Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Coaches Hope To Field American Legion Team This Summer

Pat Fulmer, the assistant baseball coach at Prescott High School, is working to get an American Legion team together.

The American Legion baseball program is for players 15-16. AL teams are limited to 18 players per squad.

Fulmer said the Legion's goal is to help make the players better Americans.

Around here, he said, young people 15-17 have few options on what to do during the summer, and this could help the 18 players on the team also become better students.

However, Fulmer needs the community's support to help purchase equipment, uniforms and be able to hire state certified officials for the game, as the AL bylaws require.

This, he said, will be the first time in 10 or 11 years Prescott will have had an AL program. The team first formed last year for 15-16 year old players.

Fulmer's goal is to expand this and include 17-year-olds next season and let the older players continue participating.

An American Legion program, he said, will also help the Curley Wolf baseball team as the players on the AL squad will face tougher competition than most high schools see.

Players earn their way onto AL squads by trying out. Only the top players are picked for teams. Many squads are combined from several small towns.

"We're fortunate here to be able to field a team," he said, "but we still have to have tryouts."

When the tryouts are scheduled, players from Blevins, Emmet, Rosston and Gurdon will be able to give it their best shot to make the squad.

Fulmer has been going door-to-door asking area merchants to help with the cost of the program. It costs about $75 per player for a full uniform.

He's also trying to sell ads for a program, which will be available at games and include a scorecard so fans can keep track of the game.

For more information about the AL program, or to make a donation to the cause, Fulmer can be reached at 870-777-6443, or by calling Coach Steve Crow at PHS.