Whether they’re looking to gain valuable playing experience or just spend one last summer on the diamond before they go off to college, the guys who suit up for Ice League baseball this summer will enjoy themselves.

“Kids at this level enjoy it and have fun,” Lee Ice, Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department youth sports director, said.

Ice League play gets under way tonight and although there are only four teams in the 17-and-under league, its players have a lot to gain.

“If any of these kids are wanting to possibly try out for their high school teams it’s vitally important for them to continue to play in the summertime because that’s when they’ll get better,” Ice said. “It’s pretty important that they continue to play and I think high school coaches would tell them the same thing.”

Each team practices a few times a week and plays a couple of games. Ice said that a summer without baseball can be detrimental to a player. “You’re going to be behind a lot of other people who are getting a lot of repetitions,” he said.

Reasons for playing in the league vary greatly among players. Ice estimated somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of the league’s players have played “C” team high school baseball, and while most players play to improve and develop, he said others are just playing for fun and have no plans to play for their high school teams.

Ice admitted there are more competitive summer baseball leagues out there, most notably American Legion, but he said the Ice League provides a more relaxed alternative to legion ball’s intense schedule. It also allows players to “enjoy the entire summer with baseball being a part of it.”

With a six-week schedule that has each team playing 14 games, players will have plenty of downtime.

“It’s not something that’s going to take over their entire summers,” Ice said. “They’ll play all their games at home, they’re going to be able to be kids in the summertime, possibly get a job.”

For Ice League Royal Spencer Lamborn, 17, this summer might be his last chance to be a kid. He is going to college in the fall and has no intentions of playing organized baseball beyond this summer.

“I’m not looking to play college baseball,” the recent McLouth High graduate said.

Lamborn played all four years at McLouth and said the Ice League gave him an opportunity to play in the summer and enjoy himself.

“If we did have a legion team, I would play for the legion team in McLouth,” Lamborn said. “I was just looking for somewhere to play for fun.”

Outside of having fun, Lamborn said he really doesn’t have much to gain from playing, given his unique situation. But he expected younger players will get a lot out of their Ice League experiences, noting that the playing time they get should make them more confident players.

That is exactly what Lamborn’s Royals teammate Ryan Werner, 15, is looking for.

“I want to get better and I want to get more confident,” Werner said.

Werner, like Lamborn, enters this year’s Ice League in a unique situation. On top of his obligations to the Royals team, Werner, who played for the C team at Free State High, is also playing legion ball with the Renegades. He wanted to be on the field as much as possible this summer.

He played a few games in the league last year and said he thinks it will help his development.

“Ice League is a little more laid back than legion is,” Werner said. “Ice will help me get more confident.”

The fun involved with the league also attracted Werner to it, and he said although every player in the league competes, motives for playing in it vary.

“A lot of people are doing it for fun,” he said. “I think other people are pretty serious about it. If they didn’t make legion ball they just switched over to Ice.”

Werner’s mindset is a mixture of both. He hopes to eventually play college baseball, and he thinks this experience could help him reach his long-term goals.

“I think this will help me because it’ll get me more confident and build my skills up more.”