North Dakota Preps

I know there has been new legion sections determined. I have heard two of the regions for class B and two for class A. I was wondering if anyone knew the other two regions for class B.

Class B
Northeast Region
1. Larimore
2. Thompson
3. Rollette
4. Cando
5. Langdon
6. Park River
7. Midway-Minto (Forrest River)

Central Region
1. Carrington
2. Hatton
3. Hillsboro-Central Valley
4. Harwood
5. Hope-Finley
6. Nelson County
7. New Rockford
8. Mayville
9. Gardner

Southeast Region
1. Ellendale
2. Enderlin
3. Fairmont-Hankinson
4. Galchutt
5. Kidder County
6. Kindred
7. LaMoure
8. Lidgerwood
9. Oakes

Western Region
1. Burlington
2. Crosby
3. Garrison
4. Hazen
5. Hettinger
6. Renville County
7. Stanley
8. Surrey



Class A
East Region
1. Grafton
2. Valley City
3. Casselton
4. Harvey
5. Wapheton
6. Devils Lake

West Region
1. Makoti
2. Beulah
3. Watford City
4. Bottineau
5. Washburn
6. Velva

How is it determined between Class A and B?

They take your 10-12 male enrollment from your base school. If you have kids from other schools, those schools enrollments will be added to your total (Example: Grafton 10-12 + St. Thomas 10-12).This 3 class system is in place for 2 years.

Also, the 19 year old player rule that was supposed to be done this year is back on. So many teams will be helped out by players that can come back like prior years. The athletic committee voted to keep the rule in place.

Just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I know that the 3 class system was brought up due to WOP not wanting to play what was Class A. So basically, you do all this changing to satisfy 1 team but how do you think a team like Harvey feels about playing up? Personally, I think it would have been better to just let WOP play down at class B than to do all this changing.

I think that Class B has been pretty balanced the past 10 years, yes you've had WOP have that 1 really good year but before that they made state and went 0-2 and year before that lost to VC in sections. Another thing I don't like about it is a lack of total # of teams. That's my personal feeling, I'm all for American Legion Baseball in ND and hope it works out but I have my doubts.

utilityman wrote:Just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I know that the 3 class system was brought up due to WOP not wanting to play what was Class A. So basically, you do all this changing to satisfy 1 team but how do you think a team like Harvey feels about playing up? Personally, I think it would have been better to just let WOP play down at class B than to do all this changing.

I think that Class B has been pretty balanced the past 10 years, yes you've had WOP have that 1 really good year but before that they made state and went 0-2 and year before that lost to VC in sections. Another thing I don't like about it is a lack of total # of teams. That's my personal feeling, I'm all for American Legion Baseball in ND and hope it works out but I have my doubts.

I know last year Devils Lake played Senior Babe Ruth instead of legion because they felt they couldn't compete in class A. Wahpeton has been juggled back-and-forth between A and B for the last few years. It seems to me that they are able to compete just fine in Class A high school baseball. Also Valley City plays Class A baseball for high school and would play class B for legion. Then you have Grafton who is one of the largest class B schools for high school, and in the summer have added schools like St. Thomas, Minto, and Hoople in the past.

Pakkyzoo, I'm not saying that they don't have these teams grouped together properly ( Maybe not Harvey). I just wonder if it really needed to be done. Look at traveling miles here between Harvey & Devils Lake going to Wop, Casselton etc.. I also don't like the fact there's not many teams. Was this new class given a 2 year experiment due to the Class B teams feeling outmatched or just to satisfy Wahpeton?

By the way, just because Wahpeton and VC play class A HS ball doesn't mean much. Wop has had some decent teams the last 5 years but were back down this year and VC is like 2-100 the last 4 years, yes 2 wins and 100 losses.

I thought they would have taken maybe 8 teams from east and west instead of 6 teams that would have made nice 8 team tournament and say they choose the top two from each to play for a state championship. Or another possibility would have taken the winners from the tournaments and regular season champs to play in state tournament. This would make for nice division of baseball and these A teams could still play b or double A teams to make a full schedule of baseball. I think this new class is going to be good for legion baseball and maybe some of programs can be revitalized again for legion baseball. I look at Cavalier, Walhalla, and St. Thomas area there's big area and no summer baseball for legion. Cavalier has several teams at little league level but no Babe Ruth or legion teams if they have good numbers at little league level why not other levels. St. Thomas has very good numbers at Babe Ruth level but no legion team it would seem possible for them to have legion Team. Walhalla has had numbers for highschool but nothing for summer programs so I would think that there should be possiblility of getting a couple of teams again competing. I would think there are several more areas like this where they're highschool teams but no legion teams and I think we need to get some of these areas back to having teams.

lot of kids and a lot of parents just do not want to dedicate the whole summer to baseball any more. They play high school that's good enough. plus spring and summer basketball and football basketball and wrestling camps in the summer.

