Kevin and Heidi Bybee, of Rapid City, are the owners of the Spearfish team.

“It was a great opportunity for us when Steve (Wagner) presented it to us. Spearfish is an awesome community, she we really wanted to be involved in the community. We love baseball, we love sports we are going to cater to all ages and have fun with it.” Bybee said.

The expedition league is a wood bat collegiant level league.

Kory Menken, of Spearfish Economic Development, talked about what the is league means to the city of Spearfish.

“What an exciting opportunity this is for our community,” said Menken. “We are really excited about this project not only in the quality of life aspects it will bring to our community, but also the economic impact it will have. We are estimating that it could be easy to create a $3 million to 3.5 million economic impact annually for the community.”

Menken said those figures were arrived at taking in the operating cost of the team, As well as the indirect and induced benefits like sales tax, people coming to the community, people and teams staying in our hotels and earring at our restaurants

Wagner, president of the Expedition League talked about how the league came to fruition.

“We really had this idea about three years. At that point we recognized there were a lot of communities throughout the Dakotas and into Nebraska, and Eastern Wyoming that didn’t have summer collegiate baseball, but had beautiful ballparks like the one we have here in Spearfish, and great size communities, good demo graphics and really good business climates,” Wagner said.

The team will play at Black Hills Energy Stadium.

Wagner said seeing the league come to fruition has been a great journey.

“It’s been a lot of windshield time from city to city and working with great folks like I have here in Spearfish to help us to identify the potential opportunity with and what we could do to bring this brand of baseball to a community like Spearfish,” he said.

He said that what makes this league different than other summer leagues is it has high tier collegiate baseball talents.

“They are looking to make it to the major leagues and obviously start through the minor league system process,” said Wagner. “What I love about our brand of baseball is these kids are on their way up and not on their way down. They are hoping to impress scouts and get drafted and ultimately play professional baseball.”

The Expedition Baseball League will have two divisions, Lewis and Clark, and the first half winner of each division and the second half winner of each division will have a playoff, ant the two division champions will meet in the best out of three games for the championship, at a site to be determined.

Wagner said there will be an allstar game midway through the season, and this year the game will be played in Hastings, Neb.

Wagner said he can’t wait until the season starts in May 2018.

“What you’ll see we is a really great product on the field, but a blast for the fans. A lot of between inning activities, a lot of things where we will get people out on the field between innings for a great experience, a great mascot, a kids zone area, and some other areas where we will have party decking with high top tables.

Wagner said host families for the Spearfish players are needed.

“Host families are vitally important to the Expedition League. We will have interns here as well as players, and I think families with younger kids who interested in baseball are a perfect situation for host families,” Wagner said.

Heidi Bybee said they are excited or the families to get to know the players.

“They’ll have a closer connection to the team, so go tell your friends. Just want to make sure that those families reaching out to those players they feel even more a part of the team,” Heidi said. I know there have been connections that we’ve heard about host families and players that their relationship has gone on and on, and into the majors. It’s been a really neat things for those families and the players,”

Spearfish’s first game is eight months away, but hey hope to have a coach in place soon.

“There are a lot of coaches out there looking towards next summer, and we are looking probably within the next month to name a coach,” said Bybee.

There will also be a contest to name the team and Bybee said they want the community involved and they will be announcing details on the naming of the team contest soon.

To read all of today's stories, Click here or call 642-2761 to subscribe to our e-edition or home delivery.