Becker youth Rec sports are already well underway this summer. Ten sports make up the rec sports program and the summer leagues underway are for baseball, softball, boys and girls lacrosse and tennis.

 

Soccer starts in mid-July.

 

Youth baseball features a junior ball league for 4-8 year olds), a quad city league (comprised of neighboring communities), a gopher state league (for ages 9-17) and a VFW league (for ages 15-16). 

 

It’s nearing playoff time for all age groups starting the week of July 13. This summer, over 150 junior ball players and 225 youth ball players took to the field for the regular season. Also this year, the weather has cooperated and the youth baseball program  has hosted four successful tournaments with nearly 50 teams of players, coaches and supporters visiting the Becker community over several weekends this summer. 

 

As the summer season draws to a close, the organizers  are beginning to prepare for their Fall baseball season. For more information, go to www.beckerbaseball.org.

The Becker Blast Softball Association promotes the game of fastpitch softball for youth in the Becker area. Three 8U teams exist as well as two 10U,  three 12U and one 14U team. For more information, see www.beckerblast.com.

 

Brandon Kent runs the Becker boys lacrosse league that consists of varsity, JV, and U15, U13 and U11 teams. The Becker 1-U15 team is 1-7 and the Becker 2-U15 team is 3-7 on the year and both squads are coached by Paul VanVoorhis.

 

The U13 team is 8-2 and coached by Nate Fritsch and the U11 team is 0-4 and coached by Mark Fredricks.  For more information, see www.beckerlax.shutterfly.com.

St. Cloud Park and Recreation is offering summer lacrosse for both middle school and high school boys and girls.  The teams play Tuesday nights from June 16 to July 21.

 

This year, the Becker girls lacrosse program had three teams – 5/6 grade, 7/8 blue, and 7/8 white. The teams were coached by Hugh Hovde and Jon Lange (5/6), Bill Rowland and Dean Krisko (7/8 white), and Eron Bordson (7/8 blue).

 

“Our coaches (Dean Krisko and Bill Rowland) on the white team were great and you could tell that all the girls really enjoyed playing for them,” said White Team Manager Tara Lefebvre. “They really encouraged our girls to do their best but also kept it fun, not an easy task I'm sure.”

 

Lefebvre said she was also really impressed with the great sportsmanship she saw displayed by both the white and blue teams. 

 

“On quite a few occasions, girls from both teams would volunteer to play on the other team to help them out if they needed extra players,” Lefebvre said. “Even if they had games of their own to play on the same day. The atmosphere was just really fun and inviting.”

 

Some of the area’s girls are most likely playing for other teams during the summer league, and Becker’s coaches have ongoing practices on Tuesday nights at 6:30 p.m. on the practice lacrosse field at the school.  

 

“We have some great young and talented girls and need to keep adding more girls to keep the program going,” said girls lacrosse volunteer Mike Hultgren. “In the future, we hope to add more teams, possibly a 3/4 grade team next spring.  We really need to get more involvement from parents of the young players so that our program can keep growing and improving.”

 

The tennis program holds several summer camps for athletes including a high school camp July 13-17 for boys and girls entering grades 8-12. For kids who have completed grades three and younger, the game of tennis is being introduced to children through fun activities in two summer sessions from June 8-12 and July 13-17.

For more information on Becker tennis, visit www.beckertennis.weebly.com.

 

Fall and winter leagues include basketball, volleyball, wrestling and football.

 

Also this year, kids entering kindergarten through the third grade can sign up for flag football. The season starts at the end of August and runs through October.

 

For grades fourth, fifth and sixth, Becker has a youth tackle league that will begin play in early September and will include games played in Becker, Monticello, Milaca, Zimmerman, Cambridge and Princeton.

 

Check out the website www.beckerbasketball.com for more info on girls and boys basketball. Go to www.infernojovolleyball.com for more info on volleyball, www.beckerwrestling.com for wrestling and the Becker school community education website for more info on tackle and flag football.