A Letter From the Board – Leadership Changes
Arlington Travel Baseball
P.O. Box 7088
Arlington, VA 22207
Phone: 703-697-7756
www.ArlingtonTravelBaseball.org
August 23, 2021
Dear Arlington Baseball Community
This September, Arlington Travel Baseball will celebrate a significant milestone: 10 years of competitive youth baseball in Arlington. The growth and reach of our program would not have been possible without the dedication of a number of people over the years, but chief among them is one of our founders and long time President, Richie Pacheco. Richie’s tireless efforts to create a youth baseball program focused on building player skills and a love of the game has been an inspiration to players, parents, and coaches within ATB and the greater baseball community.
After 10 years as a leader in the Arlington youth baseball community, Richie has decided that it is time to step back, announcing his retirement as Board President as of August 23, 2021. Although Richie is retiring from ATB’s day-to-day work, he is not going far. Richie will stay on as President emeritus and remain a source of knowledge, wisdom, and insight to all of us. True to his nature and love of the game, Richie will also remain with the organization as a coach of one of our 10U teams and a mentor to our other coaches.
Meanwhile, the ATB Board is excited to announce that we have voted to add several new members and installed a new slate of officers: Drew Thomson as President, John Michalowski as Vice President for our youth teams; Scott Gerber as Vice President for our 60/90 teams; Kami Ragsdale as Treasurer; and Julia McBride as Secretary. Other board members include: Nikki Toyama-Szeto; Neil Kataria; Mark Allard; and Ryan Bull.
Drew Thomson has been with ATB since 2016, a board member since 2017, and Vice President for the past two years. He is a career Naval Officer, a youth baseball coach, and a proud ATB parent. He has coached and worked alongside Richie as ATB grew from a 5 team club to a regionally respected and successful program double in size and even greater in impact.
As Drew said recently, “I am humbled and honored to succeed Richie as Arlington Travel Baseball’s President. He leaves big shoes to fill, and I am committed to build upon our proud legacy and will work tirelessly to ensure that our athletes, coaches and families continue to develop their baseball skills and grow their love of the game through competition.”
ATB will be holding a number of “Ask me anything” sessions in the coming weeks over Zoom to give families an opportunity to meet the new board members and officers and ask any questions that you might have. In the meantime, please join us in congratulating Richie for his tremendous contributions to ATB over the years.
We thank you for your continued support of ATB and look forward to continuing to work to make sure that our club remains one of the premier travel baseball organizations in northern Virginia.
Sincerely,
The ATB Board
