Little League raising funds to send teams to districts

It’s an honor to be selected to play on an all-star baseball team that will compete in a district tournament, but there’s a lot more to it than just showing up at a field with a glove.

According to Renee Jones, a Pahrump Valley Little League board member, it costs $2,000 per team, basically $200 per player, to prepare each of three all-star teams the PVLL will send into Las Vegas next month for the District 4 Tournament.

“It’s actually really cheap, because the uniforms are more expensive,” Jones said. “They have pro fit hats with their names on them, they have their names on their jerseys, all the coaches have shirts. They also get a bat bag with Pahrump Valley Little League on it. It’s a lot that goes into all-stars. It’s something they play for all year.”

But someone has to pay for all of that, and it’s not the players who make the team.

“We don’t charge for all-stars,” Jones said. “All the teams in Las Vegas charge for all-stars. Next year, we are going to start charging because it is a lot of funds.”

And it’s not as if the PVLL has a lot of money lying around from the fees it charges to play each season.

“The uniforms in the regular season cost us $80 to $95 per kid,” she said. “If we’re charging $125 for a little one and we’re paying $80 for a uniform, there’s hardly anything for us to pay for league fees. We have to pay $11 per child for insurance and league fees. By the time you pay for league fees and uniforms, we’re getting $10 to $20.”

And that won’t get anybody into the district tournament.

Jones spent part of last week at the Pahrump Music Festival, selling concessions as a fundraiser for the PVLL. That’s nothing new for her, as she is a veteran behind the scenes of the snack shack at Ian Deutch Memorial Park.

“We pay the umpires, we pay everything from the snack shack,” she said.

But with an additional $6,000 needed to get each PVLL all-star team to its district tournament, a multi-faceted approach is necessary.

“We’re going to small businesses, big businesses, anyone we can get sponsorship from,” Jones said. “We’re also doing raffle tickets for gift certificates that small businesses have given us, and we’re also doing a raffle, for $1 per ticket, that gets you entered for a free registration for fall ball. We’re giving away one registration free for each division.”

Depending on the division, registration starts at $145 and goes up to $225, she said, making that a valuable raffle prize. And there’s more.

“We’ll probably do a couple of car washes over at Sonic again, doing whatever we can to represent our town and our families to head into Vegas,” Jones said. “And we’re now putting our logo T-shirts, hoodies and hats on our website so our parents can represent their kids and their team and their town. We get 5-8% when they order anything from there. Any little thing helps.”

Anyone wishing to help the PVLL fundraising can contact Renee Jones at 702-498-3700 or go to pahrumpvalleylittleleague.com and send an inbox message to the league. “All we need is your email and we can send them a sponsor packet,” she said. “Anything is good. A dollar and up is great.”

The defending district champions from 2019 are Summerlin South in 8-10U, 9-11U and Majors and Mountain Ridge in Juniors and Seniors. Pahrump’s Juniors won the 2018 district championship, and Pahrump teams also won the district in 2014 (Juniors) and 2007 (Seniors).

Mountain Ridge has dominated District 4 in recent years, winning 33 overall district championships since 2004. Redrock, Cheyenne and Summerlin North each have won seven, Peccole, Lone Mountain and Summerlin South each have won six, Western owns four titles, and Spring Valley joins Pahrump with three. Summerlin won a title before it was separated into North and South Little Leagues, and Bolden Little League also competes in District 4.