Sports

Little League season opens with field dedication

Jeremy Savio remembers going to Yankee Stadium as a kid and looking at the names in Monument Park.

“I was always dreaming that my name would be up among those names someday,” he said. “Unfortunately, that never happened.”

At the Riverhead Little League opening day ceremony at Stotsky Park on Friday, however, Mr. Savio received an honor that even Babe Ruth or Lou Gerhig can’t claim. 

“Having Field Five of Riverhead Little League named after me, next to two other Riverhead Little League presidents, Ron Schmidt and Bob Burns, was something I never imagined as a kid,” Mr. Savio said, who is stepping down after a decade in the program, as a coach  and the league’s president.

“Over the last 10 years, Jeremy’s passion for our league has grown,” said Little League board member Karen Cote, reading a letter from the league’s board Friday. “He has worked extremely hard to help us grow a successful league that has other towns looking to us as an example on how to run a league.”

It was fellow coach Jason Kwasna who suggested to the Town Board in March that Field Five be named for Mr. Savio.

“He’s done so much,” Mr. Kwasna told the board. 

Mr. Savio is now the administrator of Little League District 36, where he oversees 14 leagues on eastern Long Island. 

“While he was working overtime to build our league to where it is now, he also coached teams every year along the way,” Ms. Cote said. “So many of our children had the privilege of being led by Coach Savio.”

“When I volunteered to run the league, I felt I was just doing what I thought a volunteer would do,” Mr. Savio said. “I wanted to do the best job I could, and I wanted to give the kids great memories playing in our league.”