July 31, 2024

What a season!  Congratulations to our 12U and our 10U Softball All Star teams for winning the Maine State Tournament!  Our 10U team begins their run in the Regional Tournament in New York tonight!  Both teams represented Gorham, District 6 and Maine in their respective Regional Tournaments, what a feat!

A lot of the credit for setting up the infrastructure of that State Championship sweep belongs with our Vice President of Softball Travis Bush.  This man has worked tirelessly putting in an incredible amount of work in an often thankless and fully volunteer job.  On top of running Gorham Softball, he has been tournament director for the last two 10U Softball District 6 tournaments, and has kept our Softball program on the tracks through some challenging periods.

Travis is stepping down as this season winds down, and handing the controls to a To-Be-Named successor.  But I for one will miss his perspective, his work ethic and the energy he brought to our entire GYBSA, but especially to the young women of our Softball program.  He has impacted countless lives through this role and should be proud of what he has accomplished.

So I hope you join me in wishing Travis a farewell as he takes a much needed break and congratulate him on leaving the Softball program on top of the State of Maine!

Thanks

Greg Norton 
President
Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball Association


June 5, 2024

We are excited to announce the date and location of the 2024 GYBSA Closing Ceremonies.  We will be celebrating the 2024 season on Saturday, June 15th at 12pm at Little Falls Recreation Area.  The shift from our traditional home at Robie Park is to highlight the investments the Town of Gorham and GYBSA have made at Little Falls, especially the new Concession Stand.  

We will be handing out awards, celebrating the teams, crowning our league champs and hosting a Home Run Derby.  The concession stand will be up and running serving your ballpark favorites.

We look forward to hosting you for our closing ceremonies.  As many of you know, parking can be an issue at Little Falls Recreation Area.  In anticipation of that, please plan on carpooling when possible and at most bringing only one vehicle per family.  

We will be utilizing nearby parking lots at both Little Falls Activity Center (40 Acorn St) and Old Robie School (668 Gray Road).  Parents with older Majors age players please utilize the Little Falls Activity Center (40 Acorn St) first as it involves a short walk and crossing a sometimes busy street.

Finally, parking on Gray Road between Old Robie and the Little Falls Activity Center is legal on the Old Robie/Little Falls Recreation Area side only.

If you do park at Little Falls Recreation Area, please be respectful and only park in marked spaces.  There will be no parking on the grass areas at LFRA.

Please understand there will be children moving around so be careful when entering and exiting the parking lots.

Enjoy the playoffs and we will see you June 15th.


May 7, 2024

Hello,

I am writing this post today and asking for your help.  Our kids were made a promise and now that promise is being threatened by politicians. In the Fall of 2023, the Gorham Town Council allocated $265,000 in ARPA funding (a Federal Grant) for the installation of lights at the Little League Recreation Area, a town owned field.  Over the Winter, the project went before the Gorham Planning Board and was given approval, but at the time the Planning Board in consultation with the town, added the need for parking lot lights and upgraded electrical service to the project.  Obviously these additions added cost, but they were deemed necessary for safety of anyone attending a baseball game, soccer game, lacrosse game or any other recreational activity at Little Falls, including the very popular Food Truck Roundup.

In the 2024 Budget that has been proposed for the Town of Gorham, $300,000 was allocated for parking lot lights and upgraded electrical.  This Municipal Budget, as proposed and including this money, will not increase taxes in Gorham at all.  The lighting of the parking lot is a safety issue whether the baseball field got lights or not as practices for all activities at that space end in the dark during the Fall and Spring.  The exact working of the budget item is as follows:  "This funding supplements $265,000 in ARPA funding for the installation of baseball field lights; and parking lot lights as required by the Planning Board approval for the ballfield lights at the Little Falls Recreation Complex. After permitting through the Planning Board, it was determined that not enough funding was available for the additional requirement of parking lot lights".  

