MISSOULA, Mont. — The Missoula Mavericks baseball program has been around a long time.
As the Mavericks are learning, to play, it’s not cheap and some costs are beyond their control.
The Mavericks are celebrating 100 years of American Legion Baseball.
“It’s pretty special,” Mavericks AA catcher Rylan Davis said. “Best baseball in the state for sure. It’s the best around here.”
“The biggest reason that Legion has been so strong here is we haven’t had high school baseball and so if kids wanted to play baseball it had to come through the American Legion which we’ve carried the sword for a hundred years,” Mavericks Head Coach Brent Hathaway said.
Did you even know it was a hundred years old?
“I, truly honest, I had no idea how old it was, but I love American Legion baseball. Super grateful for it,” Mavericks AA centerfielder Carter Taylor said.
“I think it’s pretty cool. I didn’t even know it was a 100-year thing but through the community, there’s been a lot of kids, you’re thinking 18 man roster for A, Double A and now there’s a B team so definitely a lot of people going through the community,” Former Mavericks player and WGM Group Staff Engineer Spencer Schock said. “A lot of kids coming through so it’s definitely amazing we’ve made it a hundred years.”
There’s been a demand for this brand of baseball, and during the COVID year, the team built a state-of-the-art indoor facility. It allows year-round practice, and other teams want to take advantage of the facility as well. So the Mavericks rent it out. Now, because of the larger use and consumption of water Montana DEQ said the team needed an upgrade to their water treatment system to meet standard codes. It’s not cheap.
“We have to cover the engineering cost and the permitting through the state DEQ and then to ultimately install the UV infiltration system is going to be in the ball park of twenty-five thousand dollars,” Board President of the Missoula Mavericks Scott Nicolarsen said.
“They’ve just upgraded their standards for testing and making sure that quality of water is going to be as accurate as possible and records of that quality water is going to be accurate as possible so they’ve updated their standards to ensure people are going through the right avenue to make sure water quality is going to be at it’s peak,” Schock said.
Schock and his employer WGM Group learned about the project and let it be known they wanted to help.
So WGM Group stepped up to the plate, and delivered a sizable discount to help with the cost.
“Taking on a project like this and knowing it’s a non-profit and money can be an issue we definitely we are always wanting to help and we see this as more of a great use of our community involvement and a responsible part of the community so providing that was a big part of why we wanted to take this on,” Schock said.
“It’s just making sure the public is getting quality water all the time. WGM strivesitself on making sure infrastructure and the public are safe and want to be involved with the public and the community so doing that is ensuring that the public, this whole facility and growing community is getting the water quality it needs.”
And for Schock who played for the Mavericks in 2016,2017, it’s a full circle moment.
“This project means a lot to me,” Schock said. “Definitely being able to give back to the community and help in a responsible way I think is awesome.”
You’ve met some of the AA players and it costs them $4,000 to play a four-month season. Fundraising helps take away some of the financial burden. The team pays coaches, bus drivers and someone to maintain the field. Now, the Mavs have to get creative and come up with $25,000 dollars to meet the DEQ’s requirements.
“It’s tough to be honest with you,” Hathaway said. “Nothing’s free these days. The biggest thing here is we try to keep the cost down and I think we do a good job of it compared to other Legion programs. We’re kind of in the middle when it comes to what it costs the kids. They are also capable of fundraising, do the out of pocket stuff. If they are willing to work and put the effort into it, it doesn’t cost them a dime out of pocket.”
“It’s been a process to try and figure out how to raise this money and we came up with the raffle idea to raise the $500 extra per family to essentially cover the cost of the water system,” Nicolarsen said. “We’re raffling off some firearms, hunting rifles and a shotgun and for people not into hunting and firearms we have a fresh meat and produce aspect of the raffle too and it’s called the hunter and the gatherer raffle.”
Coach Hathaway preaches to his team to trust the process on the field and they do just that. This is no different.
“We don’t really worry about all that to be honest as players,” Taylor said. “We kind of just go out there and have fun and play baseball because that’s what we’re here to do.”
If you are looking to help out with the team’s fundraising, the raffle ends July 15.
