Welcome!!

Please see the following email that I have sent out regarding the Panhandle Baseball Conference. Please let me know if you have any questions. Please email me at djones_atc_cscs@yahoo.com
Thanks!

Greetings all!

I know this idea has been tossed around a bit now, but Mike Jones and I were re-discussing the idea of creating a "Panhandle Conference" for Legion Baseball. This would be of several benefits for all of us, I believe. Please hear me out, and let me know what you think.

Since we do not have high school baseball out here in Western Nebraska, we would like to create a "Panhandle Conference" (or other suitable name) that would include (but not limited to) the teams in Class B, Area 7. Since the state office does not release the list of Area teams until June, we would assume that Alliance, Chadron, Chappell, Gering, Ogallala and Sidney will be Class B, Area 7. We could also include Gordon/Rushville, or even teams such as Bayard who are just getting started again.

We would use this "conference" as an easier way to schedule, and would like to compile stats throughout the season, and have them published in the Star-Herald here in Scottsbluff, as well as your local newspaper. I think the local news media would eat this up. I am envisioning a "statistics page" with conference leaders in Batting Average, ERA, Saves, Doubles, Triples, HR, RBI, etc. We could also keep a "Conference Standings" page that would weekly put our teams names out there in the newspaper. Maybe we could even start a webpage.

We would also be able to create "All-Conference" teams for both Junior and Senior teams. Again, since we do not have High School Baseball, this would be a way to recognize those athletes who do tremendous work on the ballfield during the summer. We would select 8 position players and 3 pitchers for all-conference, plus an overall conference MVP, an Offensive MVP and a Defensive MVP for both Junior and Senior Teams. The nominations would be collected by a "chairperson" and voted upon by the coaches.

Please let me know what you think about this. We think this would be beneficial for the teams in Western Nebraska to help get baseball more recognized. I would be willing to handle the footwork for this endeavor this season, unless someone else wanted to step up and volunteer.

Thanks for your time.

Doug Jones
Gering B&C Steel Juniors Coach