Little League thrives on volunteers

By Laura Clark

Published: June 18, 2008

On a Sunday so hot the mosquitoes weren’t biting, the final season games for the t-ball and coach pitch teams and the first round tournament games for the major teams played on.

Moms entered the dugouts between innings, bringing Gatorade and sunscreen, while other family members clustered in the shade of a few trees or under umbrellas. A 5-year-old Oriole player, black bangs pasted on his forehead, clutched his gold trophy in one hand and propped his juice box on a bat with the other.

You could drive north on 29 and miss the Nelson County Little League Park, located between Colleen and Lovingston. Down on the left, almost in a bowl, sit three fields for 12 teams. There are no scoreboards, and only the major’s field has an outfield fence and roofed dugouts.

Maybe it’s not fancy, but this park is the only place in Nelson County where kids play organized baseball games. It has survived by the work of countless volunteers, and has seen its share of challenges since the first field was built in 1987.

Ronnie Ponton was one of the original organizers of the Nelson County Little League. In 1987, there were several ball teams playing out of Rockfish and Fleetwood. He and other parents decided to combine the teams into one league, and build a park on land donated for use by Oak Ridge Estate owners John and Rhonda Holland.

“Jerry and Larry Saunders Construction and the Lion’s Club got together and decided to put this field in for Little League,” Ponton said. “Basically, they brought their equipment in, and we started excavating, leveling off an area. We got it all seeded.”

Until about seven years ago, the park was called Lion’s Field, and many people still call it that, Ponton explained as he unsnapped his umpire gear after calling the major league’s championship game.

But the Lion’s Club didn’t have the time to put into the field, so the Little League organization took it over. Shortly after that, the two fields across the creek were built for the 13-14 age group, which Nelson County can no longer field teams for.

Ponton, as well as any volunteer, from coaches to concession workers, are unpaid in compliance with international Little League rules. As the games wind down, a collection jar goes around for the umpires, just to help. Ponton said he has been an umpire for a “long, long time.”

“I enjoy talking to the catchers during the ball games – as long as they’re catching the ball,” he said, rubbing his bicep dramatically. “I put an extra pad their tonight, and it missed it.”

Ponton coached his son, Ben, who graduated high school this year, in Little League from age 9 to 14. After Ben’s final year, the organization hit a rough patch, and nearly disbanded.

“I think it just lost a lot of players and coaches at one time. And sometimes that happens, and when it happens, you lose a lot of field help, you lose umpires. That’s the hardest thing, getting people involved,” Ponton said.

Harley “Junior” Burnley went to the meeting where it was decided not to have little league in the county. The kids would have to go south to Amherst or north to Albemarle to play baseball.

“My son Timothy, I wanted to keep him in the county,” Burnley said.

So he spoke up at that meeting, “and was elected president right there,” he said.

He and the new Little League board faced some daunting challenges. First, he had to find kids to play, parents to coach, people like Ponton to umpire games. He started by taking flyers to the schools in the county, and sending them home in kids’ backpacks.

“And then we just sat down and started calling people,” Burnley said. “Once one wants to come out, he’ll tell his friends.”

The fields also needed major work: mowing, fence repairs and wiring. Plus, the bridge to two of the three fields had been washed out. Again, people came together to make the field playable. Burnley said his employer, the Central Virginia Electric Co-op, provided a lot of equipment. Many of his coworkers also came out to help.

One of them, Ben Toms, succeeded Burnley as president the following year, and Burnley became vice-president. Before a game, Toms could be found finishing up mowing and painting lines on the infield. Then he’s likely to be near the concession stand, where his wife, Donna, or Burnley’s wife, Kaye, volunteer.

As the championship game wrapped up, Toms watched over bratwursts and onions and peppers on the grill. The major league coaches were meeting after the game to choose the All-Star teams, who will compete for the chance to climb to the Little League World Series. Nelson County will field two teams, the 9-10 and 11-12. During the regular season, there are not enough children to have more than two teams each, so the oldest age groups combine.

“It’s been an uphill battle, between Cove Creek and spring soccer,” Toms said. “I believe we had 140 kids this year, so we’re coming back.”

With the kids come the volunteers. The field insurance and port-a-johns, equipment and upkeep, the league costs about $11,000 to operate. Volunteers like retirees Billy Brooks and Fred Clarkson mow the fields, often bringing their own gas for the mowers.

“We charge $45 to play per child,” Toms said. “We have some sponsors for every team, and that kind of offsets the cost of uniforms a bit. Concessions help quite a bit. It would be good to get some fundraisers going, to have a scoreboard out here.”

Toms said the coach-pitch and t-ball teams had several girls playing, including his daughter Alyssa, 7. He hopes the girls will stick with it and maybe be able to form a softball league in a couple years.

His son Will, 10, also has a few more years in Little League. Will’s National team lost to the Red Sox in the championship, and Toms prepared to comfort his son.

“That’s the main thing, just to teach the kids how to lose graciously and be good sports about things. Know you can’t win every game,” he said.

“I really just got involved with it because I didn’t want to see us lose baseball here in the county. There’s a lot of good people here.”