Los Alamos Little League President Joe Coulter discusses the history, programs, challenges, and goals of the organization during the Feb. 3 Kiwanis Club meeting at Trinity on the Hill. Courtesy/Kiwanis

By BROOKE DAVIS
Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos

Los Alamos Little League President Joe Coulter presented a talk on the history, programs, challenges, and goals of the organization to the Kiwanis Club of Los Alamos during its Feb. 3 meeting at Trinity on the Hill.

The local Little League was founded in 1952 and is the oldest league in New Mexico. In 2016, the league merged with the White Rock Little League to create a countywide league that competes with other teams in northern New Mexico.

Coulter became the president in 2025 and said that there are 300 to 350 kids aged 4 to 16 enrolled. One hundred volunteers work as coaches and perform all the other myriad jobs required. The league is seeking paid umpires with baseball experience.

Although baseball and softball are competitive sports, the focus of the league is to help build good human beings, promoting and teaching resiliency, teamwork, patience and perseverance, Coulter said.

Los Alamos Little League is the least expensive youth sports league in the community, he said,  adding that the league is healthy but looking to grow, hopefully back to pre-pandemic participation.

Los Alamos has baseball and softball programs in the schools. This is important to the Little League as they act as a feeder to provide interested and more experienced players to the school teams, Coulter said.

He explained that the season starts this year on March 12 and the biggest challenge the organization is facing is the condition of the fields it rents from the County. The fields are unsafe and unplayable due to the large number of gophers and gopher holes. Coulter said volunteers are needed for two field gopher abatement events on March 7 and March 14.

The league has worked to create a fun environment, he said, and encourages all kids to consider the Little League and sign up.