This site is dedicated to helping make a change in Estacada Baseball. Through this website we hope to communicate with parents, Reunite former Ranger baseball players, and help rebuild the Estacada Baseball program.

Tuesday evening (1/31/12), The Estacada Baseball Program and The Weston Family (Owners of Weston GMC, Buick, and Kia) joined together to create a top level summer baseball team. "Summer baseball in Estacada has been growing in popularity and each year we are having more players wanting to keep playing baseball." said Head Coach Ryan Carpenter. "Even though we fund-raise hard to pay for baseball opportunities, we still kept running out of money to provide this experience for our kids." When Carpenter acquired the baseball program in 2010, Estacada only needed to raise money for one team to play a summer schedule. Last summer (2011), 24 players wanted to continue playing baseball after the school/spring season was finished. "We created a second team, but did not have the budget for it." explained Carpenter. This year their is a high possibility the Estacada Baseball Program will have 3 levels of teams. A team for returning and prospective varsity players, a team for junior varsity players, and a team of incoming freshmen. The Ranger Baseball program will still fund-raise to fund the 2 developing levels. The Weston Auto Group will sponsor the top level team. "I can’t say enough how lucky Estacada is to have a family like the Weston's, who have never forgotten their roots, been so generous, kind, and loyal to the Estacada community." said Carpenter "They continue to support opportunities for kids in the community where they were born and raised." Both Jim (Father), Jan (Son), and Jay (Son) are all Estacada High School Alumni.
    Summer sponsorships are not necessarily an uncommon practice. Many bigger schools around the state of Oregon use sponsorship as a means of helping fund baseball programs.  "It is important to mention that the summer baseball seasons are not affiliated with the schools." explained Carpenter. "This allows us to find private funding as we are no different than a volleyball, soccer, or ASA softball club."
    The new Weston Baseball Team will play a 30 games season this year. Many of the games will be played around the Portland-Metro area. The team has been invited into one of the top tournaments in the state, The Sky High Classic, in Hillsboro, Oregon. The Weston Team will also host a local tournament (The Weston Baseball Festival in Estacada) This tournament will bring in 7 teams into the Estacada community in the early part of June. The Weston Summer Baseball Team plays its first game June 1st against Sandy High School (5A) in Estacada at 5pm.

Long time coach and retired teacher Jack Flitcraft officially announced his retirement from coaching high school student athletes. Flitcraft was a social studies teacher and Physical education teacher at Gresham High School for 30+ years. During his time at Gresham, Flitcraft served as the head football coach and head baseball coach. Once retiring from Gresham, Flitcraft would come out to John Day, Oregon to help coach Ryan Carpenter host several spring break baseball tournaments. "My dad was also a teacher and coach at Gresham High School so I knew Jack very well growing up," said Ryan Carpenter. "But once Jack started to come out and help me with our tournaments, we really connected and became good friends."

Once Carpenter took over the program at Estacada High School, Jack Flitcraft quickly joined  as the head pitching coach among many other duties. During Flitcraft's two years in the Estacada Baseball Program the teams dramatically improved. Each year the team improved in wins and numerous kids were positively impacted by Coach Flitcraft. "After I informed the team that coach would not be returning this season," explained Carpenter "some of our older players were really disappointed. I think the baseball program will really miss Jack this year, as he had an infectious personality that everybody loved." It is Coach Carpenter's hopes that the baseball program does not forget the contributions and wisdom that coach Flitcraft shared with the student athletes in this community. 

Flitcraft, who is a grandfather, and is expecting his wife to retire at the end of the year, will have more opportunities to spend with his family. He will also be helping his old high school coach with some much needed repairs in his house. He will also get more time to spend drifting and fishing the Deschutes river, which he wishes to do more of.

THANK YOU COACH FLITCRAFT FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ESTACADA COMMUNITY!

    This spring and summer the Rangers will be posting score by score and inning by inning updates on twitter. The Ranger baseball program is reaching out to fans who cannot travel to see all Ranger Baseball action. This year those who follow us on twitter will get mobile updates after every full inning and after every run scored. Don't miss another game. Be at the game with Ranger Baseball on TWITTER


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