The Early Days
Our current beloved location started back in 1964 with a generous donation of the land by Frank and Mary Crisp. This property was conveyed solely for the operation and maintenance of a Little League baseball field and athletic field for youth programs. As a condition of the conveyance the property (complex) shall be called “Little Frank” Crisp Athletic Field, named for their son who passed away at only 18 months. Also, as a condition to the conveyance should operations cease as youth athletic fields the land will revert to known heirs or assigns. What started as "Little Frank" Crisp Athletic Field has been expanded over the years to our entire main facility, now known as "Little Frank" Crisp Complex - a name that remains on our Concession / Press Box building at 211 45th Ave N. The Crisp Co. also conveyed the land utilized as parking lots for NELL, accessed via 44th Ave NE, as of September 5, 1975.
Many descendants from the Crisp family have come through our NELL programs, like the Razook and the Granese families.
Honoring the Past While Recognizing Our Future
We have honored those that have made notable and exemplary contributions (monetarily and otherwise) throughout the years by bestowing their names to our fields, buildings, dugouts, cages, walkways and the stadium. We have also honored team accomplishments by plaques attached to the west wall of Vere Stadium.
Shorey Field
Our main field adjacent to the Vere Stadium is named after Frank Shorey, who was one of the original founders of NELL. He was involved with the league for many years through various roles as a coach and contribution of numerous voluntary hours with the early development of the “Little Frank” Crisp Athletic Fields.
The Vere Trust & Vere Stadium
George Kickliter, a long time attorney, was the Executor of the Estate of Emma F. Vere and the chairman of the original Board of Trustees of the Howard M. and Emma F. Vere Trust, created as of January 22, 1975.
The late Emma F. Vere made the recommendation in her Last Will and Testament that a Trust for the benefit of Northeast Little League be established whereby the Income of the Trust Fund benefits NELL. There are five permanent members of the Trust that serve for life or choose to resign, and two rotating members represented by the League’s current President and immediate Past President. The current Chairman of the Trust is Jeff J. Boyle who has been a Trustee for 26 years. Jeff succeeded Gene Kickliter who was the previous Chairman and son of George Kickliter. Gene coached for a number of years at NELL and managed the A’s (major division) that won the city title in 1990. Jeff played at NELL in 1966-67 and has four sons who played at NELL. Jeff was also the manager of the 1988 State Title Team (major division) and represented Florida in the Southeast Region Tournament in Gulfport. Jeff also managed the Blue Jays (major division) that won the city title in 1989.
The current permanent Trustees include James, C. Rowe, Attorney (2nd generation to serve), Jeffrey S. Ritch, Sr., UBS Financial Services Inc. (2nd generation to serve), Dustin Williams and Lynn Andruss Boyle, CPA.
As a side note, George Kickliter was the manager of an early chartered St. Petersburg Little League Team that was defeated by Lock Haven, PA, in the second championship game played in the history of the Little League World Series in 1948. At the time the team played at Bartlett Park.
The stadium was named the Vere Stadium in honor of Howard and Emma Vere in 1976.
Tee Ball Fields
The tee ball fields located along the western boundary of the Little Frank Crisp Complex are situated on land donated by John W. Barger and C. Eleanor Barger, as of December 20, 1982. As a condition to the conveyance, should operations cease as youth athletic fields the land will revert to the City of St. Petersburg to thereafter be held by it in fee simple for the purpose of maintaining the same for youth recreational purposes.
These fields were turfed in 2024 with our (then) President, Michael Millonzi, petitioning to a local Trust looking to donate funds to the youth of NE St. Pete. Michael was featured by Little League as a Community Hero for the work he did with Baynard.
The TeeBall Fields are seasonal/annual sponsorships that can be purchased and change cyclically.
Notable Names You May See Around our Parks
The 1988 State Champion Plaque
The 1988 major division All Star Team (11-12 year olds) was led by Jeff Boyle who managed the Blue Jays. Assistant coaches helping to prepare the Allstar Team included John Bergin (Blue Jays), Jeff Chapman (Reds), Randy York (Royals), Tom Burgess (Yankees) and Gene Kickliter (A’s). We know at least one of the state title players (Mike Mills) has 3 boys at NELL today, one of which is graduating 12 year old (Spring 2025). If you know of other players' paths after NELL, please email us to tell us so we can add to our page.
The “88” team went farther than any team ever has for NELL in pursuit of the Little Legue World Series goal. In the State Tournament, they opened with a win over Lake Wales LL 2-0 and then beat North Miami American 11-2 in the Winner's Bracket Finals. After a day off, they had to beat the winner of the Loser's Bracket to take the Championship which happened to be that same North Miami team. NELL was victorious again 12-5!
In the Southeast Regional Tournament, they had a bye for the first round but opened the quarterfinals with a 5-4 win over Woodbridge LL from Virginia. They ended up losing to the Spring NW LL team from TX, 5-4 in the Semifinals. That Spring NW LL team went on to win the Southeast Region that year.
The 2022 State Champion Plaque
The 2022 8-10 year olds (10u) team led by Dustin Williams, Kevin Stofan, Gil Lazenby and Tommy Moore. This team won the District 5 tournament beating Pinellas Park National Little League, Section 4 tournament beating both Lakewood Ranch and Land O' Lakes Little Leagues and the the State Tournament. The State tournament was a 3 day tournament held at St. Augustine Little League. The NELL team was able to win all three of their first games making a clean path to their championship game against Miami Springs Little League. The AI-generated Gamechanger recap is below:
NELL All Stars Clinches Lead in Fourth Inning for Victory Over MSLL 10u All Stars
By GameChanger Media
NELL 10u All Stars stole the lead late and defeated MSLL 10u All Stars 4-1 on Sunday. The game was tied at one with NELL 10u All Stars batting in the bottom of the fourth when Sebastian Franklin singled on a 0-2 count, scoring one run and making it 2-1 for NELL.
NELL 10u All Stars pulled away for good with two runs in the fifth inning.
Carter Williams pitched the NELL 10u All Stars to victory. Carter surrendered one run on three hits over five innings, striking out seven and walking one. Benson L threw one inning in relief out of the bullpen to close out the final outs.
Adrian H took the loss for MSLL 10u All Stars. The pitcher allowed three hits and two runs over three innings, striking out one and walking one.
Carter Williams also led the NELL 10u All Stars with two hits in three at bats.
CG P went 2-for-3 at the plate to lead MSLL 10u All Stars in hits.
The 8-10 age group division takes a different path as there's no "LLWS" for this age group. This team went on to Wilson, NC to play in a round robin style tournament at Wilson LL.
The head coach of this team, Dustin Williams, was a long term board member, league President, coach and staple within our league. While his kids have aged out of NELL, he is now on the board of the Vere Trust where he continue to look after our interests.
The Visitor Dugout @ the Little Frank Crisp Complex
Our visitor dugout is name for Philip Stock. He was a player, coach and leader at NELL who also brought his own sons through the league. He was taken far too soon from us in 2016. An excerpt from his obituary:
"Philip was a devoted dad to Cooper, 7, and Colton, 5, with whom he enjoyed baseball, fishing, golf, and Slurpees. Philip was a loyal and faithful husband to Alison, his college sweetheart and longtime best friend, and was generous in his everyday interactions.
An avid boater, Philip died doing what he loved with a friend who was like a brother to him, Matthew Mann.
In lieu of flowers, donations should be directed to the Northeast Little League. Donations can be made via http://northeastll.com"
The Batting Cage facility is named for Canopy Builders (November 2024). Owner and President, Ben Gelston and his family are long time supporters of NELL and provided a substantial financial investment during our 2024 Hurricane Recovery efforts. The League vowed to ensure their contribution was not forgotten nor lost in the shuffle of those recovery efforts -- and the cages seemed an appropriate place given that it provides a canopy for our players to practice. You will notice a plaque outside of The Canopy with our donors, legacy key members and two notable leaders who made it all happen.
The 62nd Ave Fields (Northeast Mini Park)
The league rents these fields from the City of St. Pete. We have been given the latitude to name those fields as we see fit.
