GAME EXPERIENCE IS KEY TO WINNING

Eric Allen grew up playing little league baseball and played ball at Iowa Western Community College. It was natural that he introduced his son to ball playing at an early age. His son is now in the 8th grade and Allen said he started coaching his son when he was in the 1st grade. This past summer has been a highlight of coaching experience Allen explained. He helped the Treynor B-Cub Little League baseball team to win the state championship.

As the assistant team coach this season, Allen worked with Coach Patrick Severn to instruct two teams of 6th to 8th graders in the Pott. County Little League program. They played their local games on Harvey Field in Council Bluffs as there is not enough play time available on fields of suitable size in Treynor. The regular season includes about twenty games. Allen stated he would like to have players play more games as game experience is very important to be successful at winning. Allen noted that for the county tournament they divided all players evenly into two teams, and the teams took 1st and 2nd place. The Treynor B-Cub team then participated in a challenging district playoff and won all four games during a single elimination playoff of 16 teams. This team went on to win the state championship.

Allen said he was grateful for the assistance of Nigel Horton during the season, as Horton was able to communicate well with team players. Allen said he was working on plans for a baseball camp for youth during the Christmas break. Even two-year olds can develop skills of throwing and catching that contribute to positive sports experiences.

Allen noted that it would be beneficial to the Treynor community if we had baseball fields built to little league standards available to our youth.