Telegraph file photo by TOM KING Tim Lunn was celebrating a state Senior American Legion title last summer with Nashua outfielder Noah Therrien, but with the national Legion season cancelled this year he's looking to still hold a season with members from the Coffey Post team.

NASHUA – Where there’s a will, Nashua Coffey Post 3 American Legion manager Tim Lunn says, he feels there’s a way.

They may not be able to call themselves “Legion” but Lunn says that after the national American Legion officials cancelled the entire baseball program nationwide, there are still teams from in New Hampshire that want to play this summer.

Including Nashua.

“One hundred percent,” Lunn said, adding the team usually sponsored by Merrimack Post 98 is also interested. “We’re looking into what teams and how many teams are looking to play. It’s sort of our option from there. From our inquiries so far it seems there’s still quite a bit of interest from around the state.”

Lunn says the interest is on both Legion levels – those teams with players on Senior Legion and Junior levels. They just wouldn’t be affiliated this summer with Legion baseball in any way.

“We’ve reached out to other former Legion teams now and AAU teams, and we’re going to try to put together some sort of schedule,” Lunn said, adding ther e may be as many as 10-12 teams from around the state interested in still playing.

“And that number could increase as we hear back from other people,” he said.

Lunn has contacted state officials to say that the safety plan that Legion state chairman Rick Harvey of Hudson had submitted would still be used if it can get approval.

“We’re hoping to hear from the Governor’s task force in the coming days,” Lunn said. “Hopefully we can get something rolling. We have something in the works but we’ll have to wait and see based on what the Governor (Chris Sununu) says. … We’ll do whatever the state asks us to do in terms of safety measures and precautions.

“Ultimately whatever they ask us to do is small potatoes in terms of keeping people safe and keeping the kids safe as well as trying to let these kids do what they like to keep some sense of normalcy for the summer.”

Lunn said he sent an email out Monday to Harvey’s contacts in the Governor’s office indicating there were still teams within the Legion program interested in playing this summer as independent teams.

At issue may be liability. Lunn said he’s planning on possibly constructing “some sort of waiver” for players to sign “that they understand the risk that they are going to go into playing.” Lunn said it won’t protect teams 100 percent but will bring some type of awareness protection.

Also, he’s looking into insurance coverage. Harvey in a memo to teams Sunday night said that the insurance company used for the state Legion program would be open to providing coverage for teams that still wanted to play. Lunn said it would be up to individual teams to get their own coverage.

Of course, a lot of that requires funds. But Lunn’s Legion team was only going to be Coffey sponsorship in name only; money for the team for expenses was coming from fundraising.

“The last few years we’ve done fundraising and we’ve tried to increase our fundraising this year,” Lunn said, adding that a player fee has also been instituted that is less than what AAU teams charge.

The other part of the issue is a playing field or fields. Lunn’s Legion teams in the past have used Bishop Guertin, and the general feeling has been no city fields/facilities would be available at least until July 1.

“It all depends on how things progress over the next three or four weeks,” Lunn said, adding he’s had some discussions on a place to play that he’ll keep private for now. “We’ll see what happens.”

Lunn says he has full rosters for both Senior and Junior teams. Last Friday afternoon, before the Legion cancellation had been announced, he had 20 players on a Zoom meeting, which shows him there’s plenty of interest.

“I haven’t gone a summer without baseball since I was 8 years old,” Lunn said. “For me and a lot of other people it would be a shock if it were to happen.”