The Omaha-based Metro League heads into its fifth season with a new skipper at the helm.  During the fall, recently retired Elkhorn head coach Jerry Frerichs was selected to replace Don Kiviniemi, Jr., who presided over the league from its inception in 2006 until his retirement as League Commissioner at the end of the 2009 season.  Kiviniemi, who serves as the Chairman of the Athletic Committee of the Department of Nebraska American Legion, will continue to be involved as a liaison between the League and the state Legion office. 

For the 2010 season the league will be composed of twenty-one Class A Senior Legion teams and twenty-four Class A Junior Legion teams.  Weatherguard Systems Pride (Omaha Roncalli), the sole Class B member of the League for the past four years, will not participate in the League this year.  The Seniors will be divided into three divisions (A, B & C) of seven teams each that will play a ten-game league schedule consisting of six games against opponents within their division and two games against teams from each of the other two divisions.  The Juniors will be divided into three divisions (A, B & C) of eight teams each that will play seven intra-division games plus four interdivision games -- two games against opponents from each of the other two divisions -- for a total of eleven league games. 

The Senior Legion teams were assigned to divisions A, B and C after the teams were ranked 1-21 based on their 2009 League finish.  To keep the divisions even in strength, teams were assigned to the three divisions by using a serpentine method (#1 Millard West to the A Division, #2 Associated Fire Protection to the B Division, #3 Tom Hansen Construction to the C Division, and then alternating the direction of assignment with #4 going to C, #5 going to B, # 6, going to A, #7 to A, #8 to B, #9 to C and so on.)  The Juniors play the same opponents as their Senior Legion team except in the case of Northwest and South, which are not expected to field Junior Legion teams this summer.  At the Juniors level, Millard West Cats steps into the place of South, and Prep Bluebirds (formerly Bones) will take the place of Northwest.

The interdivisional pairings for Senior Legion teams are as follows:

The #1 team in each division plays the #1 and #7 teams in each of the other two divisions

The #2 team in each division plays the #2 and #6 teams in each of the other two divisions

The #3 team in each division plays the #3 and #5 teams in each of the other two divisions

The #4 team in each division plays the #4 and #4 teams in each of the other two divisions

The #5 team in each division plays the #5 and #3 teams in each of the other two divisions

The #6 team in each division plays the #6 and #2 teams in each of the other two divisions

The #7 team in each division plays the #7 and #1 teams in each of the other two divisions

League games will be played on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for six consecutive weeks beginning May 25th and concluding June 30th.  No league games will be played on Wednesday, June 23rd so that teams may participate in local tournaments that are held in connection with the College World Series.  The eleven-date schedule allows for one "bye date" for each of the Senior Legion teams.  League teams will have through July 6th to complete their league games.  Any League game not played by July 7th will count as a loss for both teams in the scheduled contest. 

In the past, league standings have been based on the winning percentage of teams in league competition with a series of tiebreakers being used in the event that two or more teams have the same winning percentage.  Commissioner Frerichs announced that at the conclusion of 2010 league play the Senior Legion teams will be ranked 1-21 (1-24 for Juniors) in four separate qualitative categories, and that each team's final league ranking will be a weighted composite of its rank in each of those four categories.  Here are the four categories and the relative weight to be given to a team's rank in each category when calculating that team's final league ranking:

• Total winning percentage (40%)

• Winning percentage against league opponents having a win percentage of .500 or better (30%)

• Total runs allowed in all league games (20%)

• Runs allowed per game against opponents having a win percentage of .500 or better (10%)

If two or more teams are tied after these weighted calculations are made, the following tie breakers will be applied one at a time in the following order until the first criteria which results in resolving the tie is applied:

1.  Head to head results, if available (in order for this tie-breaker to be applied to multiple teams, all must have played each other)

2.  Highest total league winning percentage

3.  Highest winning percentage versus league opponents having a win percentage of .500 or better

4.  Fewest total runs allowed in all league games

5.  Fewest runs allowed per game against league opponents having a win percentage of .500 or better

The final Metro League standings at the conclusion of the regular season as calculated above will be used to seed the Junior and Senior Legion Area Tournaments for Areas 1, 2, 3 and 4  by using a serpentine seeding method.  The double-elimination Area Tournaments to be played July 14-19 are the summer equivalent of the spring season district tournaments with Junior Legion Area Tournament Champions advancing to the eight-team Class A Junior Legion Tournament.  Both Senior Legion Area Champions and Area Runners Up will advance to one of two eight-team Class A Senior Legion Tournaments -- the National Division State Tournament and the American Division State Tournament.  All three state tournaments will be played July 23rd through July 27th. 

At the Class A Senior Legion level, the two state champions will meet in a single playoff game on July 31st to determine the overall state champion.  That champion will advance to the Central Plains Region 6 Regional Tournament in Blue Springs, Missouri which begins on August 5, and the runner up will play in the Mid-South Region 4 Regional Tournament in Grand Prairie, Texas which begins on the same date.  The Metro League has produced the overall Class A Senior Legion State Champion for the past three years:  KB Building Services (Omaha Westside) in 2009, NP Dodge Wildcats (Millard West) in 2008 and PI Midwest (Creighton Prep) in 2007.  NP Dodge Wildcats won the Central Plains Regional in 2008. 

The 2010 Metro League division alignments will be as follows: