The Lehighton Legion baseball team enjoyed one of its most successful seasons in recent memory a year ago.
That makes it all the more difficult to imagine that it could be the program's final season.
Just one year removed from an 18-9 season that ended with an extra-inning loss in the championship game of Lehigh Valley Legion Baseball League post-season tournament, the Lehighton Legion announced that it will not a field a team for the 2011 season.
"It is with extremely emotional feelings that I must announce the Lehighton Legion Baseball team had to withdraw from competition this year," said veteran Lehighton manager George Zellers. "Despite an extension from the Lehigh Valley Legion Baseball League, an extended advertised sign up, and calls to all high school baseball coaches in the program area, we just did not get enough players eight to be exact to field a team."
Zellers said he never saw the shortage of players coming. A year ago, Lehighton had a 16-player roster.
"The hardest thing I had to do in my 30 years of coaching baseball was to tell eight young men we would not be having a team," said Zellers. "A year ago, we were one pitch away from playing in Regionals. This year, with three area school districts in our area