Max’s great adventure to Little League Congress
When Max Lauritzen was picked up by Tim Trevier in a motor home last week, little did he know he was going for the ride of his life.
The longtime assistant administrator for District 20 Little League had never been to a Little League International Congress before, and with his ailing knees, he didn’t think it was a good time to go now, making a long trip to Lexington, Ky.
He’s not sure how many times he turned down District 20 Administrator Tim Trevier about going. Trevier said he stopped counting at 25.
Then Trevier gave ol’ Max an offer he couldn’t turn down — a ride down in a RV so he could lay down and stretch his legs out.
“My legs are shot, but how could I go wrong,” Lauritzen said.
Trevier said all of the league presidents in the district signed off on getting the RV and Trevier picked up Lauritzen at his North Euclid Avenue home in Princeton Thursday morning, setting out on Max’s Great Adventure, giving him all the comforts of home.
When they arrived in Lexington, Trevier rented a wheelchair and towed Lauritzen all around the Lexington Convention Center and Hyatt Hotel. They got to see Rupp Arena, the home of the Kentucky Wildcats.
Then came time for Saturday’s District Volunteer Recognition Luncheon. Trevier asked Lauritzen if he had ever met Steve Keener, Little League CEO and president.
“He said no, and I said, ‘You’re going to walk up there in about 10 minutes and shake his hand,’” Trevier said. “He said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’”
They started giving the awards out and Lauritzen heard District 20 come up and then his name.
“That shocked the hell out of me,” he said.
Trevier likened Lauritzen’s reaction in seeing a kid hit a walk-off grand slam.
“That was his face, that was kinda cool, it really was. He had no clue he was getting that award,” Trevier said.
Of all the ADAs in the whole region, Lauritzen said he never thought he’d hear his name come up. Little League is divided into nine regions around the world with a total of 650 District Administrators and probably triple the number of assistants.
Lauritzen has been involved in Little League for 30 years, 19 as an umpire and the past 15 years or so as an assistant district administrator. He was nominated by Central Region Director Mike Lagge of Indianapolis.
The district will be hosting the second district-wide annual Max Lauritzen Softball Tournament from June 5-13.
“You can’t ask for a better guy. He’s the epitome of volunteers,” Trevier said.
Personally, I can’t think of a guy more deserving than Max. He’s one of a kind and always has the best interests of the young ballplayers in mind. He called them the way he saw them for years as an umpire, and the way I see it, he’s one of the best.
• Wildcat strike: Fifty years ago, tiny Bureau Township, with an enrollment of 41, including 17 boys, took a 28-0 record, the best record in the state of Illinois, into the 1960 IHSA state basketball tournament.
The Wildcats’ 28-0 start is topped in Bureau County history only by the 29-0 and 31-0 streaks of the Buda Western Rams in 1974-75 and 1975-76 and the Hall Red Devils (31-0) in 1997-98. All three teams were inducted into the Bureau County Sports Hall of Fame. One common tie to all three teams — coach Chips Giovanine.
After defeating DePue for the district title 80-70, the Wildcats fell to St. Bede 72-51 in the regional opener. Team members included manager Charles Meisenheimer, Harvey House, Roger Warfield, Herb Rumbold, Larry Bird, Dennis Jontz, Jim Eckberg, Milton Warfield, Ken Saal, Dick Enberg, Terry Carlson, Tom Carter, Jeff Johnson and Gary Burton.
Giovanine notes there were 16 high schools in Bureau County at the time before the days of the Buda-Sheffield consolidation into Western and long before the formation of the Bureau Valley district and closures of Malden, Neponset and Tiskilwa. Hall had the highest enrollment at 459, with PHS at 440. Mineral stood at 26.
• No. 4 lives on: Carolyn Taylor of Princeton passed on a BCR clipping from 1956 of the victorious Tiskilwa Indians after defeating Bureau 70-46 to share the Little Eight Conference title with Manlius with an 8-1 record. She noted No. 4 for the Indians was John Brokaw. His grandson is Princeton senior Brik Wedekind, who also wore No. 4 for the Tigers this season.
Kevin Hieronymus is sports editor at the BCR. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com.