What is now known as "Tropicana Field" - suitably paying homage to our beloved hometown Tampa Bay Rays, once originally the Thunderdome. George Kickliter (noted above as the original executor of the Vere Trust as well as the Chairman of the Board), the Kickliter family as well as Dr. Mark Sibley and his company (Save Busch Inc) were paramount in achieving the Northeast Park dream for NE St. Pete youth sports.
The Barger Family is honored for their efforts towards expanding the space for youth sports in NE St. Pete. Similar to Frank Crisp (noted above and here as well for the 62nd Ave field expansion). An excerpt from John Barger's obituary:
"Mr. Barger and his wife, C. Eleanore "Ellie" Barger, contributed to many St. Petersburg charities. He supported the Northeast Little League, Freedom Park in Pinellas Park, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Mahaffey Theater at Bayfront Center."
Once the fields were settled, many families pooled resources to build the 62nd Ave batting cages -- which NELL continues to own and operate today.
While all of these families are important parts of our history, we share an excerpt from Bob Twitty's (Gold Sponsor) obituary:
"His greatest joy was watching his sons play baseball and football at St. Petersburg Catholic High School. He had coached their youth baseball teams at the Northeast Little League for many years, wining two league championships. A season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Rays, he loved attending games with Barbara and his sons. He also enjoyed traveling, boating, fishing, playing pool and pingpong and entertaining friends at his newly renovated home in Bayway Isles.
In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to the St. Petersburg Catholic Varsity and Junior Varsity baseball teams. As you all may know, Bob Twitty passed away from a heart attack on Sunday evening May 17, 2009. In lieu of sending flowers to the Funeral Home, we are putting together a fund that will enable us to purchase two (2) AEDs (automatic external defibrillator) and a plaque which will identify the AED as been purchased “In Memory of Bob Twitty” to put at each field in case of an emergency, along with proper training on their use."
The love of the game that his sons learned at NELL continued throughout their high school and college baseball careers.
Scoreboards
The scoreboards are seasonal/annual sponsorships that can be purchased and change cyclically.
Walking Path Between Shorey Baseball and the Softball Field
This walkway was named Schneider Lane in March 2025 in acknowledgement of the Schneider family (Matt, Dondi, Jack and Beau) who were instrumental in the league's improvements in the 2020s era (batting cages, turfed teeball fields, electrical upgrades, etc) and who also led the recovery from back to back hurricanes in 2024 -- Helene and Milton. (Read the Little League feature article here)
Hurricane Helene flooded our parks (and most of NE St. Pete) with over 3.5 feet of water -- ruining our fields, concession, equipment and supply rooms and contents. This same storm flooded our major transformer that fed our field lights and all electrical capability at the park. Hurricane Milton then came along about a week later and tore the roof off the Vere Stadium and the Little Frank Crisp concession building along with damaging most of our fencing, vegetation and large trees beyond repair. The restoration took many hard, SAD days of debris removal, pickup/management....and then months of fundraising, restoration and remodeling for the future. The Schneider family led this recovery effort but also "got their hands dirty" with multiple rounds of debris removal, clean up days and construction efforts -- along with many board members, community leaders and small business owners coming to the League's aid.
Softball @ NELL
A little history of softball here at Northeast Little League: When the 62nd Ave fields were commissioned Frank Jiannetti was on the Board at NELL. The City built the beautiful new fields @ 62nd Ave for NELL to use. When the Board was struggling with balancing the schedules to allow all players a chance on the new fields, Frank had the foresight to say, "if there is one designated softball field at Shorey, the baseball team can have full access to the new fields." 30+ years later, our softball teams still get to play ball on our Softball field under the leadership of Frank's daughter, Jeanine Rivas. She is/was the VP of Softball in 2024 and 2025 reviving it from 0 teams to 3 full teams across 3 divisions -- and a chance to play for District and Sectional banners.
From that same family line, Jeanine's brother (Joe Jiannetti) happens to be the reason that there's a "green monster" fence on our Fenway field. He hit the first ever homerun over left field, into 62nd Ave -- denting the driver side door of a Papa John’s delivery truck! The driver sued the city which resulted in them having to add the additional fencing. There’s a news article somewhere. Joe went on to be drafted in 2000 MLB’s Amateur draft (with former NELL All Star Doug Waechter) and played 10 seasons of minor league baseball with the NY Mets organization and other independent leagues.