NRBL Expands to Thirty-Two Teams for 2009

December 27, 2008

The Nebraska Reserve Baseball League, which has provided summer league play in the Omaha Metro Area for high school players fifteen years of age and younger for the past three seasons, has added three Lincoln “select” teams for 2009. The addition of the Lincoln Dodgers, Dominators and Rebels plus several new Metro teams raises to thirty-two the number of Eastern Nebraska teams playing in the league for next season. League coaches met on December 7th at Westside High School to finalize the 2009 league schedule.

The 32 teams are assigned to one of three divisions and will each play a league schedule consisting of thirteen games. Each team will play the other teams in its division plus three or four cross-divisional games. League games will begin on Tuesday, May 26 and must be completed by July 16. The league schedule will mirror the Metro League Senior Legion and Junior Legion schedules with games being played on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.

At the conclusion of the League’s regular season, the teams will be ranked 1 through 32 based on their League win-loss records. Tie-breakers for teams with identical League records will be results of head-to-head competition followed by aggregate League opponent win percentage. After the teams are ranked, each team will be assigned to one of four eight-team state tournaments in the following manner:

Class A State Tournament: Top 8 teams
Class B State Tournament: Next 8 teams
Class C1 State Tournament: Next 8 teams
Class C2 State Tournament: Next 8 teams

The four state tournaments will be played July 22nd through July 26th. The tournament sites will be announced in January.

The NRBL was founded in 2006 by current League Commissioner Mike Castagnoli. During the 2006 and 2007 seasons the League was comprised of twenty-four teams, consisting of Metro Area high school teams and 14-and-under select teams. The number of participating teams increased to twenty-six in 2008.

“Attracting teams from Lincoln is a very positive development for the League,” noted Castagnoli. “We feel that the addition of these top-quality Lincoln teams will lead to more teams from that area coming into the League in future years. Over the past three years teams in the League have seemed to enjoy the mix of high school and select teams that the League offers as well as the opportunity to compete in a post-season tournament.”

Other new teams in the League this season include the Rattlers, Fremont, Kingswood, West Omaha Warriors and the Omaha Tigers.

BaseballNebraska will provide complete coverage of the League’s regular season games and standings as well as the four state tournaments.

Division Assignments:

 

Creighton Prep Bellevue East Cardinals
Elkhorn Bellevue West Fremont
Gretna Gladiators Lincoln Dodgers
Kingswood Millard Red Lincoln Dominators
Millard Sox Omaha Bryan Lincoln Rebels
Millard West Omaha Gross Catholic Millard North
Omaha Central Omaha North Millard South
Omaha Skutt Catholic Omaha Tigers Omaha Burke
Pacesetters Papillion LaVista South Omaha Roncalli Catholic
Sun Devils Rattlers Omaha South
Westside West Omaha Warriors  

For more information about membership in the NRBL, please contact Mike Castagnoli at michaelcastagnoli@yahoo.com.