The Glens Falls Golden Eagles were recently sold to a local man who plans to keep the New York Collegiate Baseball League team at East Field.

Darin Williams of Glens Falls purchased the team from Charles Adams, who had sold the team a year ago to Roger Ames. Williams made the final two payments to Adams to finalize the deal last month.

"Roger had made partial payment for the team, I made the final two payments to Charles, and Roger signed off on the team," Williams said. "Roger was looking for someone local to take over the team. Both guys wanted to see baseball stay around here, and they made their best effort to help me buy the team."

"It's been a very friendly situation that everybody was happy with," Ames said.

Williams, a 41-year-old corrections sergeant at Great Meadow Correctional Facility, has been involved with the Golden Eagles since their inception in 2004.

The NYCBL is a summertime wooden-bat baseball league comprised of college players from across the country.

"Back when Charles owned the team, we used to talk about taking over the team in order to keep it in the community," said Williams, who is now the president and general manager of the ballclub. "Not a lot of things are going to change with the personnel running the team."

Williams said manager John Mayotte and assistant coach Bob Bogdan will return for the 2007 season. Ames' son Chris, who was the team's general manager last year, returned to Florida to be with his family.

Roger Ames, a Cambridge native, will continue to own the Greenjackets semipro football team and the Little Falls Diamond Miners, another member of the NYCBL.

Ames said he chose to shed the Golden Eagles because of a shifting of priorities.

"We're trying to run a real estate business and a restaurant, and we still have the Little Falls team and the Greenjackets -- we've got a full plate," Ames said.

Ames said the cost of running the Golden Eagles and the rent at East Field was a consideration.

"We didn't make money on the Eagles, but it's not for profit anyway," Ames said. "We went down the list and felt the Eagles were expendable in terms of what we wanted to do.

"Little Falls is doing better financially -- not that the attendance was any better, but out costs were lower and it's a better situation for us," Ames added.

Williams is hoping to make baseball more of a priority in the community, like it was when he first came to the area as a young man from Elizabethtown working summer jobs and watching Glens Falls White Sox and Tigers games in the 1980s.

Williams and his family have worked with the Golden Eagles for the last three years. Williams -- who described himself as a baseball fan -- has run the scoreboard and done team statistics, his son Zachary has been a batboy and his family has hosted several players.

"I like to see families come out to the games, I like to see the kids running around -- I want it to be a community team," Williams said. "We're starting to get some more local people involved, like Dan Kelly, our volunteer bench coach, who's from Lake Luzerne, and Dan Bennett, our trainer. And we're a not-for-profit organization, so we're seeking sponors for this season."

The Golden Eagles are also putting together their roster for the 2007 season.

"We already have most of the team set," Williams said. "We have 24 players who have signed contracts and sent them back to us. We'll have a 44-game season that starts June 1 and runs through the first week of August."