Tracing El Segundo Baseball Team’s Pipeline to Success : Preps: Established in 1954, the city’s Little League program is credited with helping the Eagles reload rather than rebuild.

Raising three sons doesn’t allow Debbie Ernest much spare time, but she is especially busy during Little League season.

Her twin sons Ryan and Patrick, 10, are among the more than 300 youngsters age 6-12 who play in the El Segundo Little League. Ernest, though, didn’t help matters by having her sons, veterans of five Little League seasons, play on different teams.

“It’s less competitive this way,” said Ernest, 39. “We’re never home. We’re always at games.”

Not only for Ryan and Patrick’s games but for son Derek, 13, who plays in the El Segundo Babe Ruth League (age 13-15). But then again, Ernest, who is also a representative on the Little League’s women’s auxiliary board, is quite accustomed to being around baseball.

Her father Paul Harrison, 73, helped co-found the El Segundo Little League in 1954. Her brother Paul Jr., 46, played in the El Segundo Little League and her husband Don, 43, played as a senior at El Segundo High.

Harrison served as the Little League’s first president in 1955 and 1956. He also was a manager and umpire and is a regular at his grandsons’ games.

“If I miss a game they want to know why,” Harrison said. “I had no idea what I was getting into. It seemed like it would be a good thing and it grew and grew and grew.”

Declining enrollment in the El Segundo Unified School District has left the city with only three schools. Imperial Elementary School was closed in 1975 and El Segundo Junior High, which is now used as a training camp by the Raiders, was shut down in 1979.

The turnout for Little League, however, continues to increase. The league needed to add another major (age 10-12) team this season to accommodate the additional players.

The league runs from February through June and games are played seven days a week at Recreation Park, El Segundo High and Center Street School. On Saturdays, games are played from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Recreation Park.

It’s not uncommon to find King Coach Barry Melrose and Raider executive Al LoCasale at El Segundo Little League games. Melrose’s son Ty and LoCasale’s son Alex play on a superminor (age 9-12) team.

“El Segundo is a strange town for sports,” said Paul, who lives in Lake Forrest. “Baseball was always very big. You went to the beach and played baseball. That was how you spent your summer.”

The emphasis is evident at the high school level.

Eleven of the 14 players on the El Segundo varsity played on Little League teams. The Eagles have qualified for the Southern Section playoffs 31 of the past 34 seasons and won 22 league championships during that span.

El Segundo, a school with an enrollment of 650, won its sixth consecutive league title last season, competing in Southern Section Division III against schools with more than twice the number of students. The El Segundo Babe Ruth teams have won three World Series championships.

George and Ken Brett, Scott McGregor and Bobby Floyd are among 32 players from El Segundo High who have played professional baseball. Keith Erickson went on to play professional basketball.

“Our consistency over time is a tribute to the youth program,” said El Segundo Coach John Stevenson, who has a 731-262 record in 34 seasons. “We couldn’t stay there without Little League. There’s always a new group coming through.”

Often from the same family.

Jeff Poor, a freshman at Harbor College, was a two-time All-Southern Section player at El Segundo. His brother Mike, a junior, was the starting first baseman at El Segundo last season.

Dave Scanlan, a senior center fielder on last season’s team, played Little League for two seasons in Hawthorne before moving to El Segundo. His brother Pat plays on the freshman team.

“The Little League is much more serious and intense than in Hawthorne for such a small town,” Scanlan said. “There are so many brothers and everybody knows everybody. It’s really the best of the best who make the team in high school.”

The 25-team Little League is separated into major, superminor, minor (age 8-9) and farm (T-ball, age 6-7) and governed by a 21-member board of volunteers.

The board, which meets year-round, includes a publicist, special projects and equipment coordinators. Insurance chairman Ed Moore is an insurance agent and treasurer Kirk Howell is an accountant.

“It’s a baseball-crazy town,” said Moore, 45, a former El Segundo Little League player. “Baseball here is what basketball is to Indiana or football in Texas. It’s like a town in the Midwest. Everybody does what they do best to help out.”

Although each player pays a $45 fee, the league must raise close to $10,000 a year from fund-raisers and donations from business and civic organizations to help cover costs of equipment and other operating expenses.

The league will play host to the District 36 and Division 3 Section all-star tournaments in July for the Little League World Series.

The district tournament will encompass the cities of El Segundo, Rolling Hills, Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Hermosa and Manhattan Beach. The section playoffs will include players from Hollywood, Culver City, Santa Monica, Torrance, San Pedro, Hawthorne and Inglewood.

The city maintains the fields at Recreation Park and allows the Little League, Babe Ruth, American Legion (age 16-18) and Bobby Sox softball teams to use it at no cost.

In 1987, the Little League built two batting cages at Recreation Park and recently made $5,000 in improvements to the infield and dugouts at Center Street School. The board is now searching for land to construct additional fields.

“We’re just running out of space to play,” El Segundo Little League President Marty Stone said. “The fields are always in use and never really see much down time. We’re kind of the envy of the area.”