It started out as a favor to a friend and turned into a lifelong commitment.
In 1967, Don Longtin helped out one day with the Glastonbury Little League “and I never left. It was fun, enjoyable and productive and I got to meet a lot of people and work with kids. And of course, I love baseball.”
Glastonbury Little League was incorporated in 1964 and Don started volunteering with the program three years later. Over the years he has become the guiding force of the organization and for many years has served as its president.
The league marks its 60th anniversary this year and Don remains as active as ever with it. While the dozens of teams that make up the league - baseball for boys, softball for girls - play from April through July, Don says running the organization has become a nearly year-round commitment.
“There’s something going on practically every day, the planning is quite formidable. We have 850 kids involved this year, ranging in age between 4 to 18.”
During the season there are concession stands to organize, volunteer coaches to recruit and oversee, uniforms to order, and hundreds of games to manage that are played over 14 fields throughout the town, with sometimes as many as 30 games being played on a single Saturday.
“It’s really like running a business.”
Now 90, Don used to work full time as a design engineer at United Technologies. Before retiring in 1994 he became a division manager, overseeing a staff of 450.
“I used to tell my supervisor, this is pretty much the same as volunteering with the little league except the kids are older!”
He played baseball as a kid and all three of his sons played Glastonbury Little League, each with varying levels of talent, he fondly recalls.
He and his wife Jeannette raised all four of their children, David, Mark, James and Melissa, here in Glastonbury. Jeannette, who passed away in 2020, enthusiastically supported Don’s leadership of Glastonbury Little League, and was affectionately known as “Mrs. Coach.”
Over the years, Don says, the children of Little League have become like an extended family.
“What do I like most about Little League? Oh my God, there are so many things! I guess simply sitting back and watching kids enjoy the game of baseball and softball and watch them develop and have a good time. I marvel at what they look like when they come to us at 4 and 5 years old and what they look like at 12 and 13. I’m still awed sometimes when grown men come up to me and call me ‘Coach’ and tell me they have such great memories of their time in Little League. Just to watch them grow and mature is incredible. And it’s fun to see what they’ve done with their lives, what they’ve become. It’s a fantastic opportunity to become part of somebody’s childhood memories.”
Glastonbury Little League
Online: glastonburylittleleague.org
On Social: @Glastonburylittleleague
I’m still awed sometimes when grown men ... call me ‘Coach’
We have 850 kids involved this year.