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WULL has younger coaches coming in for older players
By MIKE TENNEY
The West University Little League has many missions.
“Our top priority, of course, is to turn out good citizens,” said Gregg Thompson, president of the West University Little League. “That’s the main thing. We want all the kids who come through the West U Little League to be good citizens so we try to make sure we teach the kids the right things along with teaching them the game of baseball.”
They are also committed to keep kids playing the game, which is why they’re changing the way they do business with their 13-14 year-old division.
For the first time, WULL officials are seeking volunteer coaches with a baseball background to manage the teams in the next-to-oldest division the WULL offers. They want to get men who have played instead of volunteer fathers as in the past.
“We just feel like young guys who have played the game at a high level will better connect with the older players,” said Thompson. “It’s not to say the fathers haven’t done a great job because they have, but we think that having guys who have played the game in high school and even college will help our older players continue to grow more than the dads will.”
He also says it will continue to help the league grow.
“Our goal is to keep as many players as possible after they’ve finished playing in the majors (12-year-old division) playing baseball,” said Thompson. “Right now, a lot of players after they play in the majors, there aren’t many choices for them. They either have to be good enough to play on a select traveling team or they can play for their high school team and the competition to be on the high school teams around here gets more fierce every day, so we’re hoping this will help us keep 13 and 14-year-old kids playing the game. We’re hoping this is a real option for them.”
He said the idea of using former ballplayers as managers has worked very well in other places like the Post Oak Little League.
“The Post Oak Little League does this and it’s been extremely successful for them,” said Thompson. “In fact, we’ve kind of modeled this after the Post Oak Little League. They’ve been using coaches with a baseball background instead of dads with their older kids for some time now and it’s worked really well for them.”
He said the WULL board has been considering this for “some time now” as he and board members Jeff Farney and John Duffie had kicked the idea around until the WULL board made the policy change earlier this year.
And those men have also been successful at recruiting some former WULL, Lamar, and college stars to run the teams.
Chat Lenhart and Cape Bell, both of whom were all-district players at Lamar (Lenhart as a pitcher and Bell as an outfielder) and four-year starters at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi are going to be two of the new managers, having returned to their hometown after completing school.
Bell is an analyst at Cushman Wakefield, and Lenhart is an energy trader at Suez Energy.
Lenhart was informed of the program by Farney and immediately threw his hat in the ring for one of the jobs. One of his assistants will be former Lamar teammate Matt Hudlow.
Bell became involved after talking with Duffie, who was one of his former West U Little League coaches.
Bell also recruited other former Lamar and WULL players to join him in the dugouts with Trey Cornelius, Dan Killary and Scott Zorn among the coaches.
“We’re just thrilled to have the level of coaches we feel like we’re going to have,” said Thompson. “And we feel like it will help make our players that much better. These guys all really know the game. A lot of them have played it at a very high level and that’s the type of coaches we’re looking for to keep our older players improving.”
And he stressed while the older divisions are operated by the West University Little League, the revamped league isn’t going to be limited to just that area.
“We want kids at that age who want to play to be playing,” said Thompson. “That’s the best thing for them and so this is not just for West University kids. We want Bellaire players to be in our league. We want Westbury kids to come play in our league. Where ever in the area, we’ve got older kids that want to play and feel like they have no place to play, you’re welcome to be in our league. We just feel like the West University Little League is going to be able to offer a great experience for older kids who want to play Little League baseball.”
“Our top priority, of course, is to turn out good citizens,” said Gregg Thompson, president of the West University Little League. “That’s the main thing. We want all the kids who come through the West U Little League to be good citizens so we try to make sure we teach the kids the right things along with teaching them the game of baseball.”
They are also committed to keep kids playing the game, which is why they’re changing the way they do business with their 13-14 year-old division.
For the first time, WULL officials are seeking volunteer coaches with a baseball background to manage the teams in the next-to-oldest division the WULL offers. They want to get men who have played instead of volunteer fathers as in the past.
“We just feel like young guys who have played the game at a high level will better connect with the older players,” said Thompson. “It’s not to say the fathers haven’t done a great job because they have, but we think that having guys who have played the game in high school and even college will help our older players continue to grow more than the dads will.”
He also says it will continue to help the league grow.
“Our goal is to keep as many players as possible after they’ve finished playing in the majors (12-year-old division) playing baseball,” said Thompson. “Right now, a lot of players after they play in the majors, there aren’t many choices for them. They either have to be good enough to play on a select traveling team or they can play for their high school team and the competition to be on the high school teams around here gets more fierce every day, so we’re hoping this will help us keep 13 and 14-year-old kids playing the game. We’re hoping this is a real option for them.”
He said the idea of using former ballplayers as managers has worked very well in other places like the Post Oak Little League.
“The Post Oak Little League does this and it’s been extremely successful for them,” said Thompson. “In fact, we’ve kind of modeled this after the Post Oak Little League. They’ve been using coaches with a baseball background instead of dads with their older kids for some time now and it’s worked really well for them.”
He said the WULL board has been considering this for “some time now” as he and board members Jeff Farney and John Duffie had kicked the idea around until the WULL board made the policy change earlier this year.
And those men have also been successful at recruiting some former WULL, Lamar, and college stars to run the teams.
Chat Lenhart and Cape Bell, both of whom were all-district players at Lamar (Lenhart as a pitcher and Bell as an outfielder) and four-year starters at Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi are going to be two of the new managers, having returned to their hometown after completing school.
Bell is an analyst at Cushman Wakefield, and Lenhart is an energy trader at Suez Energy.
Lenhart was informed of the program by Farney and immediately threw his hat in the ring for one of the jobs. One of his assistants will be former Lamar teammate Matt Hudlow.
Bell became involved after talking with Duffie, who was one of his former West U Little League coaches.
Bell also recruited other former Lamar and WULL players to join him in the dugouts with Trey Cornelius, Dan Killary and Scott Zorn among the coaches.
“We’re just thrilled to have the level of coaches we feel like we’re going to have,” said Thompson. “And we feel like it will help make our players that much better. These guys all really know the game. A lot of them have played it at a very high level and that’s the type of coaches we’re looking for to keep our older players improving.”
And he stressed while the older divisions are operated by the West University Little League, the revamped league isn’t going to be limited to just that area.
“We want kids at that age who want to play to be playing,” said Thompson. “That’s the best thing for them and so this is not just for West University kids. We want Bellaire players to be in our league. We want Westbury kids to come play in our league. Where ever in the area, we’ve got older kids that want to play and feel like they have no place to play, you’re welcome to be in our league. We just feel like the West University Little League is going to be able to offer a great experience for older kids who want to play Little League baseball.”
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