Wasilla disqualified from American Legion state tournament

WASILLA — As Wasilla hit the field Tuesday, the final day of the American Legion baseball regular season, the Road Warriors expected one last tune-up before the state tournament. But midway through their game against Chugiak, the Road Warriors got the call.

Wasilla had been disqualified from the Alaska Legion Baseball State Championships, slated to begin Friday in Anchorage.

According to a press release issued by Alaska Legion Baseball early Wednesday morning, “Three American Legion Baseball teams from Alaska have been ruled ineligible for sanctioned postseason competition by the National Legion office because the teams did not purchase the required insurance on time.”

The Wasilla, Palmer and Ketchikan posts are the teams that missed the deadline, according to the ALB, but Wasilla was the lone squad among the three that had qualified for state. The Road Warriors finished the regular season third in the National Division with a 13-5 mark.

“It’s heartbreaking,” Wasilla head coach Ken Ottinger said.

Ottinger does not deny that the post missed the deadline of May 31 to purchase insurance required for every American Legion baseball program that takes the field across the United States, but questioned the timing of the announcement.

“We played the whole season,” Ottinger said.

Ottinger said the program endured the costs, which included a recent trip to Ketchikan. Ottinger’s biggest problem with the announcement, he said, is the impact on his players, and the disappointment for a group that spent the season working toward the common goal of a trip to state.

“Suspend me from state,” Ottinger said. “Penalize me. Don’t penalize the kids.”

Ottinger said legion officials at the state and national level have refused to listen to the circumstances behind the missed deadline.

“I understand rules are rules,” Ottinger said.

Ottinger said a check had been cut and was ready to be submitted, but the deadline was missed during a chaotic spring for the team. Just prior to May 31, McManus Field, which is used by the post’s junior varsity program was hit by vandals. Ottinger said he and fellow coaches were scrambling to repair damage to the field, while completing all of the league paperwork before the start of the season.

“We were trying to get everything done in a short amount of time,” Ottinger said.

This is the second time in four years that the Wasilla post has been disqualified from a state tournament. In July of 2014, Alaska Legion officials said Wasilla used an ineligible player during a 2-1 win over Juneau in an elimination game in the state tournament. Former post manager Myrl Thompson told the Frontiersman in 2014 that league officials received an anonymous tip earlier in the tournament, alleging a Wasilla player at the time attended a baseball event in the Lower 48 earlier that summer. Thompson was told that violated the league’s dual participation rule, and the team was forced to forfeit the win, and that, its season loss of the tournament, ended the team’s season.

Alaska Legion department chair Russ Baker has invited Wasilla to participate in the Matson Invitational, along with Palmer, Ketchikan and six other teams. The Matson, created in 2014, is typically an eight-team tournament that includes all of the teams that did not qualify for state.

Ottinger said the Matson has now become Wasilla’s state tournament.

“We’re going to go play baseball,” Ottinger said. “The biggest thing is, we learn from this. It’s how life goes on sometimes. We need to act classy, hold our chins up.”

Ottinger said his players took the news hard, but he praised them for how they are dealing with the situation.

“They’re such a great group of kids,” Ottinger said. “They’re keeping me calm. This hurt them, but we can’t do anything about it. All we can do is play baseball and have fun as a team.”

Both Palmer and Ketchikan did not finish in the top eight teams in the state, and did not qualify. Ketchikan, which finished ninth, could have been added to the state tournament field if it had not been one of the three teams disciplined. Kodiak is now the eighth seed in the state tournament.

Wasilla is the top-seeded team in the Matson, and opens play against Bartlett Friday at 6:15 p.m. at Bartlett High School in Anchorage. Palmer is the fourth seed, and meets fifth-seeded Fairbanks at 12:30 p.m.

Contact Frontiersman editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.