Shrewsbury Little League grows into special status
By Ken Powers Contributing Writer

Shrewsbury - Here we grow again: the Shrewsbury Little League doesn't have an offi- cial slogan, but it could easily be that.

The program is the largest single-charter Little League in the country, with more than 1,700 kids participating in 13 divisions.

"That might be a little misleading to some people," said Rich Saunders, secretary of the Shrewsbury Little League. "We're not saying our Little League is bigger than all the others, say Worcester, for example, but Worcester has 10 chartered Little Leagues, we have one."

And that one has more than doubled - from 800 in the year 2000 - in the last eight seasons.

Of the 1,700 kids who participate, 1,200 are boys and 500 are girls. The boys participate in nine divisions and range in age from 5 to 18.

"Three years ago we began a junior league for 13- and 14- year-old boys, a senior league for 15- and 16-year-olds, and a big league for 17- and 18- year-olds, and were already maxed out in all of them," said Mark Dionis, Shrewsbury Little League president.

The girls in the league compete in four divisions, which range in age between 6 and 16.

While scheduling and funding are hurdles for a league of Shrewsbury's size, the biggest obstacle Dionis, Saunders and the other 20 members of the board face is lack of field space.

Shrewsbury Little League currently practices and plays games on 21 diff erent fields in town and could easily fill up more, if they were available. Dionis said a pair of fields will open either next spring or in the spring of 2009 as part of the currently under construction SAC Park Field Project.

In addition, there are fields at the High School available for use, but the School Department has, to this point, not allowed non-schoolrelated play on any of them.

"If there's anyone out there with 15 or 20 acres of land in town that they don't know what to do with, they can give it to us and we will develop two or three fields on it," Saunders said. That's the biggest thing we need right now - more fields."

Dionis said a big help for the league and the board was the creation of the Web site at www.shrewsburylittleleague. com, where parents can get information about the league and what it off ers, the costs to participate, as well as using it to sign up, register and pay.

More than 700 members of the Shrewsbury Little League recently attended a Worcester Tornadoes minor-league baseball game in Worcester. Tornadoes officials told Dionis it was the largest group to ever attend a Tornadoes game.

In takes many of volunteers to keep a league the size of Shrewsbury's chugging along, and the Outback Steak House of Westborough does its part, feeding the league free of charge during the league's annual Field Day festivities.

"When they provide food for an event, it's usually to feed 200 or 300 people. Once in a great while, 400 people," Dionis said. "But for us they feed 1,700 people and they do it with smile on their faces the whole time. It's a great, great thing they do. We owe the proprietor, Rich Lanza, a huge debt of gratitude for all he and his staff do."