We believe this facility at Little Falls Recreation Area is not only a recreational driver, but has the ability to be an economic driver for the Town of Gorham if utilized correctly.  We have plans to begin using the Concessions Stand that is currently on site.  The addition of lights not only directly benefits users of the Little Falls Recreation Area, but opens our ability to host All Star Tournaments which bring in attendants and their money from surrounding areas.  Finally, the addition of lights makes the field more attractive for rentals for travel baseball and travel baseball tournaments, again bringing in well heeled visitors from New Hampshire, Massachusetts and all around Maine to spend their money in Gorham and its shops and restaurants.  So while we understand $300,000 isn't a small amount of money, we believe it is a solid investment in the facility and also in the recreation of our youth.  Let us remind you, at the end of the day, this is all Town of Gorham owned property, owned by the taxpayers.  Gorham Little League is standing ready to make $50k in capital investments in this facility as well as Town owned Softball facilities as well, another contribution to the Return on Investment in this project.  There aren't many other projects fighting for money in this town that have such a positive impact on recreation and the chance for a return on that investment. 

Our final argument is an emotional one to all of us who volunteer hundreds of hours to this program.  These kids were told in the Fall that lights were coming, and again when it passed Planning Board.  For that to get taken away due to bureaucracy is heartbreaking.  It is so tough, especially Post-Covid, to get kids outdoors, playing sports that build teamwork, cooperation, competition, and joy in sport.  $300,000 isn't a small amount of money, but it's an investment in our kids in Gorham.  Let these kids feel like a big leaguer for a night stepping out under the lights with their teammates and you make memories that last a lifetime and make them think of Gorham in a different light and gives them pride in their town when visiting teams come to play.   

So, our final takeaway is this.  This money is already in the proposed budget, a budget that does not raise taxes.  But there are people who want to take this money away and crush these kids.  We need you to voice your support.  You can click here and email the entire Town Council, it takes just a minute.  There is also a Town Council meeting on Tuesday, May 14th at the Gorham Municipal Center.  We would love to show the Town Council the support Gorham Little League has in this town, bring your player if they are available in their jersey to show who Gorham Little League is, I will see you there.

Thanks

Greg Norton 
President
Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball Association



February 13, 2024

Hello,

As we've had a couple days of Spring like weather, we can't help but get excited about the upcoming season.  As we have opened registration, we have gotten a few questions from parents we wanted to cover for everyone.  But first, a reminder that registration ends 2/23/2024 at midnight.  We will not be registering anyone after that time due to assessments being held on 2/24 at the Gorham Sports Complex.  More on that below:

Assessments: 
These will be held from 10am-2pm on Saturday, February 24 at the Gorham Sports Complex located at 215 Narragansett St in Gorham.  Softball will be held 10am-12pm and baseball 12pm-2pm.  If you are attending assessments, you will need to fill out a waiver when signing your child up.  If you cannot make assessments, we will have a baseball makeup on 2/28 from 6-8pm at Shaw Gym and a softball makeup on 2/29 from 6-8pm also at Shaw Gym.  You will need your child to have a batting helmet, bat and glove.  They can wear sneakers or plastic molded cleats, but absolutely no metal cleats.  

Board Position:
We are currently looking for a new board member to help us start up our concessions program with the beautiful new facility located at Little Falls.  If you've ever been in food service or intrigued by the idea of helping us start a new business, this might be for you.  It will involve helping us choose a product mix, pricing, set up a volunteer staffing program and choose and implement a credit card payment program.  This will be a full board voting position.  Please email [email protected] if you want to chat about it.

Frequently Asked Questions:
So we have gotten a few common questions that we figured we can answer here and hopefully it will help everyone out.  First of all, ages for little league.  These ages are not set by our local little league, and they offer no wiggle room.  You can calculate your child's age at https://www.littleleague.org/play-little-league/determine-league-age/ and if your child falls between age 8-12, they can play in our league in 2024.  For baseball, we will be offering Junior Little League registration at a slightly later date, and that is offered for league age 13/14.  There is no wiggle room for us allowing 7 year olds or 13 year olds to play in minors or majors Little League as determined by the official Little League calendar.

For equipment for this season, your child will need a batting helmet, a bat certified for use in Little League, a glove and shoes appropriate for Little League play.  For softball we highly recommend a face mask for all minors players and infielders at the majors level.

