The cost of play: The price of running a small-town summer baseball team

COULEE CITY — Many coaches and athletes know that working on their craft in the off-season is key to building a successful program – for the Almira/Coulee-Hartline High School baseball team, many of those players are taking the field this summer to play for the ACH American Legion Senior Baseball team. 

With putting together a team not connected to a school, which is now in its second year, there are plenty of added costs. 

“One of the biggest drawbacks from any kind of summer ball anymore is, obviously, the money situation,” said Head Coach Mike Correia, who also handles the team’s operations.  

Throughout the years there have been a handful of players at ACH who have played with various summer baseball teams in the region, but there hasn’t been one based in the Coulee City area.  

Bringing a summer baseball team to the area brought in positive support, as many in the area had not been presented with a local summer ball opportunity. 

ACH Legion plays a league schedule slate during June and the first half of July, with postseason competition beginning in late July. At this point, the team doesn’t play in any non-Legion-postseason tournaments. 

“Those tournaments are expensive just to get in,” Correia said. “For us, my biggest deal was to try to minimize the cost; what it was going to cost families.” 

Player registration costs were $75 per player for the 2023 season. Costs went up to $85 in 2024, as the roster shrunk from 15 players last year to 12 players this season. Between player fees and sponsorship donations, the team has a budget of about $4,000 for a season.  

The decrease in the number of players was intentional – after all, there are only nine positions on a baseball field. 

“It’s better to get more kids in than have kids sit,” Correia said. “I’m not into charging the kids to come play and just sit, so I tried to do a little better job of that this year.  

Registration costs account for about a quarter of that budget, which is $4,000 per season. To keep that cost as low as possible, Correia said he didn’t calculate how much to charge for players until sponsorship money was acquired. 

Correia said there was also about $500-600 in surplus funds from the 2023 season, which went toward putting on a clinic for players during the off-season. 

“Obviously, I cleared that, because the Legion that sponsors us, they gave us extra money last year,” Correia said. “Any time we would run anything I’d want to do with the guys, I always try to run it through them and make sure that was a responsible use of the money. And they’re always like, ‘Oh, heck yeah, heck yeah, heck yeah. If it’s for the guys, then for sure.’” 

Sponsorships make up the bulk of sourcing the team’s budget; Along with Grand Coulee American Legion Post 157, the team has sponsorships from Desert Green Turf, Jess Ford of Grand Coulee and Pullman, McDonald Farms, Water Recovery Services, Odessa Trading Company and Tom and Daphne Hennigh. Grand Coulee Legion covered the team’s league registration fee both this year and last year, which jumped from $1,500 last year to $1,750 this summer. Typically, sponsorship donations range around $500. 

“When somebody sponsors something, and then they hear what that business sponsored, they usually match that or go above and beyond,” Correia said. “It’s kind of nice that way.” 

For the Grand Coulee American Legion, it wasn’t a hard decision to sponsor the ACH team. 

“I took it back to my group, and it was unanimous – there was no question, so we went ahead and sponsored them,” said Jim Brakebill, commander for the Grand Coulee American Legion. “When they went ahead and made the playoffs, we assisted with that also.” 

Supporting youth programs falls under one of the four pillars of the American Legion; Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation, Americanism, National Security and Children and Youth. 

“It’s one of the four pillars of the American Legion, to deal with youth,” Brakebill said. “We’re trying to help youth when we can.” 

There are other costs, like umpires at a game. Each umpire costs $50 for a game, and there are two umpires needed to officiate a game. With games scheduled in doubleheader formats, that’s $200 in umpire costs. Playing 16 games in the regular season, that adds up to $800. 

The team doesn’t cover mileage in getting to and from games – instead, players carpool when they play away games. 

“Last year was a bigger deal, this year the kids are a little older and they’re able to drive themselves, a lot of them, so they usually jump together.” 

With district and state tournaments being held nearby in Spokane, the team is able to cut down on lodging expenses. The team did have one night in a hotel at last year’s district tournament, covered by an added donation from the Legion post, but traveled back to Coulee City the other nights. 

“With our sports schedule for school, driving to Spokane is not that big a deal,” Correia said. “Usually we drive every day.” 

In future summers, Correia said he envisions the program growing – whether that’s adding a lower-level team for the younger players or stepping into the tournament field. 

“Starting this, I can see us keeping the Legion team going because I think there’s a group of young kids coming up that might jump back down to the single-A level, and get more experience and play there,” Correia said. “The framework in what we’re doing is already set, so whoever wants to do that can take over from where we started.”

    Almira/Coulee-Hartline Legion Head Coach first-bumps second baseman Caden Correia after reaching third base during a game against Gonzaga Prep on July 12 in Hartline. Correia started the ACH Legion baseball team last year, giving players in the area an opportunity to continue playing over the summer.
 Ian Bivona/Basin Business Journal   

    Almira/Coulee-Hartline shortstop Carter Pitts throws the ball back to first base after fielding a ground ball during a July 12 game against Gonzaga Prep.
 Ian Bivona/Basin Business Journal