North Carolina Dixie Youth Baseball

Lumberton (NC) DYB defeated Georgia 8-5 and 11-8 to win the 2010 Dixie Youth Majors World Series. They will move on to represent Dixie Youth Baseball in the Baseball Alliance Series in Memphis, TN at the end of August.

This is the 3rd DYB championship for North Carolina. Columbus County won in 1993 and Hope Mills won in 2006. Leland finished runner up in 2009.

Lumberton had to come back through the loser's bracket after dropping a game to Louisiana on Monday in extra innings.

John "Jay" Astoske of Southport-Oak Island DYB has been inducted into the Danny Jones Club. Jay has served in various capacities with the S-OI league, including president. The local league nominated Jay for induction into the club. The selection was approved by the NC Dixie Youth Board. Jay was presented a Danny Jones Club plaque at a AA tournament in Southport on June 18 by State Director Carey Wrenn, National Directors Ken Britt and Larry Rudisill and District Director Terry Lanning.

The National Board of Dixie Youth Baseball has selected Moore County Dixie Youth Baseball as the host league for the 2011 Dixie Youth Baseball Majors/AAA World Series. The tournament will be played at Hillcrest Park beginning on August 13, 2011.

This will be the third World Series held in North Carolina. Leland hosted the 1979 Series and Cumberland County hosted the 1985 Series.

Billy Ransom, Moore County Parks and Recreation Director, and Beverly Stewart, with the Moore County Visitors Bureau, made an excellent presentation to the National Board of Directors in Laurel, Mississippi (site of the 2009 World Series) on Monday. The vote to award the Series was unanimous.

Carey Wrenn, NCDYB State Director, indicates he wants to involve all of the North Carolina Dixie Youth leagues in this event.

More information will follow throughout 2009 and 2010.

 

  

 

 

  

 

Buddy Burney, NC Dixie Youth Baseball National Director, passed away today, January 10, 2009 after a short battle with cancer.

Funeral arrangments:   There will be a vistitation from 4pm-7pm on Sunday, January 11 at the Bladen-Gaskins Funeral Home located on the corner of NC 242 and Martin L. King Drive about 2 miles south of Elizabethtown. From NC 87 turn south onto ML King Drive and go about a half a mile. From US 701 turn west onto NC 242 and go about one mile.

The funeral will be at 2pm on Monday January 12 at the White Plains Presbyterian Church about 6 miles east of Clarkton. From the west, north and south, go to the intersection of US 701 and NC 211 in Clarkton. Travel east 5.9 miles until you get to the Emerson sign and turn north onto White Plains Church Road. Go 1.7 miles and the church will be on your right. From the east, traveling on NC 211, turn right onto White Plains Chruch road and then go 1.7 miles to the church.

The family has requested that in lieu of flowers a contribution to the Dixie Youth Baseball Scholarship Fund be sent to Carey Wrenn, NC State Director at 190 Sage Lane, Madison Heights, VA  24572.

Cards can be sent to the home at PO Box 668 Clarkton, NC  28433.

The Buddy Burney Day (see below) will be held as planned on January 17, 2009. 

Buddy has served many capacities in Dixie Youth since the 1970s. He has been a District Director, Assistant State Director and National Director (since 1999). Buddy will me missed very much by NCDYB. As listed in other articles on this website, he was instrumental in establishing the Scholarship games. He helped schedule the games, he worked the gate, he helped line up umpires and did much more in the various sets of games held each year in Elizabethtown, Hallsboro and Clarkton (his home town).

Buddy and I (Carey Wrenn) had a conversation in December. Buddy told me that he knew that Jesus Christ was his Saviour and that he knew that Jesus had died on the cross for him and that Jesus did arise from the grave and ascended into Heaven, where he (Buddy) will be with Him at the throne of the Father. While it is very sad news that we will not get to be with Buddy physically (we will be with him spiritually as we work and play this year), we can have joy that Buddy is in Heaven.

Buddy was beloved by almost everyone he met. He loved helping others, particularly children of all ages.

We ask that you pray for his family. He is survived by his wife, Leesa; a son, Frankie, who is a DYB District Director (wife Christie); two daughters, Corey and Casey; a sister, Geraldine; four brothers, Jim, Walt, Ronald, and Marvin; 3 grandchildren and many, many friends.    

 

The North Carolina Dixie Youth Baseball AA (coach pitch) Practice (Scholarship) Games have been named the "Buddy Burney Practice-Scholarship Games". These games are held in June of each year and feature AA (coach pitch) All-Star teams from around the state. The games are designed to allow tournament teams to have practice games against teams from other districts as they prepare to enter Dixie Youth tournament play. They also serve as a fundraiser for the Dixie Youth Scholarship Fund. Over $80,000 has been raised for the Scholarship Fund in the almost 20 years that NC Dixie Youth has been holding the games (including other sets of practice games). Buddy Burney was one of the originators of the various sets of practice games. Buddy has always had a particular fondness for the coach pitch division. His home league, Clarkton Dixie Youth, has hosted the AA games since their inception a few years ago.

The Practice Games for regular season teams, which is held in April of each year in Elizabethtown and Clarkton, are named the Charles L. Lennon Games--after the former National Director (Mr. Lennon). NCDYB also holds practice games for the Majors and AAA divisions tournament teams in Hallsboro, Clarkton and other locations each June. All of the games serve as fundraisers for the Scholarship Fund.

The Sportsmanship Award given at the NCDYB AA State Tournament is also named for National Director, Charles "Buddy" Burney. The first named award was presented in honor of Burney to Oxford DYB at the 2008 NCDYB AA State Tournament at the Cape Fear Optimists Club complex in Wilmington on July 8, 2008.

Burney, from Clarkton, has been involved as a Dixie Youth official since the mid-1970s. He served as a District Director for many years and was elected to the National Board in 1999. He was instrumental in the inception of the Scholarship Practice Games in Elizabethtown and Hallsboro in the early 1990s and was the key person in starting the AA (Coach Pitch) Scholarship Practice Games in Clarkton several years ago.

Please join the NCDYB family in congratulating Buddy on this well-deserved honor. (Please see earlier News story about Buddy's illness.