Tom Neal, Youth Activity Leader
Phone: 607-745-9016
Email: tneal9999@gmail.com

The Town of Otselic looks to offer youth sports activities to all youths in the Otselic Valley Central School District, starting from the age of pre-K through the Grade 6, and sometimes beyond. We look to involve these participants into three sports which coincide with the primary sports programs within our school district. These three sports are soccer, basketball and baseball/softball. Although these three are the primary focus, we have also been involved with supporting additional sports programs. Since many of the programs are based upon the grade level of the participant, we will give information on these programs based upon when they occur during the school year.

The soccer program is affiliated with the Chenango County Chargers league, and we look to have sign ups starting in mid-July, with practices beginning in early August. Each program divides their players into the different team categories of U6(Pre-K & K), U8(Grades 1 & 2), U10(Grades 3 & 4) and U12(Grades 5 & 6). U6 plays primarily amongst themselves, and does not travel. The U8, U10 and U12 teams are travel teams and play against competition from other towns. We run our soccer program entirely on fields located in Georgetown, and play a six-week schedule against other Northern Chenango County programs.

After completing the soccer program, then we begin to have the sign ups in early November for the winter basketball program, which runs pretty much through the end of March. The basketball program utilizes the facilities of the Otselic Valley Central School in South Otselic for practices and games. We have sign-ups for kids from grades 1 through 6, grades 1 and 2 is just for developmental practices, usually on Saturday mornings. For grades 3 through 6, we have practices on Saturday mornings as well as during the week when gym time is available. At 3-6 grade levels, we look to schedule games with other area teams, at this time we are not in a particular league, but we try to schedule as many games as we can with other local teams.

For baseball and softball, since the Tri-County league that we are in starts playing their games around the Fourth of July, we also encourage baseball and softball players to look into the opportunities to play for the Norwich Oxford Little League(NOX). Sign ups for NOX start around January 1st and end in early March, practices begin around April 1, with the game starting towards the end of April and continuing through mid June. Some All-Star players can continue to play with NOX throughout the summer. The NOX League is open to all boys and girls between the ages of 7 and 12, with the following divisions, Rookies(Age 7 & 8), Minors(Age 9 & 10) and Majors(Age 11 & 12). If we have enough local players to field a complete team, then those players can play locally, if there is not enough for a local team, then players are usually assigned to play for a neighboring team.

The sign ups for the Tri-County league start around May 1, with practices beginning around Memorial Day. The game schedules go from early July to early August, with the playoffs concluding on the second weekend of August at the DeRuyter fair. Sign-ups for this league, basically begin at age 4 and continue right up through to those entering their senior year of high school. Participants in ages 4 through 7, are in a T-ball division, boys ages eight through 10 are in the PeeWee division, boys 11 through 13 are in the Juniors division. Girls softball consist of one division for girls age 8 through 12. A new Varsity division has been formed for boys that are age 14 through those entering their senior year of high school, a girls Varsity division may be in the works this coming year. T-ball and Softball divisions utilize the Otselic Valley Central School athletic field for practices and games(the Varsity divisions would also utilize this field), the PeeWee and Juniors divisions utilize the fields at the Georgetown Firemans Field for practices and games.

The Town of Otselic Recreation Program overseas all of these sporting activities, but it is truly the volunteers and sponsors that are the backbone that make these activities run as smoothly and efficiently as they do.  With the help of these volunteers and sponsors, we can provide these services and programs at little or no cost to all of the participants. Coaches and officials are usually family members and friends of those participating in the program, and we would like to take time to thank all of those volunteers for their time and effort. If you are interested in helping assist this program in anyway, or would like to be a team sponsor, please feel free to contact us.