Evaluations
Once your child reaches the AA division in baseball or 10U division in softball your child must attend evaluations to be considered for a team. Every child must participate. Prior to these divisions (Tee, Coach Pitch, A Ball, 6U/8U Softball) kids can request friends to play with, which is great when considering how much fun it is for kids to play with their friends; but fairness of play is negatively affected when all the best athletes are friends with each other.
Often parents want their kids to play with their friends. But decades of this process have proved out that kids make fast friends and before you know it, the kids love their new team and their new friends.
It's important to keep in mind that the evaluation process should be low stress for the families. Little league is a "rec" league and as such we do not cut kids. We do place them in an appropriate division when needed. For example, if we have 4 teams of 12, we will draft 48 kids in the division. Any kid that does not get drafted will move down to the division below.
Kids in the top age range for the division do not get moved unless special circumstances require it. This only happens with board and sometimes district approval. This means that if your child is player-age 12 and playing 12u Softball or Majors baseball, they will remain in that division, but every 10 and 11 year old trying out for that division might be moved down to 10u or AAA respectively. Similarly, if you are player-age 8 or 9 and trying out for 10u softball or AAA baseball, you might be moved down to 8u or AA respectively.
What to expect
Hitting – Every player will get 5 pitches from the pitching machine at an appropriate speed. They should swing at all 5 pitches, not wait for the perfect pitch. After the 5th pitch, whether they make contact or not, they will run the bases. They will run from home plate, all the way to third base, as fast as they can. Coaches look for speed, but hustle trumps speed.
Ground Balls - After all of the players have hit, each player will take 3 ground balls at the shortstop position and throw every ball they field to a player standing at first base. After they take the three ground balls, they will run over to first base and receive 3 throws from the next player fielding balls at shortstop.
Fly Balls - After all players have taken their ground balls, they will then take 3 fly balls in left field, and after fielding each flyball they will immediately throw the ball to a player at second base. After they have fielded their 3rd flyball they will run to second base to receive 3 throws from the next player fielding flyballs in left field. If your child struggles with safely fielding fly balls, which may reach 50ft into the air, to the outfield, please let us know in advance so we can modify this portion if needed
Pitching - For those players who pitched regularly in the past, or for players who are wanting to pitch this season, they will throw three pitches in the bullpen. These players must warm up prior to coming to the tryouts. We do not want players pitching who did not properly warm up.
Logistics
Arrive 30 minutes prior to your tryout time to allow for your child to properly warm up. To warm up we recommend the following warm up program
1. Warm up the body with a Jog, lunges, sprints.
2. Moving flex T walks, flex T carioca, walking arm circles
3. After the body is warm and the throwing muscles have been worked out, start throwing lightly, then increase distance over time.
Please make sure they have their tryout number printed out as largely as possible on an 8X11 piece of white paper and taped or pinned on the back of their jersey/shirt, so coaches can clearly see their number while they are trying out. We will not be able to provide pens and paper in order to write your try-out number for the back of their jersey. Please do not forget to do this. Your number will be emailed to you prior to the evaluations.
Please make sure they bring their own glove, helmet & bat and also have them in proper baseball/softball attire, including cleats, and a protective cup if applicable.
When you arrive, please immediately head to the Check-in table. After checking in, you will indicate your player's jersey size and preferred number. We will hopefully have samples that you can eyeball for size. The player will then be directed where to go to wait for their try-out.