Welcome 47’s parents!

I’d like to announce the official start of Huntley 47’s Baseball! Our administration team is excited to launch this new program and we couldn’t have done it without the trust and support of all the parents. We understand you took a leap of faith to entrust us with your players and I assure you our staff does not take that lightly.

Huntley 47’s Baseball is a competitive baseball organization and for all intents and purposes is a full on “travel team”. We are not a semi-travel team and there is no mandatory in-house component. Think of Huntley 47’s Baseball as a division of Huntley Little League. We are part of Huntley Little League, but make no bones about it, we are competitive and strive to win.

We will not win at all costs though. Our philosophy is to focus on player development. The formula is simple. Practice well. Play well. Have Fun. Win.

Meet the Administration Team

What is a 47?

The idea behind the 47’s started with the Colt 45’s

Uniforms

Huntley Red

Classic White

Hat

White Pants? Really?

I believe in this uniform so much I have taken the responsibility in my household to maintain the fabric. Here is a link to my gameplan for maintenance.

Budget

When the fees were decided upon initially, we took an educated guess on the budget. After working with uniform vendors and considering other expenses, our initial projections were solid.

The graph below is a detailed line-item listing of the fees associated with a travel baseball team. The graph on the left are the current projections and the values on the right are variables we can adjust to alter the projections.

I would like to stress variability. You’ve heard the term “come out of left field” right? We expect that and we want to be conservative regarding budget numbers.

Our goal is to have a small surplus to address any unforeseen costs. It is a tough balance because we do not want a huge surplus, however, we do not want a deficit either. A deficit would require us to either ask parents for additional funds -or- increase fees for 2024-2025 substantially.

Our hope is to cover the entire “Core Uniform” and “Additional Uniform Items”, however, adding all the extras will deplete the majority of the budget. As of this writing, the uniform vendor selection is nearly finalized, and the pricing is close to being locked in. Please know that we are working hard in the background to provide the greatest value to the players and parents by leveraging the buying power of Huntley Little League to lower prices.

Fundraising

Why fundraise since all the costs are covered?

• Additional training with professional coaches at our training facility

• Team bats for tournaments that allow USSSA bats

• Additional Equipment (Pitching Machines, High-End Catcher’s Gear)

• Potential additional expenses if our teams make it deep in Little League World Series tournaments

• Additional unforeseen costs

• Stay ahead of inflation

First 47’s Fundraiser

Our first fundraiser is already in motion! Dan Lipp (Manager of the 10U team) was gracious enough to donate a haul of liquor. We decided to pair this up with a Yeti Cooler and then have a couple smaller prizes to have more winners. Legally we are able to run the raffle online which will decrease time spent, raise engagement and make it easy for participants to purchase tickets.

The goal for this particular raffle is to generate $5000 of revenue. We have a donor organization that will cover raffle platform fees and credit card fees, so after buying the yeti cooler, yeti tumblers and packaging the items in a thoughtful basket the net return should be $4400.

Our goal and hope is that every family sells 10 tickets

Offseason Training

The entire administration team spent long hours and maximum effort to lock down off-season training facilities. The process took a few twists and turns and at this time it is not feasible for Huntley Little League to open their own facility, so we needed to partner with another organization.

Most other organizations considered us competitors and offered us high-priced and odd hours packages, but through the maze, Todd Doyle and Phil Soukup were able to strike a deal with Bison Baseball in West Dundee.

The off-season schedule is not finalized; however, the start date is January 6th at LZ360 Bison Baseball. Official dates and time to be released soon.

Team Updates

10U

Manager: Dan Lipp
Assistant Coaches: Cade Cannon & Ryan Burns
Note From Dan
My name is Dan Lipp. I will be your head coach for the Huntley 47s 10U team. I’m extremely excited to be a part of this new venture through Huntley Little League.

Little about myself… I’ve lived in Huntley/LITH since 1999. I went to middle school and high school in Huntley. I played baseball in high school and two years in college. I met my wife, Samantha, in high school and we will be together for 20 years this upcoming January. We have 3 children, Garrin (9), Brinley (6) & Everleigh (4).