I don't think there is a wrong or right solution to the situation. Travel is always going to be there no matter who you play or what region you play in. I coach legion baseball in the central part of the state and we drove up to 2 hours for games last year and our closest region game was an hour and a half. This year our furthest travel is an hour and 45 minutes and closest is 35 minutes.

I understand that VC, Waph, and DL all our in tough spots do to their enrollments being a lot less than Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot's legion teams. But you compare Wahps to a teams that fill their roster with babe ruth players just have enough. Its a tough slope to find out what is the right answer. I think that is why they went with the three class system. The travel is always going to be there no matter the level. Harvey was in a tough location. Being centrally located they could of went west, and had to travel to Watford City. Now they are east and have to travel to Wahpeton. They probably would of been A no matter what with Fesseden and Harvey's enrollments added up. But last year they added Rugby's enrollment which pushed them way over.

I didn't know Rugby didn't have a team anymore and went with Harvey. I wonder if some teams in that type of situation will not let kids from some other towns play so they aren't bumped up a level.

lovwatchingsports wrote:lot of kids and a lot of parents just do not want to dedicate the whole summer to baseball any more. They play high school that's good enough. plus spring and summer basketball and football basketball and wrestling camps in the summer.

Thats fine, but you gotta realize the High School baseball program suffers BIG TIME when the kids aren't playing summer baseball. Case and point: The one team in our Region that does not have a summer program was 0-23 this year in High School. Bottom line...if your High School team wants to be competitive, the kids NEED to play summer baseball.

NodakQ2 wrote:

lovwatchingsports wrote:lot of kids and a lot of parents just do not want to dedicate the whole summer to baseball any more. They play high school that's good enough. plus spring and summer basketball and football basketball and wrestling camps in the summer.

Thats fine, but you gotta realize the High School baseball program suffers BIG TIME when the kids aren't playing summer baseball. Case and point: The one team in our Region that does not have a summer program was 0-23 this year in High School. Bottom line...if your High School team wants to be competitive, the kids NEED to play summer baseball.

They don't have a summer program, but they have sent kids to Wishek, LaMoure, and Steele in the past.

I don't consider a "couple kids" off a team considered summer baseball...

IMO the splitting of the Legion B was not a good move, and how they determined the sections is RIDICULOUS. To require a team to travel 4+ hours to play a majority of the teams in their section is dumb.

The Schwab wrote:IMO the splitting of the Legion B was not a good move, and how they determined the sections is RIDICULOUS. To require a team to travel 4+ hours to play a majority of the teams in their section is dumb.

Maybe I'm wrong but they only have to play their section teams once right? It shouldn't be that huge of a deal to have one or two long trips in a year.

ndlionsfan wrote:I didn't know Rugby didn't have a team anymore and went with Harvey. I wonder if some teams in that type of situation will not let kids from some other towns play so they aren't bumped up a level.

They should get a recount because Rollette did not have a legion team last year and the rugby kids played there, but Rollette I do believe is going to have a team this year and the Rugby kids would go back to there.

Indy5 wrote:

The Schwab wrote:IMO the splitting of the Legion B was not a good move, and how they determined the sections is RIDICULOUS. To require a team to travel 4+ hours to play a majority of the teams in their section is dumb.

Maybe I'm wrong but they only have to play their section teams once right? It shouldn't be that huge of a deal to have one or two long trips in a year.

And what is their short trip? 2 hours? The new Class A teams don't want to play them, because they aren't in the same class anymore so they can't travel 2 hours to play them but instead lets send them on a 4+ hour trip. Taking a 4 hour trip to play almost every team in your section should tell them that they made the wrong decision to split class B legion (that didn't have a ton of teams to start with)

The Schwab wrote:IMO the splitting of the Legion B was not a good move, and how they determined the sections is RIDICULOUS. To require a team to travel 4+ hours to play a majority of the teams in their section is dumb.

