Letter: Thanks for supporting American Legion Baseball

By Julia Gusse and Derek Jeske

Maricopa American Legion Baseball Post #133 has been in existence since 2012. This is the only program in Maricopa for young men (ages 13-19) that is free of charge and ran by veterans and civilian volunteers. American Legion baseball prides itself on strong ethics and developing Americanism amongst our players. On Fourth of July we had the opportunity to play our third annual Community Softball Game (Community Leaders vs. Legion Baseball team), an opportunity for us to have fun and collaborate with our home town community.

In the past years our Legion players have enlisted in the military; Axel Uriarte (Army), Jacob Owings (Air Force) and in a few weeks Kevin McDill will be headed out to Marine Corps basic training. Last year for the first time in our program’s history one of our players, Jackson Stensguard, went off to play at Winona State College in Minnesota; he remains on that team as a sophomore this fall.

Our small program has been developing these young men throughout the years to represent Maricopa and it is with great pride that we announce our four Legion players that have committed to play college ball this Fall; Mason Williamson (Northeastern Junior College, Colorado) Taylor Belcher and Tyler Belcher (Colorado Mesa University, Colorado) and Andres Gusse (Manhattan Christian College, Kansas).

We want to thank all our local sponsors and especially our coaches for their leadership and dedication to these young men. On behalf of the Bernie G. Crouse, American Legion Post 133, we want to wish these young men a successful military career and college baseball year.

Julia R. Gusse is Post #133 Legion Baseball Coordinator
Derek Jeske is Post Commander