New Fairfield Baseball Board Meeting
August 3, 2016
NF Senior Center 7:30 p.m.
Attendance:
Pat BrowneJohn D’ursoKevin Baille Rob Gallagher
Scott LangdonPete GantertBrian FarrellKen Bennett
Jim ReutherSteve DelCampoSteve SchollNancy Riggs
Dave SweeneyRob CocozzaJoe GarbowskiNick Mellas
Secretaries Minutes
July board meeting 'held' at 9s District playoff in Bethel so no secretary minutes available.
Financial Reportfrom Kevin Baille
Doing well. On track to have a little leftover for the year.
Motion to accept financial report made by Steve Scholl, seconded by Baille. All in favor.
Tegmier Wall Discussion (led by John D'Urso)
D'Urso: given the state of disrepair of the wall and knowing his company has availability to work on it, he offered his company to do the work. His estimate for the work (described in a work proposal shared with the executive board) was $4000 with a cap of $5000.
Cones are currently up as a warning to folks but the wall is leaning and will just get worse as there is significant hydraulic pressure behind it.
D'Urso did provide some history of what work has been done. Grass Roots built the wall along the Tegmier 3rd base line. It was not built with geo grid which is standard practice these days.
DelCampo suggested that any work should be part of a TBD master plan for Tegmier but others expressed the desire to make repairs now given the current state is very unsafe.
Phil Ross, New Fairfield Public School's Director of Buildings & Grounds, sent a note in support of the proposal.
There was a question if anyone is using the Tegmier field this fall or perhaps wait until the spring. Consensus was that Fall baseball could use AA field if needed and that repairs should be done ASAP.
Motion to approve Tegmier wall work (with additional items including a railing down behind the 3rd base dugout stairs) at an estimated cost of $4000 (max $5000) made by Pat Browne, seconded by Brian Farrell. Majority voted in favor of expenditure.
New Member
Matt DiRago has been involved in Bedgord Hills Little League for many years and has helped Brian Farrell with many of things Brian has driven in support of NFB.
Motion to accept Matt as a new member made by Pat Browne. Steve Delcampo seconded. All in favor.
Girls Softball
Pat Browne floated the idea that NFB might want evaluate some future point combining with the town softball league. The current NF Softball leadership have done a great job growing it (after taking it over from the Park and Rec) but it is a small set of folks running so it might be beneficial to both organizations to combine forces.
A Field → Field Committee Formed
Question: Given the limited access to the High School fields, could we extend the work already queued for the A Field to make it into a 50/70 PRACTICE field (only a drill field, no onfield hitting) and batting cage. Brian Farrell has reassessed the queued work needed and it is more than the $5K set aside. Pete Gantert reminded folks that there are other fields in town – Cashman and Memorial – that might be usable but further study needed.
Folks shared their thoughts: if NFB uses a location other than Consolidated fields, we loose a significant amount of control. If Majors games started later in the day, wouldn't have schedule conflicts with HS softball. Could add a practice field behind softball field. Memorial field is attractive because it is in the center of town. Brian F. concerned about significant investment in A field given the beating it takes from the yearly carnival.
Agreement that there is work to be done to look into options in detail. A field use committee will be formed to to evaluate options. Pete Gantert will chair. Brian F. and Steve DelCampo volunteered to be on it. They will provide monthly reports at Board Meetings.
Summer Recap
6,7,8 year olds: (Ken Bennett) 4 teams All Star did a great job.
Travel 9 team (Brian Farrell): Had a great season with the team winning Districts. With district win, have the option to host districts new year. Can also request to host states. D'Urso recommended trying to get states. Decision on who hosts what made on the Sunday between Superbowl.
Travel 10 (Gallacher): The team definitely improved over the course of the season. Ended up only having 8 players; there was some misinformation on whether 9s could be added to the team.
Travel 11 (Del Campo): Good set of kids with good talent/potential. Team needs more practice and skill development.
Travel 12(Blue: Took first place in Greater Hudson Valley league. Lost to Ossining in playoff championship game. Pete stepping down as coach; Rob Cocozza may take over coaching.
Travel 12 Red (Sweeney): Kids played in CT Xtreme 12B. Improved over the season. Looking forward to Cooperstown
Travel 14 Blue: Played in CT Xtreme. Struggled at times but overall improved. Were overmatched sometimes since some teams had high school kids while our team did not.
Travel 14 Red (15 U): Had youth coaches Murtagh and Browne and the kids really enjoyed them. Parents were happy, too! Pete Gantert (from umping games) thought the coaches were great.
Travel 16 Blue: (Barry/Liner team). In playoffs now.
More kids playing summer ball and district teams were very competitive.
Fall Baseball
Spring/Summer 8u → Ct Xtreme 9 year old division
Spring/Summer 9u→ Ct Xtreme 10 year old division
Spring/Summer 10s and 11s → Will do 8 weeks of instruction at All Star
Spring/Summer 12s → Would be nice to have two teams at 13 U level
Older levels → not a lot of interest in Fall Ball. May need to combine 3 ages into 1 team or folks may just end up playing as individual players in Danbury
Fall Inhouse – All Star ran the whole thing last year but Ken and Joe will run this years with All Star to supplement. It would be a 6 week season.
Travel Equipment
As part of Summer Recap discussion, it was suggested it would good to have some equipment to have for warm-ups at away games. Equipment suggested included soft toss net and weighted balls. Dave Sweeney will put together some pricing information for the board to consider at an upcoming board meeting.
Nominations for NFB Executive Board (2 year terms)
Pat Browne nominated Ken Bennett for President. Steve Scholl seconded. Ken accepted the nomination.
Pete Gantert nominated John D'Urso for President. John declined.
No additional President nominations.
Brian Farrell nominated Steve Del Campo for Vice President. Pete Gantert seconded. Steve accepted the nomination.
No additional Vice President nominations.
Pat Browne nominated Kevin Baille for Treasurer. Brian Farrell seconded. Kevin accepted the nomination.
No additional Treasurer nominations.
Pat Browe nominated Nancy Riggs for Secretary. Rob Cocozza seconded. Nancy accepted the nomination.
No additional Secretary nominations.
With new board in place, Pat Browne tendered his resignation from the board. John D'Urso thanked him for his 14+ years of service.
Pat Browne motioned to close meeting. Nancy Riggs seconded. All in favor
Next meeting, Wed. September 7th..