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Alexandria Potomac Little League is a member of Virginia Little
League Distirct 9, located in Fairfax County, along the Potomac
River on its eastern border and just south of Old Town
Alexandria.
Some of the area that is a part of Alexandria
Potomac Little League was once owned by Bucknell University in
Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The university had bought a huge tract of
land as a business investment during the early 1940s. After World
War II, Bucknell sold the land to developers and the area became
known as 'Bucknell Heights' and 'Bucknell Manor.' Most of the homes
in the area were built in the early 1950s.
In 1951, a group of
parents from the community formed Bucknell Little League, thus
becoming one of the first leagues of its kind in Northern Virginia.
As a matter of fact, in 1951 there were around 700 Little Leagues
in the United States. In 1952 Little League grew to over 1,500
leagues.
Bucknell Little League proudly served the needs of
families of the 'Bucknell Heights' and 'Bucknell Manor'
communities. Shortly after Bucknell Little League was formed,
Hollin Hall Little League, a precursor to Fort Hunt Little League,
played to the south of Bucknell's border.
Both Fort Hunt Little
League, which formed in 1956 and Woodlawn Little League, which
formed in 1964, came from areas once represented by Bucknell Little
League.
During a time period from the 1950s through the early
1990s, Bucknell Little League enjoyed tremendous success throughout
the community it represented.
In the summer of 2002, Bucknell
was being geared up to fold into Fort Hunt Little League, when a
group of parents and volunteers decided they would roll up their
sleeves to try to rebuild the organization.
On Monday, July 29,
2002, a new board of directors moved forward with taking over
Bucknell Little League with the hopes of saving the league and
helping it grow.
During the spring of 2002, the league had only
129 children in the program. The new Bucknell board worked to
reestablish contacts with as many families who had participated in
Bucknell in the past, to reinvite them back to the league.
The
First Annual Bucknell Little League Fall Baseball and Softball
Clinic was held with great success in 2002 at Bucknell Elementary
School with over 150 children participating. The following spring,
in 2003, Bucknell kicked off the season with 325 children ready to
"play ball!"
With the success of the spring season, then
president, Pat Malone, embarked on promoting the 2nd Annual
Bucknell Fall Baseball and Softball Clinic. During his travels
thorughout the league's boundaries, Malone found that people were
somewhat disenfranchied from being a part of the league because it
represented only one community within the league and not the
community as a whole.
Malone returned with his findings to the
Bucknell board, telling them of his interest to change the name of
the league to better represent all communities within the league's
boundaries.
Malone worked with the Bucknell board to form a
'Name the League' Contest, where parents and children could fill
out forms at the concession stand at Bucknell Elementary during the
Fall Clinic. When the drawing was completed, 52 names would
suggested.
On Tuesday, November 18, 2003, the Bucknell Little
League board of directors convened for their very last time. That
night, with the help of board member Mike Aitken, 52 potential
names where pared down to 20, then to 12, then to 4 - South
Alexandria, Mount Vernon Colonial, Alexandria Patriot and
Alexandria Potomac.
The final two names selected were Alexandria
Patriot and Alexandria Potomac. The board, through discussion and
deliberation, unanamously selected Alexandria Potomac as the new
name for the league.
Thus, Alexandria Potomac Little League was
born on the night of Tuesday, November 18, 2003.