Games and practices are played on weeknights.  The exact schedule will be determined at a later date as coaches are chosen, fields are scheduled and kids are drafted to teams.  We will followup with more information on that at a later date.

Umpire Clinic
One of the rarest and most valuable commodity in youth sports right now is a qualified official.  We will be begging for volunteers to help umpire games for us in 2024, and as part of that we are again offering to pay the registration for anyone who is willing to attend the Maine State Umpires clinic on March 23 at Windham High School.  It runs from 8am-3pm and is suitable for our teen umps (who earn volunteer hours and gift cards) all the way up to adults.  If you wish to attend, please fill out the Umpire Registration form on GYBSA.com and we will followup with you.

Thanks for your time, please email with any questions/concerns, 

Greg Norton
President, GYBSA
[email protected]
(207)232-2922


January 12, 2024

Hello,

Welcome to our first entry in the President's Blog.  We want to use this space to keep you updated on what is happening at GYBSA/Gorham Little League.  As I enter my first offseason as President of GYBSA, I want to first thank all our our participants/parents/coaches/umpires/board members for a great 2023 season, both in the Spring and Fall seasons.  Before I turn to the future, I want to thank our outgoing President, Josh Brenner, for his tireless work during his years on the board and as President.  He has left this league in a better condition than he found it, and that's all we can hope for as stewards of this organization.  


All Stars
First I want to let you know we have made some changes to our constitution at GYBSA in how we will handle All Star team selections.  These rules have been entered in to our bylaws and the 2024 season will be the first time they will be put in to practice.  Here is how the process is described in that document: 

2. All Star Team Selection.
a) Selection to an All Star team is a privilege
b) All Star pool will be gathered via a request to parents to submit their child for eligibility
c) Deadlines for submitting for eligibility are not negotiable, and will not be allowed after stated deadline
d) Exceptions to this will be if there are not enough numbers to field an all-star team – these will go through board
votes for exceptions.
e) All Star Selections will be voted on by an All Star Committee consisting of no less than two members (of the
coaching and board member classification).
f) If All Star Pool exceeds roster limits, an assessment will be held and administered by the All Star Committee
g) All Star head coaches will be recommended by the All Star Committee and voted on by the full Board of Directors
from a pool of volunteers

This features a couple of significant changes to how we have handled All Star selection in the past for both Softball and Baseball.  The first being every player that wants to participate in All Stars must attend an assessment.  This assessment will be handled by no less than two officials on a committee (hopefully many more, all coaches and board members will be invited to be on the committee).  This committee will rank players and those rankings will choose our All Star teams.  After the All Star team is chosen, the board will choose who will be the All Star coach based on nominations.  We fully believe this is a much more transparent and equitable process than we have had in the past.  We understand there is no perfect way to handle this process, but we fully expect this will be a step in the right direction.

Lights at Little Falls
We were excited to be given the opportunity to speak in front of Gorham Town Council this Fall in support of lights being installed at the baseball field at Little Falls Recreation Area.  This project uses ARPA funds, which were part of the Federal Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, meaning these lights will be installed without using local tax dollars.  We are hopeful the lights will be in play for the 2024 season and are doing whatever we can to help the Town of Gorham move this process towards completion.  The immediate benefit to our league is it doubles our usage time at Little Falls, in effect giving us another field to use for practices and games.  It also opens up the ability to host all star tournaments bringing people and revenue to the Town of Gorham.

New Board Members/Departing Board Members
This Fall we said goodbye to some wonderful volunteer board members and welcomed new members in their stead.  Departing our board were the following dedicated volunteers that we thank for their service:

President: Josh Brenner
Vice President - Baseball: Mike McDonald
Player's Agent - Softball: Ashley Woodcock

We welcome the following new board members:
President (Moving from Information Officer): Greg Norton
Vice President - Baseball (Moving From Player Agent): Dan Levesque
Player Agent - Baseball (Moving from Fundraising): Victoria Pickreign
Player Agent - Softball: Kelsey Crowe
Information Officer - Baseball: Joel Shaw
Umpire Coordinator - Baseball: Colin Loveless 


Thanks for your time, please email with any questions/concerns, 

Greg Norton
President, GYBSA
[email protected]
(207)232-2922