Wilsonville Baseball Families,
WLL is back this spring. Your baseball board has worked quickly the last few weeks to finalize details and prepare for a great season for your kids. We know you have lots of questions and we hope to answer the majority of them in this informative email.
REGISTRATION OPENS TODAY!
If your player plans to play this season, please register him/her early. We are still determining how many fields we will need and which ones will be available to us. In order to ensure we can secure enough fields for our kids, we need an early and accurate accounting of how many participants we will have. Register here:
Registration will close Friday, March 5th.
Please go to our website for more information www.wilsonvillelittleleague.org
You will find descriptions of divisions, cost, safety protocols and more.
GET READY FOR THE SEASON WITH OUR FIVE SATURDAY CLINICS.
See the link to the Sign Up Genius to sign your player up. We will conduct these clinics for five Saturdays in a row at Horizon Christian HS beginning Saturday, February 6th. Cost is $20 per session or $95 if you sign up for all five. All proceeds will go to completing the purchase of the field turf. February Clinics
FORMAT OF THE SEASON
We will get in approximately the same amount of baseball as past years. Here is how it stands now:
Minors, Majors and Intermediate players (DOB 9/1/2007-8/31/2012) will begin spring training 3/9/21. We will have two weeks of spring training which will look similar to the one week of spring training we had last season. (The week of the shutdown.) This will also serve as our tryout this season. Of course, more specific details will come once we near the beginning of the season.
Tball, Coast and Farm (DOB 9/1/2012-8/31/2016) will have a one day “Spring Training’ on Saturday, April 3rd. We will divide groups by division and make small cohorts within those divisions. This is an opportunity for more experienced coaches to help younger coaches and get our youngest players out together on the field. This will be a clinic type format. It follows our recent tradition of opening the season for our youngest players after spring break and when the weather begins to improve a little.
Regular team practices for all levels will begin the week of April 5th.
Games will begin the week of April 19th.
Tball, Coast and Farm will play thru Saturday, June 12th. Depending on division we will have 8-14 games.
Minors, Majors and Intermediates will play thru Sunday, June 6th. The weekend of June 5th and 6th will be the “town tourney” weekend. Kids at these divisions can expect 10-12 games (Intermediate) to 16-20 for the Majors and Minors. Those choosing and selected to post season All-Star and Honors teams will begin practice June 7th.
We hope the environment regarding a reduction in Covid transmission will allow a safe environment for us to play other District 4 leagues at the Major and Intermediate level.
Number of practices for each team is dependent on how many fields our league has access to and how many players/teams we need to accommodate. We aim for 1-2/week for our youngest players and up to 3-4week for our oldest kids.
At this time, we have access to fields at both Horizon and Memorial Park. The number and time slots of fields at MP is still to be determined.
REFUNDS
We will offer a full refund if the season is cancelled before our first games.
After our first games have been played, we will be unable to issue refunds as many fixed costs including uniforms, some rental fees, insurance, equipment and field maintenance will already be incurred.
SAFETY PROTOCOLS
Please see this link for our WLL Covid Safety Plan. We will ask everyone to help provide an environment of mutual respect. We understand that people have a very wide variety of expectations and opinions with regard to COVID-19 guidelines. We further understand that it is impossible to create a set of guidelines that lines up perfectly with the belief systems of all players, coaches, and families. We are committed to keeping our kids, coaches and parents healthy and meeting the requirements of local governments and guidelines so we can continue to use the facilities and provide baseball for our kids.
PLAYERS AND COACHES: Wear masks in the dugout and on the playing field.
EVERYONE: Wear masks at spectator checkpoints, check-in, restrooms, concession stands, and sidelines.
For the benefit of all involved, we would like our coaches, team parents and board members focused on player instruction and promoting fun and skills and we’d prefer not to be the “mask police” for obvious reasons. Your assistance with all of the above will make everything run much more smoothly, and we thank you in advance for your cooperation.
WHAT IS GOING TO LOOK REALLY DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS SEASONS OTHER THAN THE OBVIOUS SAFETY PROTOCOLS:
There will not be an Opening Day ceremony
Alpenrose is no longer available to District 4 for baseball or softball. The new owners of the dairy have closed all the fields during the pandemic and will not reopen them.
We will use Horizon Christian High School baseball field A LOT! If you have not been over to see the turf field, go by and take a look. We do not pay field rental fees at Horizon due to our partnership, one of many reasons we will use this field as much as we can.
The amount of patience we need to have with our ball players. Hopefully this doesn’t look different, and yet, please remember we have kids that have not played baseball in two years. Kids that will be learning to pitch without the benefit of a Farm season where we get to introduce pitching. Tball players that missed their season and go to coach pitch and Coast kids going right to the pitching machine. We will need to celebrate small baseball successes and be grateful we have our kids out playing baseball.
WHAT IS GOING TO LOOK DIFFERENT FROM LAST SEASON
Kids playing baseball in Wilsonville! Hurray!
TWO REQUESTS:
There are likely a lot of new families in Wilsonville that have not played with us before and therefore not on our email list. Please forward this email to anyone that has a potential player. Similarly, it will be more difficult to reach the tball families without the word of mouth that travels thru the schools naturally. Help our youngest families by sharing this information.
Please, please, please sign up early. It is critical I have an idea of how many kids will be participating when I attend field planning meetings the first week of February. I need your help to ensure our league has access to enough fields.
Please go to our website for more information on cost, which league to sign your player up for, signing up to volunteer and completing your background check. Below you will find additional details for those looking for waivers, scholarship and criteria for the Intermediate division.
Intermediate Division: 11 year olds are eligible to play at the Intermediate level. This is a larger baseball diamond (pitching distance is 50 feet and base paths are 70 feet). Games are doubleheaders and played on Sundays. Eleven and twelve year olds need to play Majors to be eligible to play at the Intermediate level. Please be aware that this adds a significant amount of baseball for 11-12 year olds.
Thirteen year olds that are not enrolled in another baseball program or playing on another team are welcome to play the Intermediate level. KIDS PLAYING IN TWO DIVISIONS NEED TO EXPECT FIVE DAYS OF BASEBALL/WEEK! THIS IS NOT FOR THE CASUAL BASEBALL PLAYER/FAMILY.
Waiver Information: Players that wish to play at an age level either above or below their Little League age, MUST fill out a waiver to declare this intention by the end of the registration period, March 5th. You will only be able to sign them up for their LL age division! Once we have this information, players attempting to play above their age division will be directed on when to attend spring training for their tryout. It is possible that players attempting to play at a higher age division will not be drafted onto a team and will play at their Little League age division. Please contact Jennifer Epping to request a waiver form.
Scholarship information: To sign up and request a scholarship, please fill out the entire registration form and check the box to pay by check. This will allow you to register your player. Please send your reduced or free lunch approval from the school district to Jennifer Epping so your account can be credited. In addition to providing this information for scholarship, parents will be required to fulfill 12 hours of service to WLL to complete their obligation. Failure to do so results in the loss of a scholarship opportunity the following season.
If you have any questions or concerns, or I have missed an important detail, please email me so we can get everyone the necessary info.
Looking forward to seeing you all out on a baseball field soon.
Michele Seal
WLL President
[email protected]