Alton River Dragons

Lore & Background

The Alton River Dragons were granted a franchise by the Prospect League on January 29, 2020, with Steve Marso announced as owner. The team name was chosen through a public vote and revealed on August 14, 2020. Dallas Martz was hired as General Manager. Initially, Brock Moss was hired to manage the first team, but he accepted a position at Texas A&M International University, making him unavailable. On November 12, 2020, Darrell Handelsman was hired as manager for the 2021 season.

In their second season (2022), the River Dragons set a Prospect League record with 210 stolen bases. That same year, Eddie King Jr. from the University of Illinois was named the Mike Schmidt Prospect League Player of the Year, leading the league with 15 home runs and stealing 31 bases. Blake Burris set a new league record with 47 stolen bases and won the batting title with a .361 average.

Handelsman stepped down as head coach on September 21, 2022, and Richard "Scotty" Scott was hired on October 5, 2022. After a 15–29 start in 2023, Scott was replaced by General Manager Dallas Martz, who finished the season 5–7. Steve Maddock was named head coach for 2024 but stepped down on December 13, 2023.

Reader's Guide

The Alton River Dragons represent a modern addition to the Prospect League, a collegiate summer baseball circuit that provides development opportunities for college players. Their significance lies in their rapid establishment and early on-field achievements, particularly their record-setting 210 stolen bases in 2022, which highlighted an aggressive, speed-oriented style of play. The team also produced individual standouts like Eddie King Jr., who earned league MVP honors, and Blake Burris, who set a stolen base record and won the batting title. The franchise's history includes multiple coaching changes in its first few years, reflecting the transient nature of summer collegiate baseball management. The team plays at Lloyd Hopkins Field, a venue with prior baseball history, and continues to serve as a community sports attraction in Alton, Illinois. Their legacy is still developing, but their early records and player accolades have already placed them in the Prospect League's record books.

Did You Know?

• The River Dragons set a Prospect League record with 210 stolen bases in 2022.
• Blake Burris set a new Prospect League record with 47 stolen bases in 2022.
• Eddie King Jr. was named the Mike Schmidt Prospect League Player of the Year in 2022.
• The team's name was chosen through a public vote and announced on August 14, 2020.

Founding & Early Identity

The Alton River Dragons trace their origins to a January 29, 2020 announcement from the Prospect League, which granted a new collegiate summer baseball franchise to the small Illinois community. The team would not take the field until the 2021 season, giving the organization a full year to build its identity. Steve Marso, an experienced owner in summer collegiate baseball, was tapped to lead the venture, while Dallas Martz was brought in as General Manager. The team's name itself became a community event: on August 14, 2020, the "River Dragons" moniker was officially unveiled after a public vote decided the franchise's identity. Alton's connection to baseball stretches back much further than 2020—the town hosted the 1917 Alton Blues, a member of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League, giving the new franchise a thread of local sporting heritage to build upon. The River Dragons joined the Prospect League's Western Conference, South Division, sharing that slate with the Cape Catfish, Jackson Rockabillys, O'Fallon Hoots, and Thrillville Thrillbillies.

2022 Breakout Season

The 2022 campaign stands as the River Dragons' most statistically remarkable run. The team shattered a Prospect League record by amassing 210 stolen bases across the season, a pace of baserunning that set a new standard in the circuit. Individual brilliance powered that collective speed: Blake Burris posted a league-record 47 stolen bases while also claiming the batting title with a .361 average, a dual achievement that underscored his all-around dominance at the plate and on the bases. Meanwhile, Eddie King Jr., a University of Louisville standout, captured the Mike Schmidt Prospect League Player of the Year award after leading the league with 15 home runs and adding 31 more stolen bases. Those two players alone accounted for a significant chunk of the team's record-setting base-stealing total. The season's on-field success, however, did not extend to the dugout in the long run—just weeks after the campaign ended, head coach Darrell Handelsman announced his departure on September 21, 2022, setting in motion a coaching transition that would define the franchise's next stretch.

Coaching Turmoil & the Search for Stability

No aspect of the River Dragons' early history has been more turbulent than the search for a stable leader in the dugout. The franchise's first managerial hire, Brock Moss, never actually got the chance to coach Alton; he accepted a position at Texas A&M International University before the 2021 season began. Darrell Handelsman was then named on November 12, 2020, to guide the inaugural team, and he stayed through the record-setting 2022 season before stepping down in September of that year. Richard "Scotty" Scott was hired on October 5, 2022, to succeed Handelsman, but after a 15-29 record in 2023, General Manager Dallas Martz took over the bench himself to close out that season, guiding the team to a 5-7 mark in his stretch. Looking ahead to 2024, Steve Maddock of Frisco, Texas, was named head coach, yet by December 13, 2023, Maddock had already stepped down from the role. In just a few short years, the River Dragons cycled through five different managerial figures before ever establishing a lasting presence in the dugout.

Home Ground & League Context

The River Dragons call Lloyd Hopkins Field, nestled within Gordon Moore Park, their home ballpark. The venue sits at 98 Arnold Palmer Road in Cottage Hills, Illinois, 62018, a community just outside Alton proper. Before hosting the River Dragons, the field had been the home of the Bluff City Bombers, a team in the Central Illinois Collegiate League, so the ballpark carried its own small-ball history. Renovations to the site were discussed in anticipation of the 2021 season, the franchise's first on the field. In the broader Prospect League structure, Alton competes in the Western Conference's South Division alongside four rivals: the Cape Catfish, the Jackson Rockabillys, the O'Fallon Hoots, and the Thrillville Thrillbillies. This divisional grouping places the River Dragons in a tight-knit cluster of collegiate summer teams, each vying for standing within a league that serves as a developmental proving ground for college players. The franchise's official presence is maintained through both the Alton River Dragons website and the Prospect League's central site.