Little League will not be played in the City of Lathrop this year.

Due to low enrollment this season, the decision was made – with the guidance of the league’s local district – to work with a neighboring affiliate for the Spring 2022 season to ensure that all players get the chance to participate.

For at least this season that means that Lathrop players will be participating in Northgate Little League – a temporary partnership that league officials hope will be not be necessary for the 2023 season.

And after the entire Lathrop Little League board failed to return to their positions after the 2020 season, the “skeleton crew” of volunteers that banded together to make the 2021 season possible simply couldn’t pull together enough participants to field an active league – with less than 25 players enrolled at the beginning of this year.

“We all agreed that we cannot continue on with such low numbers and little to no volunteers,” Lathrop Little League said in a statement that announced the development this week. “Northgate was one of the leagues willing to have us. Being that they have a strong program and their boundaries are closest to ours we thought that it would be the best fit.

“This is to be a temporary partnership.”

And for the sake of Lathrop Little League as an entity, the partnership will have to be temporary.

In the statement that was released through social media this week, Lathrop league officials announced that if they are not able to successfully build a strong board and recruit enough players to come back to Lathrop next season, the league will lose its charter and the district boundaries will be redrawn – leading to the reassignment of players to different surrounding leagues based on their location.

While the announcement was intended to notify prospective participants of the development, it was also served as a recruiting attempt to build out the board so that the dissolution of Lathrop Little League does not have to happen.

“Help us rebuild this league by joining the board and being part of a rebrand so that Lathrop Little League can stay where it belongs in Lathrop,” the organization said in its release. “You can reach us by sending a message here (Facebook). We will be scheduling a meeting within the next couple of months for all potential board members.”

A request for comment from current league officials was unanswered as of press time.

While Lathrop Little League does not have a website that has been updated since 2018, information about the home of the league can be found at the Northgate Little League website by visiting www.northgatelittleleague.org. The current iteration of Lathrop Little League can be found on Facebook by searching for “Lathrop Little League New” in the search bar. The search for results for “Lathrop Little League” link to the organization’s old Facebook page which hasn’t been updated since 2020.

 To contact reporter Jason Campbell email jcampbell@mantecabulletin.com or call 209.249.3544.