As your head coach, there are few areas that we will be focusing on for the upcoming season. We will be focusing on developing skills/baseball IQ, giving max effort during practices and games & most importantly having FUN. Looking forward to meeting everyone soon! #DRIVE #Williamsport #47s

~Coach Dan

11U

Manager: Bryce Farquhar
Assistant Coaches: Gordon Johnson & TJ Vinz
Note from Bryce
My name is Bryce Farquhar. I am the Manager for the 2024 11U Huntley 47's Baseball team.

I have 2 daughters and 1 son and live in Huntley. I teach at St. Charles East and have coached Football, Basketball and Golf at the High School Varsity level. I urge players at this age to not focus completely on one sport, but to play as many as possible.

I am also the Director of Coaching for Huntley Little League and our focus on all levels of play is development. Parallel to development in the 47's program is competitiveness. If we practice well, our team will play well and we will be competitive. This may not translate into a winning record, but I trust in the process and look forward to the season!

~Coach Bryce

12U

Manager: Steve Trezek
Assistant Coaches: Bill Sherden & Phil Smith
Note from Steve
As a developing and competent baseball player for 10 years, starting in Little League at the age of 6, I’ve always desired to instill the skills I’ve learned into others and impact athletes positively. Now with young children of my own, I have this opportunity in contributing to their enjoyment of the game. Coaching in the Huntley Little League association over the past 6 years, through baseball and softball, I’m excited and honored to develop and grow our 12U athletes into a synergistic and competitive travel team. My intention for our 2024 season is to progress and grow in a manner so that Huntley residents that have left for other out of town teams will be attracted back to play ball with their home town friends and competitive comrades. Huntley Travel will be the place to play in the years to come.

~Coach Steve

13U

Manager: Tom Koegel
Assistant Coaches: Dan Moersfelder
Note from Tom
My name is Tom Koegel and I’m the Head Coach/Manager of the Huntley Little League 13U 47’s. I’ve been a fan of the game since I can remember and played through Junior year of high school. I thought my career was over but when my youngest started showing signs of interest, I was right back in to the thick of it, coaching and starting his development. I’ve been a head coach for 8 years, having coached with Huntley Park District, HLL and LITHYAA. At LITH I was Director of Baseball for the Mytes and Minors divisions, as well as head coach. In the fall of 2022, I was asked by a HLL Board member to put together a “travel” level team to compete toward the Little League World Series. While we may not have gone all the way, I cannot be prouder of what we accomplished; Ending the regular season in 1st place, finishing the end of season tournament for District 13 in 3rd place and having a 9-0 run during the season, out scoring our opponents 134-45. We played approximately 45 games in the spring, with a mix of Little League, N60 and full travel teams. My coaches and I wanted to give the team a full taste of what they would experience as we moved up the tourney ladder toward the LLWS. We were more than able to hold our own and played great as a team.

None of this would have been possible without a great support network. Dan Moersfelder is my assistant coach. Dan coaches and develops our catchers and outfielders. Dan was a catcher during his youth and makes sure the boys are a wall behind the plate. From running Game Changer, walk up music and rides, to making sure everyone is hydrating; my wife Amy is our Team Mom. She also runs our scheduling, so I have one less thing to worry about. We are adding a new member to our staff this season, Steve Van De Voorde has come over from LITHYAA, where he was head coach for several seasons, including this past spring where he was also coach of the Lightning All Star Team.

I’m looking forward to another seasons of development and competition for the boys. I know I’m as ready to get back out on the field as they are!

1…2…3…Go 47s!

~Coach Tom

Save the Dates!

Virtual Q&A Session
Sunday December 17th 4:00pm
Huntley 47’s Baseball Virtual Q&A Session. Ask us anything! Meeting link and further details to be sent early December.

Training Day
Saturday, January 6th
First day of offseason training! The time slot for each team is TBD, however, the time slots for our program are between 3pm - 7pm. We are targeting the first offseason training day to be an open-house with a uniform fitting.

December 2023 - Preview

• Coaching Philosophy

• Assistant Coach Introductions

• Offseason Training Update

• Live Online Q&A Session

• Competition