North Tampa Athletic Association rebrands for a new era | Sports

TAMPA — For years, New Tampa Little League boomed.

Tucked away on the Eber Sports Complex baseball fields on Kinnan Street, just north of Cross Creek Boulevard, and at fields at nearby Live Oak, games and practices would fill the parks on nearly every day.

It was a community gathering place that produced a stream of talented high school and college players and a handful of major leaguers — not to mention a 2011 team that starred on ESPN and nearly made the Little League World Series.

At its peak, the league had more than a 1,000 baseball and softball players, and when it came to the 33647 ZIP code, it was the place to be for more than two decades.

But as time went on the organization was not immune to the forces of change, like the switch away from Little League to the less restrictive Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken Baseball in 2013, and along with it a new name, the North Tampa Athletic Association; the evolving demographics of New Tampa and growth in other youth sports leading to fewer players to draw from; the growing popularity of high-cost, high-commitment travel baseball and a crushing pandemic.

The league, however, has been working its way back to its New Tampa roots.

To cement that momentum, and better reflect its geography and community identity, the organization announced last week it was changing its name from the North Tampa Athletic Association to the New Tampa Athletic Association.

Nick Zuzek, a longtime coach and former board president, joined the league the first year it took on the North Tampa name. At the time, he said, the league had much broader boundaries, extending all the way to North Dale Mabry.

But as more leagues joined Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken Baseball, that boundary shrunk.

Zuzek, one of many Wesley Chapel residents who participate in the NTAA, agrees with the decision for the league to revert to its roots.

“Let’s have a name that signifies where we’re located, that brands us as where we are,” he said.

NTAA president Robert Pickett said the change is more than cosmetic.

A Tampa Palms resident, he remembers looking for a baseball league for his son and Googling “little league and New Tampa.”

Nothing came up. He later found out from friends that the “North Tampa” Athletic Association was his local league.

“It’s hard to know what North Tampa even is, or where it is,” Pickett said.

League leadership is also hoping to build on rising registration the last few years. After hovering around 400 participants in spring 2023, the league hosted 525 registered players in spring 2025, a 30% growth, and hopes for 600 this spring.

Not bad considering COVID wiped out the 2020 season, so the organization had started from the bottom.

“We lost a whole age group that spring,” Pickett said. “Our numbers collapsed from around 500 kids to zero. Rebuilding from that was like starting over.”

This spring, players will find a league that has undergone more than just a name change. It is implementing changes to ward off the impact of travel league baseball, which Pickett says has “decimated” neighborhood leagues nationwide by offering a more competitive form of youth baseball and pulling away players, parents and coaches.

The NTAA will adopt more competitive elements to make it more attractive and give parents an option to pricey travel teams, while also keeping much of the focus on the traditional baseball players.

One major shift is a new flexible division structure. Gone are the rigid boundaries of age-based divisions, which drove many to travel ball. Instead, divisions like Majors (10-12), Minors (8-10), and Rookies (6-8) now overlap, allowing skilled younger players to move up when ready.

“If you’re the best 10-year-old, you shouldn’t have to play just with 8- and 9-year-olds,” Pickett said. “Now, our divisions let ability, not just age, determine placement. It keeps talented kids interested and allows everyone to grow at their pace.”

Pickett said leagues across the state using similar systems have reported improved retention and better competitive results.

Another change comes via the advanced circuit in Cal Ripken baseball, where the divisions select the top 12 players from each age group and they compete against other area Cal Ripken select teams by traveling to play them.

Those teams can also now enter the same tournaments that travel teams play in, with the NTAA adjusting its schedule to make sure kids can do both.

That gives more players a chance to experience a competitive platform without leaving the league entirely.

“These players come back to their rec teams to build up others and share their experience,” Pickett said. “It creates both excellence and inclusion.”

Pickett leads a mostly new board mixing enthusiastic newcomers with familiar faces from the old New Tampa Little League glory days, like experienced vets Woody Wright and longtime field maintenance contractor Lou Pastore, both former board presidents.

Pickett has been excitedly posting updates and blog posts on the leagues Facebook and web page the last week. Changes are being made to SEO to help people more readily find the league.

He thinks the new direction will strengthen the league, and the community programs it feeds. Pickett proudly points to the fact that half of last year’s state semifinalist baseball team at Wharton were NTAA alumni.

“We want to be the place where every kid, from first-timers to future high school stars, can play, improve, and feel part of something special,” he said. “If we can grow a stronger league and build up our high school teams in the process, that’s a win for the whole community.”