2016 Season Brings Changes for Southwest

Pitchers and Catchers report to Spring Training this week! That's the best news we've heard in a while. That means that baseball is just around the corner. Somewhere. Once the snow goes away that is.

This season brings a new look for the Southwest Division of the Land O Lakes. Considering the turmoil and drama that the league and the board went through this off season, it's kind of surprising that the Southwest is actually in a stronger position than it was last year. How does that work?

Here's a recap of what happened:
- The Western Division broke ties with the Land O Lakes league in general and will be running it's own "league" this season. There is hope / talk that the West will rejoin LOL next year or in the future, but that depends on discussions, organization, bylaws, rules, etc... that are above our pay grade. The West is still a strong division and seems to be doing something right to continue to grow and produce solid baseball.
- The Northern Division continues to shrink. To be honest, we're not sure on the status or who is left and how many games they are playing
- The Southwest added three teams from the East. New Berlin, Racine, and West Allis will be joining the ranks of East Troy, Waterford, Genesee, Rome, North Prairie, Dousman, Ionia, and Burlington. This brings our team total to 11. That means we will be playing 20 division games this year. Awesome!

The Rebels are switching things up a bit too as we have added a few night games throughout the summer. Thanks to West Allis, New Berlin, and Racine for having fields with lights and pushing for us to try for some night games. We even added two non-conference games against Racine to go along with our conference double-header. That brings our current game total to 22 games. That's the most in recent memory. Shouldn't be any problem getting guys reps and ab's. Now, if we could just find a bit more pitching!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, May 21st as that's when the Rebels will host their 2nd Annual Youth Baseball Camp. The official schedule will be released within a week or so.

Looking forward to another great season!