New Britain Little League Brightens NB Baseball
By Ken Lipshez | Sport Correspondent at July 27, 2024 | 9:30 am | Print
Baseball’s vibrancy in New Britain, and its position as a cornerstone in the quality of life for New Britain’s youth, rests largely on the shoulders of young adults willing to give back through volunteerism.
Three young administrators for the New Britain Little League have taken giants step forward by taking their capacity for benevolence beyond city limits. NBLL president Matt Cannata and secretary Justin Dorsey, both 25, are helping the staff at Little League Eastern Regional headquarters in Bristol with its two 12-and-under tournaments. Chad Heath, 24, will be joining them for the second tournament.
The girls softball tournament, with all games played at Leon J. Breen Field at the immaculate A. Bartlett Giamatti Leadership and Training Center, is slated to conclude July 27. One of the 10 teams representing New England and the Mid-Atlantic states will move on to Portland, Ore., for the international championships.
The more renowned baseball tournament, also referred to as the Williamsport (Pa.) tournament, begins August 3 and winds up on the 12th with the final slated for telecast by ESPN.
Cannata and Dorsey are among a group of Eastern Regional staffers and volunteers administering the softball games. Dorsey has manned the public address microphone among his duties. Cannata runs the control board for the music that entertains the crowd between innings. Dorsey said Heath has committed to help out at the baseball tournament.
“The summer after my senior year in high school I was watching the Little League World Series,” said Dorsey, who also manages the New Britain Parks and Recreation team in the Prep Division of the Farmington Bank/Vantis Life (formerly Jaycee-Courant League) League.
“I loved playing baseball. I never stopped following it. I wanted to give back by coaching and coaching led to administration. Leagues don’t run on coaching.”
In 2007, two years after graduating from New Britain High School, Dorsey met Maryellen Holden, the Connecticut District 5 administrator who doubles as manager of the well-stocked Giamatti concession stand and one of several folks at the core of the Eastern Regional scene.
“I knew she was familiar with the Eastern Regionals so I asked her how somebody could get involved,” Dorsey said. “She said to try getting in next year. She called me later that night and told me she could get my two games announcing.”
Cannata, friends with Dorsey since they were 6, has been around the NBLL since performing bat-boy duties at 4-years-old. He said his father Joe, once on the board of directors, inspired the spirit of volunteerism in him.
“When he went to the park, so did I,” said the younger Cannata, a 2010 graduate from CCSU with an English degree. “My time from April to June consisted of hanging around the field on a nightly basis, either playing, watching other teams play or helping out with game operations – announcing, scoreboard, music, etc.
“[Watching my father] planted a seed inside of me. I didn’t know it at the time but that seed would grow as I got older.”
Dorsey got him interested in coaching, which led to a position on the board of directors. He felt in his heart that he could help the league by getting more involved.
“I saw that the league wasn’t headed in the right direction,” he said. “I couldn’t let a league that I had grown up with and given me so many opportunities fail. So I ran for president in 2008 and won, and I’ve been president ever since.”
League enrollment has grown from 430 to 650 under his direction. The number of teams increased from 33 to 48. NBLL has won two District 5 titles in softball, for which he credits softball director Eddie Camacho.
Cannata witnessed Dorsey’s involvement at the Eastern Regionals and liked what he saw. He was hired as summer camp director at Giamatti and immediately got involved with the extensive game operations that the Eastern Regional Baseball Tournament demands.
Cannata works full time at the Bristol Boys and Girls Club as the director of school-age programming at Hubbell School.
