into that one I guess.

What Post did Merrimack kids tryout for before? Milford, Nashua, Bedford etc...???

I have seen ads in the local papers for a Merrimack Junior Legion coach, so my guess is that they are starting a junior program. The senior program existed as recently as 2008, but folded after a tough season.

Even though junior/senior programs can have affiliations, they are considered separate teams for eligibility purposes. Assuming the new junior program has Merrimack HS as its base school, all players wanting to play Junior Legion who also attend Merrimack HS have to tryout for that program. There are no waivers in Junior Legion.

Because they don’t have a senior program and Merrimack HS is closer to Bedford HS than Nashua North HS (base school for Nashua) and Milford HS (base school for Milford), all Merrimack HS students wanting to play Senior Legion can tryout for Bedford. Depending on where they live in Merrimack, they might also have an option to tryout for either Nashua or Milford.

Another consideration is the enrollment limit. The enrollment in grades 10,11 & 12 of any schools represented on a roster cannot exceed 5000. Nashua has historically had players from North, South, BG and Hollis/Brookline. With that combination, they don’t have room for Merrimack HS. Milford has historically had players from Milford, Souhegan, Con-Val and Mascenic. If you take even a single player from Merrimack HS, then you have to count their 10-12 enrollment which was over 1,100 last year.

Last year there were two impact players from Merrimack (Cosgrove & Mello) on the Bedford Senior Team and one on the Bedford Junior Team. Two other players from Merrimack tried out for Bedford and were offered roster spots, but declined for personal reasons.

I believe the way a player determines which Legion team they are required to tryout for is to mapquest from their house to Bedford High School or Milford High School or Nashua South High School which ever is physically closer to his house is the team they need to play for, with no waiver.

Redsox I imagine the influence of Senior Babe Ruth in Nashua has quite a bit to do with no Junior Legion program.

If the HS they attend is not a base school, they have the option of playing for the program closer to their home (as you correctly stated) or the program closer to their school. Use MapQuest and choose the "Shortest Distance" option.

Each program must select 1 school as a base school. If you attend the base school, you have to tryout for that program first and can only play elsewhere with a waiver.

Merrimack will be the base school for the junior program, but it is not considered a base school for Senior Legion purposes.

The non-base option is how kids who attend Trinity but live in other towns can play for Post 79. Trinity is closer to Central HS (Post 79 base school)than it is to any othe base school.

bl are you a coach or manager from Bedford Legion? I was just talking to the Derry Post coach and I had heard it prior that Merrimack is bringing back their legion program and if true that means they have dropped out and joinned again at least 3 times over the past 3 years, I feel that NH baseball would be better off if these Merrimack players played for another post to create a stronger team, you add Merrimack to Bedford and you are talking about a real talented team. Tom Hudon, Joe Maher, Nate Harrington and Owlings (not sure if I am spelling this right) what a rotation, does Beford have the Gancarz boys too? Changing gears,Baseball people in Bedford should be excited their hard work is going to really start to show, I think Bedford is going to be a very tough team this spring in high school

I help out on the admin side. Tim Conway (Senior Team) and Matt Lane (Junior Team) head up a great bunch of young coaches that have re-launched the Bedford Legion program - Bedford actually won the state title back in 1989. They love the Merrimack players and hope they continue to be able to particiapte in the future.

Thanks for the kind words regarding Bedford baseball. There are a lot of people in town that do work very hard to support recreational baseball programs and also provide competitive teams from Little League to Legion including the Black Flies.

Could not agree more on the people who make Beford Baseball successful, there are a few Towns who have similar impact such Towns: Salem, Keene, Nashua and Londonderry. This is why these programs always find themselves going deep into the post season.

I guess I will find out the scoop at the Merrimack Baseball meeting next week.

I went to the Merrimack Baseball meeting last night. They are trying to start a Junior Legion team with no intentions of moving to a Legion program. Seems like there still needs to be some more thought put into this but they were getting names of players who would be interested in playing next season.

Hmmm....another possible JR Legion team to possibly tryout for this summer. I'll have to keep an eye on this.

I mentioned that they should consider other surrounding towns that don't have a program and reach out to them. They said they would do that, I think they only had about a dozen guys sign up on the list of who would play.

Well Nashua has no JR Legion team. If they were to take a few of the 15yr old Nashua players they'd get to keep them for a couple of years until they could break through and make the Nashua Legion team.

With Nashua having no Jr Legion team Nashua kids can join any local Jr Legion team without a waiver. The closest team with an established JR program is Hudson. Obviously they look to fill both their Legion and Jr Legion teams with Hudson kids first then they look to fill in the rest of the roster with outside kids.

Where Merrimack is looking to start a Jr program with no plan to get a regular Legion team going it would make sense to use some outside kids in the formative years until they had enough Merrimack kids to keep feeding the team in the future. Jr Legion is 17U so for most kids that would take them thru their junior years of high school.

I know my son would be very interested in trying out for a Jr Legion team and I doubt that he'd be the only solid kid from Nashua to do so. Even if he had to give up his last few games of Babe Ruth and 15U All-stars to do so. He'd get more from pitching and hitting against 16 & 17yr olds then he would 13 & 14 yr olds.

Hudson does take out of district players, they had Kyle Turner and Zach Hunnewell a couple years ago when my son played there. Their Sr. district includes Hudson, part of Litchfield, and part of Pelham. Every year since the Jr. program has started, Hudson has qualified for playoffs - they and Dover are the only two with that distinction.

In case you don't already have it, Hudson's website is:

http://www.hudsonpost48baseball.com/

Rick Harvey does a great job keeping it up to date and he will answer email/questions you may have.

In the couple years I was there tryouts were always well attended and they cut quite a few players. This past year, although my son was offered a spot on the Hudson Jr. team again he preferred the Central Orange team. Play time opportunity (to pitch primarily) and the coaches he talked to during tryouts.

As with anything - ask your questions before you commit to the program. Your son needs to know what he wants out of the experience. If the roster is top heavy (more 16/17's w/ more experience), will your son get the chance to play enough innings to make it worth it. Two years ago, one player played both Hudson Jr. and Pelham Sr. Babe Ruth. Also, not sure who will coach the Hudson team this year. For the last two years it's been John Brun, but his son will be on the Sr. team only next year. His primary assistant's son is also too old for Jr. ball. Prior to that, Dave Lelievre (Korey's dad) was the coach. If the pattern holds, then my guess is they go with a dad again and more than likely, it'll be Jeff Hurley.

Finally, I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but there's a Jr. team in Milford too as another option.

John, how is your son liking Colin Lynch's pitching clinic?

He likes it. He comes home very tired, too. Football is still finishing up, so Tue/Thu are long days. I like the fact that it's more than just throwing - it's the core workout, the in between work, and mental side of the game. Having a small dedicated group is certainly a bonus. He said Colin will be putting together more information for an off-season workout plan as well which should go well with other stuff we already have planned.

Thats great, Colin has been a great addition to the GSBA, he is one of our Showcase League coaches and we are truly very lucky to have found so many passionate coaches like Colin.