Buoyed by a state teener championship last season, American Legion baseball returns to three area communities this summer.
Warner-Ipswich-Northville will field a Class B Legion squad this summer coached by former Aberdeen Smittys player Brendon Hoellein.
It has been three years since the three towns had a Legion baseball squad, according to team manager Roger O. Roth, who previously coached Legion baseball for more than 25 years. Cresbard-Northwestern-Warner played Legion ball for 12 years and it changed to W-I-N four years ago, he said.
The numbers and the enthusiasm are right now for the team's return. A Warner 15-16 VFW Teener team won the State B championship last summer in Platte.
"We had seven players left from that team that could go to Legion. That's why we're having a team," said Roth. "We have a pretty good core that played Midget and Teener ball together."
Roth's first order of business was to hire a coach and brought in Hoellein, who will play amateur ball this summer for Redfield Dairy Queen and football at Northern State in the fall.
"I was so happy I thought of Brendon," said Roth. "He was going to be busy with football practice, so I told him that our season is short; basically June and part of July. He could schedule games and practices around his schedule."
Hoellein served as an assistant baseball coach last summer for an Aberdeen 13-14 Teener team.
"I want to coach," he said. "I'm playing football now, so I have more workouts to go to. I can't be gone for long stretches over weekends, so I wasn't going to coach for the Smittys."
The W-I-N team will play 10 games and two wood bat tourneys. The first game is slated for June 9 at Aberdeen against the Aberdeen 15-16 JV Legion team. W-I-N will play games in all three communities -- June 14 in Warner, July 1 in Northville and July 11 in Ipswich.
"They (W-I-N players) have a few things they need to learn," said Hoellein. "I've played a lot of baseball. They listen and they learn. They figure it out. One practice, we went over base running and they picked it up fast."
One of the returning players is third baseman Brady Hallenbeck, who scored the winning run in the 7-6 victory over Elkton in last year's championship Teener game. He went 6-for-10 in the three-day tournament, scored six runs and drove in four runs.
"We have a few guys that can pitch and some guys have pretty good arms that will be able to pitch," said Hoellein. "I know they want to play and it's exciting to teach them how to play. It's easy if they want to play. That's what you want. We have a lot of young guys and that's good, too."
Warner-Ipswich-Northville Legion Schedule: June -- 9, at Aberdeen 15-16 JV Legion, 5 p.m. doubleheader; 10, at Redfield, 7 p.m.; 14, Aberdeen 15-16 JV Legion at Warner, 6 p.m. doubleheader; 21-23, at Vern Jark Wood Bat Tourney in Aberdeen; 28-30, at Redfield Wood Bat Tourney; July -- 1, Redfield at Northville, 7 p.m.; 11, Groton at Ipswich, 4 p.m. doubleheader; 14, at Groton, 1 p.m. doubleheader; 18-21, Regions at Groton; 26-30, State B Legion Tournament at Webster.