The Palm Beach Challenge
P.O. Box 3078 Boynton Beach, Fl 33424 Phone: (561) 499-9192 Fax: (561) 244-8595 www.palmbeachchallenge.com

Contact: Michael Zeff, Executive Director
For Immediate Release: February 21, 2008

Boston College, Ohio State, Notre Dame highlight 2008 Palm Beach Challenge

The Palm Beach Challenge College Baseball event will include 55 teams from 16 states and Canada playing nearly 150 games at the Santaluces Sports Complex. The event begins Tuesday February 26th as St. Bonaventure (NY) vs. Mt. St. Mary (MD) in a NCAA Division I game at 6 pm.  Ticket prices are $5 for adults, and $3 for kids 12 under. All Youth Baseball players in uniform will be admitted free. Admission is good for the entire day (there are up to 12 games in one day).
 
The 2008 teams feature the most talented field yet as teams from the ACC( Boston College), the Big 10 ( Ohio St.,Penn St.) and the Big East ( Notre Dame, Pittsburgh, Uconn) will compete with traditional eastern powers Maine, Northeast Conference Champion Monmouth,  St. Bonanvenute as well as Penn and Cornell form the Ivy League.  This years Challenge will also have their first Division I entrant from Florida as MEAC conference Champion Bethune Cookman will participate in 2 games. Mt. St. Mary, Lehigh, Long Island, Air Force, and NJ Tech round out the NCAA Divison I teams.

Also playing will be NCAA Division II teams, Junior Colleges highlighted by number one ranked Miami Dade who is currently 12-0, and club teams from Canada and the University of Florida.

The teams travel south for the same reason the Big league clubs come to Florida, the Weather. But there is one big difference between these games and the Big league games; all these games count towards the season record. Each NCAA Division I team is allowed 56 regular season games, and typically use the Challenge for 6-8 games.

The Challenge began in 1997 in Miami Dade County as the Homestead Challenge, in 2004 the Junior College portion of the event moved to Palm Beach County. With the Homestead facility unable to host the event, the teams have migrated to Palm Beach. The Challenge will also attract the attention of Major league scouts as between 40-50 players in this years event are expected to be drafted. Thirty-Two Challenge Alumni have already made it to the Major leagues.

For more information on the Palm Beach Challenge call Michael Zeff at 561-499-9192 or email mzeff@palmbeachchallenge.com.

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