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Nebraska Sluggers

showballcoach

showballcoach

Recruit
2 Year Member
Wanted to give a shoutout to the Nebraska Sluggers. They are having a very good summer. Sluggers Alitz/Kenny has won 2 V-Tool tournaments and yesterday beat the #6 team (Twelve Baseball - Maroon) in Perfect Game rankings at the Premier League Championships in Joplin. Totally different than the last few years of the Sluggers. These guys are competing at the national level. Sadly most of them are not going to play for UNL. Lots of D1 and big Juco commitments happening for them this summer. It’s been fun seeing the groups of coaches and MLB scouts forming when they play.

6 Nate Hostetler
11 Jacob Legler
12 Joe Richter
17 Shea Zetterman
19 Brandon Doty
25 Hunter Cerveny
26 Austin Jisa
29 Austin Oswald
30 Ryan Jungers
32 Camden Johnson
34 Wyatt Anderson
35 Ben Coldiron
36 Brandon Doty
37 Griffin Everett
38 Garrett Olson
39 Cameron Frederick
43 Wil Fisher
46 Jordan Wicks
47 Tristan Gomes
48 Jake Gish
50 Kaleb Carpeter
53 Logan VanTreek
55 Jaden Woolbright

The 16u team is doing well and has also knocked off PG top 10 and top 25 teams.

From what I'm hearing from some of the bigger travel programs we likely will some more 15u-18u travel ball programs popping up in Nebraska.
 

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Looks like we have a commit on that team, a guy we passed on, a brother of a commit, and then 2 for sure I know we are keeping tabs on. Congrats on the success.
 
Huskers attended today’s game along with about a dozen other schools. Logan VanTreek threw a complete 1 run game. Hope 15u-18u travel ball gains momentum in Nebraska. After watching my son play 3 years of Legion, this is such a breath of fresh air. The level of competition is so much better. Choice is a good thing.
 



Legion baseball is dying a slow death and needs to be done. I know a player for the Sluggers that was denied playing in Legion districts when he got back from Joplin because the opposing coach reported him for playing on another team.

I’m sorry Legion baseball, but in Joplin the Sluggers played in front of over 50 coaches. I think our local Legion team maybe had an NAIA coach watch a game. If your trying to make us choose between local Legion and Sluggers, you will lose. The Sluggers competed against pitchers throwing in upper 80s with some guys topping out at low 90s.

I would really like to thank organizations like the Sluggers and the Nebraska Prospects for giving our kids an opportunity to compete against elite competition and also getting NE kids exposure in front of many coaches.
 
Hosskerz said:
Legion baseball is dying a slow death and needs to be done. I know a player for the Sluggers that was denied playing in Legion districts when he got back from Joplin because the opposing coach reported him for playing on another team.

I’m sorry Legion baseball, but in Joplin the Sluggers played in front of over 50 coaches. I think our local Legion team maybe had an NAIA coach watch a game. If your trying to make us choose between local Legion and Sluggers, you will lose. The Sluggers competed against pitchers throwing in upper 80s with some guys topping out at low 90s.

I would really like to thank organizations like the Sluggers and the Nebraska Prospects for giving our kids an opportunity to compete against elite competition and also getting NE kids exposure in front of many coaches.
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American Legion Rule 6D permits dual participation, which is normally no big deal.

There is a place for Legion baseball, particularly in small town Nebraska. Legion baseball is best suited for it's original intent: town and school specific competition. It is not a show case format.

If summer baseball went the route of only showcase teams, many kids would miss out on the opportunity to play ball.

I see no reason why the showcase teams and legion teams cannot co-exist.
 
Well all I can tell you was a Legion director called up our coach an hour before a semifinal game and said my son was ineligible. Maybe because he wasn’t there for the first couple of games? I’m not really sure I heard the official excuse.
 




My son is on the team and was told by the local legion coach that if he played Sluggers he's not allowed to ever play legion again. He said it's a local legion rule. OK, so what. Was not planning on it anyway and I sure can't find where the national legion program supports this. Then he proceeded to tell him he can't guarantee what will happen during high school tryouts. THAT I have a serious problem with. He's using his position in a publicly funded high school to influence out of season non-school sponsored activities. Isn't that illegal?

The biggest problem in Nebraska is the high school coaches also coach legion, and many are paid a lot of money for 2-3 months of managing games. They sure don't practice. I was told our head coach gets over $10,000 to coach the legion team. He's just trying to protect his summer income. He's supposed to be an educator helping the boys.

I do believe legion has it's place, but it's place is like down in K.C. where legion is the rec program. What I'd like to see is the upper tier like the Sluggers and Prospects doing the college tour, and then club teams run by UBA, Tiger, Pacesetters, etc playing some showcases. A lot like USSSA 8u-14u where you have A,AA,AAA and Major. Everybody has a place.
 
Also, our legion program is about $1,000 to play in. Some are paying nearly $1,500. For what you get, that's nuts.
 
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BasilLongfellow said:
American Legion Rule 6D permits dual participation, which is normally no big deal.

There is a place for Legion baseball, particularly in small town Nebraska. Legion baseball is best suited for it's original intent: town and school specific competition. It is not a show case format.

If summer baseball went the route of only showcase teams, many kids would miss out on the opportunity to play ball.

I see no reason why the showcase teams and legion teams cannot co-exist.
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They reason they can’t is like what I just posted about our legion coach. They are blackballing, or threatening to blackball the kids from the high school team that they also coach. Something that is surely illegal since they are employees of publicly funded institutions.
 
showballcoach said:
They reason they can’t is like what I just posted about our legion coach. They are blackballing, or threatening to blackball the kids from the high school team that they also coach. Something that is surely illegal since they are employees of publicly funded institutions.
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There is a high school head coach that won't play a college prospect because he plays on a showcase team?


Not illegal, but sounds like a pretty crappy head coach.
 



Not just one coach. Multiple in Lincoln and Omaha. Until this last winter Pius even had it on the baseball team’s website that if you didn’t play legion, you will not be considered for the HS team.
 

I have also heard everything that @showballcoach has said. I have also heard that this year A few more of the Lincoln and Omaha Legion coaches are being more accepting of it, and that will hopefully grow.

In my sons case the Legion coach was ok with it because he understood the opportunity that the Sluggers brought that Local Legion couldn’t, but were also not in Omahaor Lincoln.
 
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