10/31/2026
Good evening, Elite fam! First and foremost, Happy Halloween! Looking forward to seeing lots of pictures of our athletes dressed up so please share with us and we’ll include them in a future owner’s email. We’re getting very close – one week actually – to the kickoff of our winter workouts. Many things have changed over the years, but one constant remains – development is our focus because without development, of the player on the field and off, doesn’t happen. We, as an organization, have certainly won our fair share of games and tournaments but, at the end of the day, development and forming relationships are paramount and are not mutually exclusive from winning games/tournaments. I’m sure I could plug that into AI and come up with a longer post, but we’ll leave it at that. Hope everyone has a safe time this evening and can read this tomorrow. Here is your Co-Owners Update brought to you by A.L. Electric – see Alan Lovejoy for all your electrical needs:
NEW/UPDATED ITEM –
FACILITY SPEED LIMIT AND FACILITY UPKEEP: Traffic will be picking up at the facility so please adhere to the speed limit when passing the hardware store and parking in the lot. Also, we’ll be chatting with coaches on this, but please take care of the facility – don’t run into nets, put stuff away, etc. Fred, Eric and I will be working on the facility this week and really don’t want that to be undone anytime soon.
12U SOFTBALL OPPORTUNITIES: We still have a few 12U softball openings if you know of anyone who would like to join. Please reach out to Fred, Eric or I if you know of anyone – we will offer referral discounts to anyone who is able to bring a 12U player into the fold.
HIT A THON UPDATE: As outlined in our initial Hit A Thon message, the team competition wraps up tomorrow at 1159pm and our individual competition continues through the duration of the Hit A Thon. We’ve already raised $3,125 with only 11% participation. Here are the current team leaders with just over 24 hours to go:
10U Wilcox - $730
12U Blackman - $600 / 12U LaBonte-Maher - $600
18U Wilcox - $290
12U Wilcox - $285
Current individual standings:
Evalyn Brown - $600
Leighton Blackman - $290
Harper Lindie - $250
Kendyl Adamson - $200 / Rhylan Delano - $200
Please let us know if you have any questions and please continue to get the word out there about the sole NE Elite organizational fundraiser!
FALL UPDATE: Our fall season wraps up this weekend in Cranston, RI with all three fall teams in action. Combined they went 5-1 in pool play for a second seed (12U), third seed (18U) and fourth seed (14U). Overall it’s been a fun and productive season with our 12U squad being regulars in championship games all fall. The 14U squad has been highly competitive at every event and hopes to finish strong tomorrow. Our HS squad has been to several showcases and seems to be peaking at the final tournament of the season. Good luck to all three squads tomorrow!
TEAM QUESTIONS: Please address team-based questions first to the coaches – if they cannot answer them or don’t answer them to your liking, then feel free to reach out to Fred, Eric, or I after that. We prefer to have any issues handled at the appropriate level. If you have program-related questions, then please don’t hesitate to reach out to Fred, Eric, or I. If your question is team based and pertains to playing time or positions, please do not address the matter before, after or during a game/practice. There’s a time and place for those discussions but the directors/owners will not engage until our coaches are given the first opportunity to fix any issue that may be perceived by a parent/player.
WINTER WORKOUT SCHEDULE: I’m putting the final touches on the Jan-Mar winter workout schedule and hope to have it out to the coaches either tomorrow or Monday depending upon how long we’re at the field and commuting home tomorrow. Once the coaches acknowledge no schedule conflicts, we will get the times/locations posted to TeamSnap.
PAYMENTS: Please make timely payments so we do not have to chase folks down and/or hold players out of practices/games. It’s the last thing we want to do, but our margin is thin as we strive to breakeven again this year.
TOURNAMENT UPDATES: Tournaments are now populating quickly and filling just as quick so we have been in contact with coaches to get tournaments scheduled as promptly as possible. As always, we will strive to have them all completed, with hotel blocks, by the end of the calendar year.
