Renny Malach

Renny, beginning his "career" with Missoula Little League in 1971, has been a mainstay ever since. One of the pioneer developers for the Westside Little League, he has served in nearly every position necessary to assure the success of the League. He has been president, business manager, equipment manager, field maintenance supervisor, team manager and coach, umpire, and concession worker. He was also chairman of the building committee for the baseball/softball fields that are now known as the Renny Malach Complex located on Spurgin Road.

Whatever the need, Renny is always there for the betterment of Missoula's youngsters. In addition to Little League, Renny was active in other programs over the years, participating as an official for football and basketball, as well as an umpire for legion baseball games. As president of the Hawthorne school PTA, he led reconstruction and landscaping work at the school.

Renny has remained a steadfast supporter of Little League for nearly thirty-five years. Currently in his sixth year as the Administrator for District 2 Montana, which covers all of western Montana, which includes 16 Little Leagues, Renny is responsible to assure that the leagues are kept informed of all pertinent information from Little League Baseball, and that each one files the necessary forms during the season.

In 2004, Renny was the chairman for the 2004 Division I conference which was held in Missoula in October. Over 100 league officials and volunteers from 6 states were treated to a weekend of great Montana hospitality while also attending workshops put on by officials from Little League Headquarters in both Williamsport, Pennsylvania and San Bernardino, CA. Because of Renny's leadership, everyone was thoroughly impressed by what western Montana had to offer.

This year, Renny was faced with a major problem. The Western Regional Senior Girls Softball Tournament was scheduled to be held in Great Falls the first week in August. Due to several unforeseen problems, Little League Baseball requested that the tournament be moved elsewhere in Montana. Although this does not seem like a problem, the request was made only 10 days prior to the start of the tournament.

After discussing the problem with several of Missoula's presidents, all of whom offered to help, Renny made the decision to relocate the tournament to our city. During the next 10 days, Renny made the decision to relocate the tournament to our city. During the next 10 days, Renny went to work to remake the baseball fields at the Renny Malach Complex into fields to accommodate softball. The mounds used for the baseball program were removed, the pitching mound reconfigured, and the base-paths all repaired to conduct a tournament of this significance as the winner would advance to the Senior Girls Softball World Series in Delaware. As we were expecting ten teams to come, it was necessary to prepare two fields. When things finally settled, we only had seven teams which made it easier because we only had to use one field.

In addition to doing the fields, Renny had to keep in contact with the incoming team managers to answer questions, completely redo the tournament schedule several times, set up rooms for meetings, as well as making sure other teams from District 2 Montana that were traveling out of state were taken care of, logistically and financially.

Throughout those 10 days, Renny put in 12-14 hour days to assure that the teams went away from Montana with good memories. He would be at the fields by 6 am and wrap up his evening around 8 pm after everything got put away and the field was prepped for the next morning. After getting home, he would be on the phone to other league's presidents or to the Western Region Headquarters in San Bernardino to discuss any problems or to give them updates of scores of the day's games. He also kept in daily contact with Missoula's league presidents to see if they needed help with their part of the tournament.

Renny has provided superior leadership to all of the Presidents of District 2 and has earned our continued admiration and respect.