James M. Gerstenslager

Mr. Gerstenslager of San Diego, Calif., has served as a district administrator in District 32 of California for 15 years, and has been a member of the Little League International board of directors since 2001. On Oct. 12, he will succeed outgoing director, Mike Legge.

Mr. Legge has been director of the West Region since 1999. He will be leaving California for Little League’s South Region Headquarters in St. Petersburg, Fla., where he will assume the title of League Development Manager.

“I am pleased to have the opportunity to take on this position,” said Mr. Gerstenslager. “I’m a firm believer in Little League’s rules and philosophy, and I think my background at the various levels of Little League will help me tremendously.”

With nearly 700,000 players participating on more than 45,000 teams, Mr. Gerstenslager inherits the second-largest region in the United States. His duties will include managing the region’s operations, running the West Region complex in San Bernardino, Calif., and continuing his work with the Little League community.

“Jim’s work as a district administrator has given him experience in the needs and concerns at the local levels of our program, and he also has a global understanding through his time on our international board of directors and our advisory board,” Mr. Keener said. “Assuming the responsibilities of director is a role Jim is well-suited for, and we welcome him to this position.”

The West Region oversees chartered leagues in: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Each summer, along with several clinics, the facility’s Al Houghton Stadium hosts the West and Northwest major division regional tournaments, which send its winners to Williamsport for the annual Little League Baseball World Series.

“The West has an excellent Little League family,” said Mr. Legge. “It’s a large region. We cover four time zones, with every climate you could imagine, but I found incredible amounts of support and a willingness to work with Little League.”

Mr. Gerstenslager, 58, has been affiliated with the Little League organization since 1978. Professionally, he was a senior manufacturing engineer for the Solar Turbines Incorporated, a division of Caterpillar Corp.

A native of Galion, Ohio, Mr. Gerstenslager is a graduate of Galion High School and served in the United States Air Force. He and his wife, Roxann, are residents of Clairemont, Calif., and are the parents of two adult sons, James and Clinton.

Both of the Gerstenslagers’ children are Little League graduates and he has served many roles in the Clairemont Little League, including umpire-in-chief, safety officer and league president. At the district level, he has been safety officer and an assistant district administrator before his election as district administrator in the summer of 1989. He has been re-elected four times by the leagues in his district.

While a member of the Little League International Board of Directors, Mr. Gerstenslager sat on the executive, operations and nomination committees. Other assignments included two terms on the Little League Congress Rules Committee (the second as chairman), one term on the Little League President’s Advisory Committee and one term on the Little League Advisory Committee to the International Board of Directors. As part of his administrative duties at the West Region, he was a member of the regional tournament committee and advisory committee.

Little League Baseball and Softball is the world’s largest organized youth sports program, with nearly 2.7 million players and 1 million adult volunteers in every U.S. state and scores of other countries.