REMINDERS (TO RETURNING PARENTS/FAMILIES BUT NEW TO NEW PARENTS/FAMILIES) –
PARTNERSHIPS: As we get closer to moving to the next evolution in our business plan, we are continuing to seek folks/businesses to partner with who share in our pursuit of 1) continued betterment of young athletes in all facets, 2) development of specific skill sets and 3) seeing a new turf facility put on the map in Maine. If you are interested in partnering with The Cages, please visit this page https://www.thecagesme.com/page/show/6252533-our-partners and contact us at [email protected].
EXTRA INNINGS: Even with the holidays having passed, we wanted to remind folks that we can get nearly all your new models of baseball/softball equipment at a discounted price. Over the years, we’ve created an excellent business relationship with Extra Innings and, for those that do not know, we can get great discounts for anything your athletic child needs – just please reach out. Most items we can get $50-$100 below what you would pay at Dick’s and the items are delivered in 1-2 business days. Just shoot us an email…let us know what you want, and we’ll quote you a price and a delivery timeline. If you want it, we’ll buy it and invoice you. If you don’t, no harm, no foul!
BOOKING CAGES INSTRUCTIONS: Last year's membership is gone so ALL players must follow these instructions if you want to book cages under the NE Elite umbrella at The Cages! Please be cognizant that each player is afforded 30 minutes each day depending upon availability. Should there be additional time available, we can be flexible but would ask the same of our members.
Step 1: If you have not already done so, you MUST create an account at the following link: https://www.esoftplanner.com/v3/planner/login.php?access=0dG81LSVxNmo65bHv3OGsZyGpA==
Step 2: Once step 1 is completed, go to the below link and sign up for the 2025-2026 NE Elite membership. It will ask for a credit card, but no charges will be assessed. If you prefer to not put your credit card into the system, you will have to email us to reserve cages under the NE Elite umbrella. https://www.esoftplanner.com/v3/planner/memberships.php?access=0dG81LSVxNmo65bHv3OGsZyGpA==
Step 3: Upon step 2 being completed, you will receive an email confirming your enrollment in the 2025-2026 NE Elite membership. At this time, you are free to book cages – when checking out during the booking process it should default to “member credit”, but if it doesn’t, then select “member credit” from the drop down and confirm booking. You will, again, receive a confirmation email for the rental.
It should be a painless evolution but, again, if you are uncomfortable inputting a credit card or are having trouble, then please email us at [email protected] if/when you would like to book your 30 minute cage rental and we’ll get it booked for you. Please don’t pay for the cage – email us instead. It takes me 1-2 minutes to book a cage but it’s a nightmare to try to process a refund so if you pay for it, we will not process refunds. Time to get to work!!!
NAVIGATORS VICE DRIVERS: Anyone who has heard me speak about the recruiting process is familiar with the navigators vice drivers approach. We will answer questions for you and advocate like crazy for you, but ultimately the athletes are the drivers. 15U (or second year 14U softball) and older should be writing to coaches, providing schedules to coaches and creating bonds with the college coaches – with us removing any roadblocks they may run into during the process. We will work hard, but if the athlete is not invested, it’s very difficult for us to get them recruited.
TANNER EQUIPMENT: Like Extra Innings, please remember we are an official vendor for Tanner! They offer the best tees in the business and tanner nets which I can assure you are better than PowerNets and BowNets (and cheaper). We have used them at all our tournaments and loved them. If you have any interest in buying any for your athletes, then please reach out to us at [email protected] and we’ll get you hooked up – we have some in stock at the facility so you can pick them up the same day!
NE ELITE MARKETPLACE: For those of you unaware, we have a NE Elite Marketplace page where you can feel free to buy/sell/trade equipment. We take nothing from the proceeds but wanted to afford our families the opportunity to perhaps save a few bucks by purchasing items either new, gently used, or roughly used – feel free to join if you haven’t already.
CONGRATS: In this day and age of negativity on the airwaves and social media, we’re very happy to recognize our athletes for the good they are doing – whether on the playing fields, in the classroom or in the community. Please remember to send along notifications (especially links) if your athlete received an award or was recognized for something – we love to share it but with nearly 350 athletes in the program, we can’t give them kudos if we don’t know about it.
That’s all for now – as always, feel free to reach out to us with any programmatic questions you may have!
Have a great weekend and GO ELITE!
Thanks,
Fred, Eric and Trav
