By TERRY NAU

Sports editor

Youth baseball in the Blackstone Valley is a hot topic every summer, especially when the Little League playoffs build to a peak in the latter half of July.
On Thursday, this space was devoted to the subject of Pawtucket’s Little League regression. The story got a quick 200 hits on our website, which is a modern way of detecting interest. The feedback indicates there’s more to the story, and not just from the Pawtucket end.
One reader pointed out that Woonsocket used to have three Little Leagues. Fair-North, which won a District IV playoff championship as late as 1994, is no longer in existence. East Woonsocket remains viable while Bernon fielded just three teams this season and did not enter the District IV Major Division All-Star tournament.
Don’t feel sorry for the Bernon people. Their league champion (Kiwanis) will face off against the East Woonsocket champ later this month in the annual city series. The Bernon kids competed hard and enjoyed their season as much as the youths from other leagues around the Valley. Little League is all about setting your own goals and then pursuing them.
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There’s a choice to make for each league when it comes to all-star competition. How steadfastly does one pursue victory? It is a difficult decision that parents and league officials must come to grips with.
George Patrick Duffy, who coached the 1980 Darlington American state champion squad that went on to win the regional crown and compete in the Little League World Series, remembers how hard his team worked to achieve its goals.
“We held practices that began at 5 in the morning,” Duffy, now 88 years young, was saying on Thursday. “We practiced early to beat the heat. Some of the parents would sleep in their cars while we practiced. Another reason we practiced that early was to send a message that this is the type of dedicated behavior we expected from everyone … the parents, coaches and players. We practiced long and hard and became a fundamentally sound team.”
Duffy eventually left Darlington American as the wave of parents passed from one generation to the next. He has his own opinions, strong ones, on why his old league hasn’t won a district title since 2000.
“Interference from parents,” he listed as reason No. 1. “A lot of them think their kid is the next Ted Williams. They don’t listen to the coaches. The coaches have to suffer through the parents during the season.”
Duffy gets a feeling of déjà vu when he talks about Lincoln Little League, which dominated the state from 1996-2006 under the late Lou Abraham and Randy Hien. Those two coaches and their staffs conducted practices every bit as strenuous as Duffy’s sessions. Lincoln also has a strong organization, top to bottom, led by President John Sharkey and many other volunteers. The coaching staff has remained strong over the years and is in great hands this year under the tutelage of Dale O’Dell.
“We had a tremendous organization in Darlington American for a long time,” Duffy conceded. “Everyone worked together to succeed.”
Duffy looks around today and sees one of his 1980 all-stars – Brian Sheehan – working as an assistant coach for Lincoln.
“Brian’s dad Patrick helped coach our 1980 team,” he said. “And I see where Brian’s son Jeff is playing for Lincoln’s all-stars.”
That’s another reason why Pawtucket and Woonsocket are no longer strong playoff contenders. Many families have moved from the city to the suburbs over the past 35 years.
“I guess that’s a possibility,” Duffy conceded. “I think Pawtucket may be losing some good young players to soccer, too, to that beautiful new soccer field (McKinnon-Alves Complex).”
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Duffy may come off as a very demanding manager to modern parents. In his day, though, that’s the way things were done. And there were always enough children and parents around who bought into the program.
There were also some who resented the success of Darlington American. It’s similar to the way Lincoln Little League’s opponents feel today. Critics will say that Lincoln should be split up into two leagues, the way Cumberland is. But that kind of resentment overlooks the amazing story that Lincoln Little League has written over the past 15 years. It is a pure baseball community in the summertime, a town that rallies around its all-star squads and takes pride in the league’s accomplishments. What is wrong with that?
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Woonsocket’s two Little League programs are content with their current position, even though there have been talks of merging in recent years. What’s overlooked, though, is the current crop of young players who have come up through the Little Leagues, moved over to PONY League and Middle School baseball, and should make the high school team a contender for the next few years (assuming the school maintains a varsity sports program).
“Our Middle School team lost one game during the regular season,” said Tommy Brien, who coaches the WMS squad along with Mike Champagne. “We lost in the playoffs to the eventual state champion. These kids will be moving up to the varsity. I think we’ve got a strong group coming up through the system. Kids like William Andino, Justin Rainville, Jalen Evans, E.J. Torres, Jeremy Comastra and many others. The varsity team at the high school has ‘Bam Bam’ Rodriguez, who came up through the Little League and PONY League.”
Brien and Champagne also coach in the Woonsocket PONY League, which last weekend sent its 13-year-old all-stars to a section title and a trip this week to the regionals in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Ron Rainville coaches our 13-year-old all-stars,” Brien said. “Mike Champagne coaches the 14s and Dan Hurst coaches the 12-year-olds. We’ve got some great coaches. The 12-year-olds are mandated to play for their Little League teams first, and then if they don’t have a game on a certain night, they can play for their PONY League team.”
The whole idea is to get the city’s youngsters as much competition as possible. While the 13s head to Brooklyn this weekend, the 12-and-under PONY All-Stars will participate in a three-team sectional tourney that brings in the R.I. Reds and the Blackstone Valley Spinners, an AAU squad featuring players from Cumberland and North Smithfield. The winner of that tournament advances to the regionals in New Bedford.
The emphasis for these Little League and PONY players is on winning. And playing as many games as a team can squeeze into its season. That’s Old School stuff, right there.