West Plains Little League caps 20th season

It was a memorable regular season for the West Plains Little League organization and hope is it will continue in the upcoming post-season?

The group, which celebrated its milestone 20th anniversary, did so with great interest from both players and volunteers.

“We tried to elevate things a little bit and make it a special 20th season,” WPLL President Stacy Ashcroft said in a June 19 interview.

Some 650 kids played on various teams, helped along the way by 120 official volunteers. The organization was founded in 2004 with about 250 players.

“It was by far the biggest season I’ve worked with,” said Ashcroft who has been involved with WPLL since 2017.

WPLL includes teams from Cheney, Medical Lake, Airway Heights, Fairchild Air Force Base and Spangle. There was also participation from the Reardan area.

The organization has programs for kids — both boys and girls – from age 4 through 12. Competition take place in baseball and softball as well as T-ball and coach-pitch.

“Our softball program grew a lot this year,” Ashcroft said. “I think we went from three AAA teams last year to five this year.”

While teaching baseball and softball are at the root of WPLL, there’s a larger mission, Ashcroft explained.

“We’ve really been trying to help the community see the value that we give our kids,” she said.

Little League exists to be a way to build community, according to Ashcroft.

“By instilling character, good values and worth in our kids, the hope is that they will grow up and the lessons they learned in Little League will make a difference in how they choose to engage in their communities,” Ashcroft said.

“We use the games of baseball and softball as an avenue to accomplish that.”

One critical teaching opportunity is instilling model behavior.

“We don’t allow any negative or derogatory comments directed towards umpires,” Ashcroft said. “We just want the whole experience to be something that kids take away positive, affirming values.”

Hopefully what is learned on the field will provide guidance for kids they can take with them as they navigate a sometimes not-so-nice world?

But back to the fun.

Among other things players in 2023 experienced was a recent coach-pitch tournament where the Spangle Padres emerged as winners. Coach of that team was Matt McKay.

“And then for AAA baseball, we all we had a little playoff season,” Ashcroft said. The PNW Landman team coached by Kenton Clairmont emerged the winner.

The AAA softball champions were Action Materials and coached by Tommy Bocook.

At the Majors level the championship was contested between Rose’s Pizza and Cheney Free Press with the latter team coached by Mark Dixon winning.

The WPLL banner will be carried on into post-season by all-star teams chosen by coaches who discuss the makeup those rosters at a meeting.

“This year, we have a 10U team that will be coached by Mark Dixon and then we have our Majors team coached by Matt McKay.

Those players experienced a playoff “training camp” of sorts by taking part in a recent tournament before embarking on further play.

“We had 20 teams from Richland, Pasco, Sandpoint, South Spokane, Trail, B.C.,” Ashcroft said. It was a round robin tournament “To get the kids reps,” Ashcroft said.

Paul Delaney is a retired Free Press Publishing reporter and can be reached at [email protected].