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Lenape Valley Youth Baseball and Softball

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22

May, 2023

2023 Lenape Valley All-Stars

This year's All-Star selection process was cultivated to allow for all players to have the opportunity to engage and take part in a live try-out / evaluation scenario. It allows the players to experience a taste of competitive-style approaches to baseball opposed to the philosophy of Little League's regular season, which is purely recreational (a learning environment for all players regardless of caliber and skillset). Players were provided an opportunity to not only dig deep within themselves, but were able to see some of the competition to their left and right, which is an important aspect of self-awareness, providing perspectives on how they might feel about their skill level based upon the other candidates in the areas of base-running, fielding, hitting, throwing, pitching, and catching. In addition, and in order to provide more opportunity to field full rosters and multiple age-level teams, both Byram and Lakeland took a joint approach. This allowed us the opportunity to try and field an All-Star team at every age level (14U, 13U, 12U, 11U, 10U, and 9U) by combining the talent-pool between both Chartered Little Leagues (Byram "HE" Little League and Lakeland Little League). The bracketing is slightly different than regular season in that All-Star teams are not configured by what level (Minors, Majors, etc) the player was registered for in the regular season, but by age (to make it more confusing, Little League uses 8/31 as the cut-off). The try-outs took place on three dates with approximately 80 players taking part.

First and foremost, on behalf of both leagues, boards, representatives, and coaches we commend and are proud of every single player that took part. It takes courage to engage in a selection process in that a player walks in fully knowing there's a chance they might not make the team. Every single player should be proud of themselves, and one another, for taking that step. Based upon the evaluations, which were conducted to the utmost fair and impartial way possible, enlisting the support of external baseball entities to help ensure the process was fair, we were able to field full rosters of All-Stars for 5 out of the 6 levels. As a note, for the past several years, there's been only 1-3 All-Star teams fielded (last year 12U and 14U).

Again, unfortunately this aspect of the program is not focused upon giving everyone fair play time, or guaranteed placement on an All-Star team, such as regular season intent (which is to create balanced teams on each level), and the objective was to field as many team opportunities as possible, but at the same time fielding a team that would not be solely just to fill slots, but to field rosters of players who exhibited a higher degree of skill among their peers and the talent-pool available, which was extended to everyone to take part in via evaluations/ try-outs.

The coaching staff for All-Stars is a well-balanced mix of great coaches from both Byram and Lakeland and were provided the eligibility rosters of highest-ranking and selected candidates. Head Coaches are in the process of final review of their rosters with their Assistant Coaches, developing strategy, discussing/ establishing their own expectations and method of operation for the team, conferring upon practice dates/time/locations with one another, confirming commitment from players on attendance, and working through communications; so, please be patient as there's always a lot going on behind the scenes, while everyone still maintains their work and familial obligations.

By Friday, 5/26, the intent is that every selected player should have received some type of communication from their All-Star coach. Again, we thank and commend every player for giving it their best, which is paramount and indicative of their character and strength. All coaches and league representatives should be echoing the same sentiment to their players.

We are excited for all of the teams and coaches; and rooting for all of you.

Contact

Lenape Valley Youth Baseball and Softball League

Byram Township, New Jersey

Email: [email protected]

Website Manager

Lenape Valley Youth Baseball and Softball

Lenape Valley Youth Baseball and Softball

News Detail

22

May, 2023

2023 Lenape Valley All-Stars

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