Plans for Legion ball team falls through

By Becky Uehling

Grant Tribune-Sentinel

The forming of a junior legion baseball team, which was sponsored by the local Grant Legion Post and was scheduled to begin this season, has fallen through because of a lack of numbers, according to Grant Legion Team Baseball Board President Chris Fryzek. However, the effort will be made again to establish the team for 2024, he said.

Fryzek led the effort last year to establish a legion team, and resurrect a program that has not been in Grant for many years.

Fryzek, as well as other board members John Goodell, Dave Barry, Nick Hanson and Lonnie Kuenning, had worked hard with area communities, and potential sponsors to get the program up and going again. However, as the program progressed, the number of players needed for the team, which the board thought were there, fell off for one reason or another, Fryzek said. 

“I blame myself for not getting out in front and making a push to secure the kids for the team,” he said. 

Fryzek said he is in the process now of contacting sponsors and deciding what to do with the funds and equipment that have already been donated to the program. 

Fryzek said sponsors have the option to roll their donations over to next year, when the board will again try to reorganize, donate the funds and equipment to existing ball programs, or to get a refund.

He said those youth who had committed to playing on the newly formed legion team have the option now to play for other legion teams in the area, and he encourages them to do so. 

“It is hard to get back into it after taking a year off,” he said of the youth who want to play. 

The Grant junior legion team would have been made up of youth ages 12-16. He encourages those who are interested in playing on the 2024 Grant Jr. Legion team to contact him atfryzek45@gmail.com