American Legion baseball team boundary lines in and around the Charlotte, NC areas.

Is there anyone out there that can give us the boundaries and list where all the Area IV American Legion teams in Charlotte pull from?

The question has been asked by WMeckBaseball8:

I tried the best I could to respond as noted below but I am sure that there are better qualifed American Legion TBR posters that could answer the question much better than I.

The American Legion organizations around the Butler High and Independence High areas were unable to come up with funds, coaches, etc. to field American Legion baseball teams this year so the whole American Legion Area IV division which is mostly the Charlotte area had to rezone their various boundaries. It also effected other players in other areas of Charlotte as well as in that they were use to playing on one particular team and were rezoned to play on another legion baseball team this year.

For example, there were some players that usually play with the Charlotte legion team that were this year rezoned to play on the Pineville team as well. I believe that the same thing happened last year with the rezoning of legion baseball boundaries when the American Legion organizations could not come up with funds, coaches, etc. on the West side of Charlotte as well and West side area American Legion baseball players were sent to the Steele Creeke American Legion team to play baseball.

Thing is, as I am quite sure that you already know...you can't just pick and choose where you want to play American Legion baseball. You have to play where you are zoned to play otherwise you are an illegal player which would be very costly to a team.

I'm sure that there are quite of few more posters on TBR that could explain this particular American Legion issue much better than me though and I myself would welcome the help in explaining but, I also feel that we should move this discussion to another thread and not post it on the American Legion Post 337 thread. But...thanks for asking and bringing the subject up!

 

you can ask for a release and play for the next closest team and so on ...

 

Int.Coach, I understand a player can only receive one release during his legion career, and its permanent. Players can't switch teams from year to year. And yes (as Int.Coach said) you can only be released to the team which is next closest to your PERMANENT RESIDENCE. You can't just go across town and play for whoever you choose.

Don't know much about Charlotte boundaries, but there are limits that each legion team (in terms of student enrollments---- i.e. the schools they draw from).

I would advise ANYONE this year (after what happened with Garner last year), if you have any questions at all, get clearance from the state commissioner's office. I assure you that any suspicious players will be checked out and the entire team could be penalized if found guilty of hankypanky...

 

It would be nice to know how this all gets done and why there isn't more of an effort to allow the high school zones to be preserved. As I understand it (and I could be wrong), Post 262 has most but not all of Myers Park, some of East Meck, some of Garinger and a little of Waddell. Post 337 has most but not all of South Meck, some of Myers Park, some of Waddell, all of Providence, all of Butler, most if not all of Independence and apparently some of East Meck. Steele Creek has all of Olympic, all of West Meck, most but not all of Waddell, some of South Meck and probably most of West Charlotte. Huntersville appears to have all of North Meck and all of Hopewell.

It is hard to really know just by looking at rosters, though, because some high school players go to "choice" schools or have board transfers and aren't attending the school they are zoned for. So I guess that even if the zones were pure and exactly the same as the high school zones, there would still be players from the same high school playing on different legion teams. Maybe that's not all bad, anyway.

Can anyone come on here and enlighten us?