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years where things just fell into place,” school,” O’Sullivan said. “I expect all of
O’Sullivan said. “Times like this don’t them to continue playing. I’m anxious and
come up that often where you really have, really hoping to see that they stay together
what I thought was a good group, one and do good things when they get to high
through 11. We knew going in that we school. I think the talent is there.”
had a good team in the districts and if we Maher is the first to admit that no 12 MONTH CD
shored up our defense we could do well.” one can safely say that an outstand-
“Any time we win the districts or even ing 12-year-old player will be a quality
%
compete in the districts it’s a big deal to high schooler. The next few years are
us because we’re such a small league,” key to their physical development, and
Edwards added. “We have a lot less they must work hard at improving their 1.25
players to choose from than say, Not- abilities.
tingham, who competes or wins it every But the Northstar skipper is looking
year. It’s nice to compete and bring beyond talent when checking out his APY 1
home the banner and the Jim Davis Cup. program’s future.
It really brought the league together, not “They were athletic, and they had
just the 12s but the whole league. You some good arms,” Maher said. “The key
had the eight-year-olds looking up to the I always look at is fundamentally. The
guys like Tyler Dunmeyer.” things that worry me sometimes are
As travel and showcase baseball con- big kids that aren’t good fundamentally,
tinue to chip away at the fabric of com- they’re hitting 200-foot pop ups and you 30 MONTH CD
munity baseball and kids playing for wonder about them at the next level. But
their hometown recreation leagues at I saw some kids with some good fun-
%
all levels, HTRBA has been fortunate to damentals with how they swing the bat
at least maintain its enrollment over the and how they throw the ball and play
past six years. defense.” 1.50
“We’ve stayed right around the 220, Aside from that, the former Nottingham
230 mark,” Edwards said. “Nottingham LL and Steinert pitcher understands the
is up around 300, West Windsor is 350, importance of what winning a champion- APY 1
Bordentown is 350. From a talent pool ship at a young age can do for the players’
standpoint, we’re at a big disadvan- confidence as they get into high school.
tage. But when we get to that 220 mark “You look at when we came in at Not-
every year we’re happy. We feel that’s tingham, we had to change the culture
an accomplishment that we’re replac- because there wasn’t any winning,”
ing the players that leave each year, and Maher said. “They didn’t win in little
we’re not losing the players we have.” league, in high school and in legion. 60 MONTH CD
Speaking of Nottingham, O’Sullivan You absolutely want kids to come in who
felt that beating the perennial power know what it means to win. That’s a big
from Hamilton Square provided an extra part of what happens at Steinert. They
nice sensation for his team. all come in with a culture of winning
Edwards was not getting carried away because they won at Nottingham Little %
with the championship and was not pre- League and Nottingham Babe Ruth, so 2.00
dicting this would be a common occur- they know how to win in high school.”
rence in the future. He feels this year’s Edwards also feels the winning could
11-year-old team showed enough poten- help in the present, as he hopes the APY 1
tial that they could be a threat next year, championship will encourage more play-
but makes no predictions beyond that. ers to come out for HTRBA.
One thing that O’Sullivan is fairly certain “There’s speculation that some play-
of, is that we could be hearing from some of ers who played with us early on and
this year’s champions in the future. went to travel, will possibly come back
“I knew Jimmy (Maher) was there for for the 11 or 12-year-old season,” he
our games, and I think that this is gonna said. “Time will tell if that happens. But
be a real good class for Nottingham in at least there’s talk of it. That, in itself, is
two to three years when they get to high a positive for us.”

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August 2017 | Hamilton Post29