A legion of Pembroke’s best

by Nicholas Papadopolous

After over two years of fighting and court cases, the town of Pembroke now has a legion team to call its own. Post 143 will be the region that Pembroke will play in; some of the other teams that Pembroke will play are Hanover, Kingston, and Norwell.
A main figure responsible for Pembroke having a legion team is Greg Hanley, Pembroke’s Chairman. Hanley has fought from day 1 for Pembroke to have a Legion Team to call their own.
“[Pembroke] has one of the best youth baseball programs around”, said Greg Hanley “and I thought it was time for Pembroke to have a legion team of their own.”
Legion baseball is for ballplayers that are fourteen to twenty years old, and hope to play baseball at the next level. The goal of legion is for the “players to learn the importance of teamwork, discipline, leadership and good sportsmanship” according to www.baseball.legion.org.
Creating a legion team in Pembroke will give more local talent a chance to play legion ball. Before Pembroke created its own team, Pembroke ballplayers were forced to play for other nearby towns, such as Hanover or Kingston. Because of this, several local kids either didn’t or couldn’t play legion ball, but now they will get a chance.
“The other teams in Post 143 didn’t want Pembroke to have a team of their own”, said Greg Hanley, “They claimed that we wouldn’t be competitive, but I think the some of the best players in Post 143 come from Pembroke.”
The coach of the legion team will be Peter Plant, formerly coach of the AAU team the Terriers and coach of the Pembroke Babe Ruth 15 All-Stars.
Coach Peter Plant said, “Our goal this year is to be 500 (a 50% winning percentage) and be competitive in every game that we play.”