At the end of the day...This new alignment makes no sense whatsoever. A lot to do about nothing. Add in the INSANE travel for some of these regions, and the plan becomes even more ridiculous. I can't see this alignment lasting...I think even the Schwab is stumpted!!!!

ndlionsfan wrote:I didn't know Rugby didn't have a team anymore and went with Harvey. I wonder if some teams in that type of situation will not let kids from some other towns play so they aren't bumped up a level.

Rugby hasn't had a Legion team of their own since...I believe 2005. They've been with Rollette every year since then except for last year because Rollette didn't have a team.

How is it possible that Rugby doesn't have legion team with the size of town and size of the school they should be able to field a team. Rugby is one of the largest class b schools in the state and they do have high school baseball. I see this else where too I think legion and towns and communities need to get back to have summer program.
I see the problem else where too its the demand of other sports at cost of baseball in the summer. Kids are being pressured to play summer basketball and weight training and camps for football it takes away from baseball. But playing baseball has benefits to other sports because of skill set needed and also thought process in playing baseball because its more of technician sport knowing what to do mentally. Also its good break for kids to be outside and enjoying the summer. Were asking the kids to be so specialized and do one or two sports its become a job not fun recreation and enjoying playing the games.

Anyone know the west region for B? I added the southeast region.

B-oldtimer wrote:How is it possible that Rugby doesn't have legion team with the size of town and size of the school they should be able to field a team. Rugby is one of the largest class b schools in the state and they do have high school baseball. I see this else where too I think legion and towns and communities need to get back to have summer program.
I see the problem else where too its the demand of other sports at cost of baseball in the summer. Kids are being pressured to play summer basketball and weight training and camps for football it takes away from baseball. But playing baseball has benefits to other sports because of skill set needed and also thought process in playing baseball because its more of technician sport knowing what to do mentally. Also its good break for kids to be outside and enjoying the summer. Were asking the kids to be so specialized and do one or two sports its become a job not fun recreation and enjoying playing the games.

I totally agree with you oldtimer. When I was in high school back in the mid 90s you could see this happening already. I elected to play baseball each summer but most of the kids went to team camps and were busy with basketball. Nowadays its even more expected for kids to play basketball all summer so it really cuts down on the number of baseball programs in the state. But baseball is time demanding as well with two seasons to participate in. Would love to see the high schools and legions somehow work together and have one baseball season from mid April to start of July. Then the kids have some time of between sports, to get ready for football, or spend some time at team camps for basketball.

B-oldtimer wrote:How is it possible that Rugby doesn't have legion team with the size of town and size of the school they should be able to field a team. Rugby is one of the largest class b schools in the state and they do have high school baseball. I see this else where too I think legion and towns and communities need to get back to have summer program.
I see the problem else where too its the demand of other sports at cost of baseball in the summer. Kids are being pressured to play summer basketball and weight training and camps for football it takes away from baseball. But playing baseball has benefits to other sports because of skill set needed and also thought process in playing baseball because its more of technician sport knowing what to do mentally. Also its good break for kids to be outside and enjoying the summer. Were asking the kids to be so specialized and do one or two sports its become a job not fun recreation and enjoying playing the games.

Not sure how much playing baseball helps other sports, but baseball was by far and away my favorite sport in my teenage years. We didn't have HS baseball all we had was Legion. I'm not sure what the answer is.

Does Lisbon have a team this year? I don't see them listed.

Flip wrote:

B-oldtimer wrote:How is it possible that Rugby doesn't have legion team with the size of town and size of the school they should be able to field a team. Rugby is one of the largest class b schools in the state and they do have high school baseball. I see this else where too I think legion and towns and communities need to get back to have summer program.
I see the problem else where too its the demand of other sports at cost of baseball in the summer. Kids are being pressured to play summer basketball and weight training and camps for football it takes away from baseball. But playing baseball has benefits to other sports because of skill set needed and also thought process in playing baseball because its more of technician sport knowing what to do mentally. Also its good break for kids to be outside and enjoying the summer. Were asking the kids to be so specialized and do one or two sports its become a job not fun recreation and enjoying playing the games.

Not sure how much playing baseball helps other sports, but baseball was by far and away my favorite sport in my teenage years. We didn't have HS baseball all we had was Legion. I'm not sure what the answer is.

Skill wise, it probably doesn't help much, but I think it helps tremendously in the mental aspect. It teaches you to have a short memory, stay positive, communicate (big one), and it also demands that you be focused at all times. Big help for other sports in my opinion.