Spring league gives players head start on season

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com

The Greene County Gamecocks is a baseball team that is part of the high school division of the United States Specialty Sports Association. There are 35 other teams in central Iowa, several from the Heart of Iowa Activities Conference. The team members have been working on their baseball skills indoors on Sundays and Wednesdays since January and started playing weekend games on March 22. Most of their games have been seven inning doubleheaders.

Organizer Steve Nelsen reported that the Greene County team is comprised of nine boys who will play for Greene County, four Carroll High Tigers, two who will play at Coon Rapids-Bayard, and one from Prairie Valley.

Nelsen stated that most of the competition was from 4A schools, so the games were quite challenging. The Gamecocks played  teams from Ankeny, Adel Desota-Minburn, Roland-Story, Dowling Catholic, West Des Moines Valley, Sargeant Bluff-Luton, Des Moines Hoover, Bondurant-Farrar, Des Moines Lincoln, and Carroll Kuemper. The squad played many of their games at the Rippey field. “Several of the teams commented that they enjoyed coming to a small community and playing in a well-kept old time stadium,” said Nelsen. In fact, many of the coaches had played in Rippey during their semi pro days.”

The team will end their season with a double header in Carroll at noon on Sunday.