Terre Kemble's wish list for Santa Claus was pretty short. The Chanhassen Red Birds General Manager was asking for a new manager for her amateur baseball team, which begins its third season this spring.

From Chanhassen Villager: January 5th, 2012 by Eric Kraushar

Terre Kemble's wish list for Santa Claus was pretty short. The Chanhassen Red Birds General Manager was asking for a new manager for her amateur baseball team, which begins its third season this spring.

"I've talked to all of the area high school coaches and other baseball people like C.J. Woodrow (former University of Minnesota pitcher and husband to Chanhassen cross country coach Anita Woodrow) and Mike Poppitz from Victoria. Everybody says they'll think about it," Kemble said.

The Red Birds have an opening at manager with the departure of former skipper Chris Reuvers, who elected not to return for a third season with the arrival of a child during the offseason.

"We appreciate Chris for everything he did for us the last two years. He was one of the key people who helped get us going," Kemble said. "He wanted to be the PA Announcer and we didn't know who would manage and he stepped up and took on the challenge."

One would think the Red Birds' job would be attractive to coaches with the amount of talent on the roster coupled with outstanding facilities and a strong Class C schedule.

Kemble understands, though, that an unpaid position is not always easy to fill.

"It is a lot of commitment. There is some travel. Now that we have an established team, hopefully we're able to find someone. The kids keep getting better. There are a lot of teams that have a hard time fielding one team. We probably will have enough for two teams after the Legion season," the General Manager said.

While Chanhassen has been searching for a coach through word of mouth for the most part, there have been other developments in the River Valley League. Jordan is now classified as a Class C team, which leaves the Central and West Divisions with 11 teams.

Kemble said there has been some discussion about re-alignment with one division of six teams and another with five, but she said another option is to have one division in which every team plays all 10 teams home-and-away.

"That way we wouldn't have to schedule as many non-league games. But if we have to, we get lots of e-mails from teams - mostly from Class A - that want to play us at our ball park," Kemble said.

Ideally, Kemble and the Board of Directors are looking for a manager with coaching experience and is older than most of the players.

"We have guys that are playing college ball and they want to come back and learn. You look at a kid like Justin Thompson, who is very talented. He wants to get better. He works so hard to become a better player," Kemble said.

If no coach is found, Kemble said Bobby Krzmarzick and Kyle Kemble may be asked to serve in a player/manager role, much like they did at various times last summer when Reuvers was unable to attend games.

The Red Birds would like to find someone by February or March, in time to order additional hats and tops for the upcoming season. There also is a team fundraiser in April with the season slated to start in May.

"When we started this team, we had no idea what to expect. I've been amazed how well we've done. All-in-all, I think we've done pretty well the first two seasons," Kemble said.

Those interested in managing the Red Birds should contact Kemble at terre@chanredbirds.org.

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