STMA Baseball News. Board Update by Scott Morris. President. Vice-President / Travel Baseball. On-Line. Registration

Transcription

1 STMA Baseball News V O L U M E 1 6, I S S U E I J A N U A R Y BOARD MEMBERS President Scott Morris Ext. 10 Vice-President / Travel Baseball John Kelly Ext. 13 Vice-President / In-House Baseball Joe Bennett Ext. 15 Treasurer Larry Brown Ext. 12 Secretary Kevin Youngberg Ext. 17 Registration Steve Rice Ext. 11 Tournaments Harry Hoselton Ext. 16 Equipment John Hayden Ext. 14 Sponsorship John Olson Ext. 18 (763) Board Update by Scott Morris Coldest time of the year must be time to register for baseball! It is tough for some to get into the annual baseball spirit so early in the year as we begin organizing for the upcoming season. In my humble opinion, it is a perfect time to dust of the gloves and start looking for those baseball preseason warm-up activities. I would like to start by reviewing some the changes coming up for the 2013 season: 1. New Board Members: I am excited to welcome 3 new Board members and 3 new Coordinators for the 2013 season. Joe Bennett, Larry Brown, and Kevin Youngberg were elected by our members last September, and we have 3 new volunteers who will help us with our open Coordinator positions. Welcome Laurie Kelly (Minors), Kristen Huber (Majors), and Natalie Verness (Willie Mays). 2. Registration: With the success of our on-line registration process, we are moving to 100% online registration. We are also increasing fees $10 per player this year to cover increased cost over the last couple of seasons. More registration details can be found inside the newsletter. 3. Scheduling: It is always a challenge to try to schedule activities and get adequate space for all of our players and the activities we provide. Especially with Spring Break coming at such an important time in our process and all of the other sports activities that are competing for the same space. A complete schedule of available clinics, open gyms, and evaluation dates is provided inside. Pay extra attention to the dates and times. 4. VFW Baseball: We have been searching for a more competitive league for our 16 year old travel team. We discovered our local St. Michael VFW a few months back and have begun the process of registering our first team in the VFW program. The most competitive teams in Minnesota participate in VFW and we are ready to start a great tradition with our local athletes at this age level. Players will sign up as they normally do and the team selection process will remain the same. 5. PeeWee Reese changes: (10 and 11 year olds) After reviewing our PWR in-house program, we have decided to make dramatic changes to the program to make it more competitive. We are looking at putting in a format that adds more restrictions around base running and player advancement, with a stronger emphasis on pitching and hitting. We feel the changes will make it a much stronger baseball experience for both the coaches and players, which should translate to a much better experience for the parents as well. 6. Travel uniform upgrade: We On-Line Registration Opens January 21 have received feedback from parents that they would be willing to pay more if they could have a higher quality uniform. Keeping cost down is a priority for the Association, but parents are already buying additional pairs of pants or being extra creative with the sewing machines at home. We are reviewing options with suppliers and hope to have a final decision shortly. The increase in cost may require a uniform charge for the travel players, but our Equipment Director is working hard with vendors to keep this cost to a minimum. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns going into the 2013 season and we ll see you at the fields!! INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Board Update 1 Player Registration 2 On-Line Registration 2 Dates to Remember 3 Player Evaluations 4 Travel Commitment 4 Coaches Corner 5 Sponsorship 5 Umpire Sign Up 5 Buzz Clinic Registration 6

2 Player Registration Registration time is here: January 21st is the official opening for on-line registration for youth baseball for the upcoming season. All registration will be on-line through our website at under the Registration tab. If you registered on-line last year, your login ID and password will speed up the process a great deal. New registrants will have to set up a family user ID (more details regarding On-line Registration below). Each player receives a game jersey and a STMA youth baseball hat. Players 9 years and older also receive a pair of baseball pants to go with their uniform. Each team is also provided with an equipment bag and other necessities for the season including baseballs, bats, helmets, in-house playoffs, traveling league fees, and umpire fees for relevant ages. It does NOT cover the cost for weekend tournaments that the teams may participate in. Tournament costs are collected during the season from the parents by the coaches of the teams that participate. Information regarding the different programs for each age group can also be found on the Registration tab on our website. Early registration allows us to properly prepare for the season. We need to prepare for evaluations, order uniforms and equipment, determine number of teams and begin scheduling for the season. Because of the complexity of planning for the season, we encourage everyone to register during the scheduled registration dates. Additional NOTES: Baseball AGES determined by players age on May 1st of the year. Multiple player discounts provided (3rd player half price - 4th player free). Non-refundable Traveling Tryout Fee of $20 for players trying out for a traveling team. Late fees of $25 will be assessed beginning March 1st. Players are allowed to Play Up one age level but must score in the top 50% of the players during the evaluations. (usually an option used when younger students want to play with their classmates - but they must stay at that level for future seasons as well - allowed once player turns 10 years of age). Evaluations are required for ALL play- On-Line Registration Process PAGE Player Fees: Level of Play Ages Fee Minors 5 & 6 $ 85 Majors 7 & 8 $ 85 Willie Mays 9 & 10 $ 110 PeeWee Reese 11 & 12 $ 125 Sandy Koufax 13 & 14 $ 135 Mickey Mantle 15 & 16 $ 145 Connie Mack $ 155 Traveling Tryout Fee: $ 20 ers 9 thru 16 years old. Evaluation dates can be found on page 3 (Dates to Remember) and evaluation times will be posted on our website by age and last name. Evaluations are used for two purposes: 1.) To help the Board select which players will participate in our travel program and 2.) To balance out the teams in our inhouse / recreational programs for a better player experience. Welcome to the 2013 Baseball Season!! Registering on-line becomes much easier the second time through the process as your account information is maintained from the previous season.. Login to your account on our website at, go to the registration tab, and follow the on-line instructions. Finalize the process by making payment and you ll be ready for the season. This year we are also providing multiple payment options. Don t forget to also register for our Annual Buzz Clinic as well as the Winter Clinic while on-line. If you do not remember your account information, there is on-line assistance to walk you through it as well. For new members, you are required to set up a new account. Just select Create an Account at the top of the home page and follow the on-line instructions. If you have questions, please contact our Registration Director, Steve Rice, at (763) ext. 11.

3 PAGE Dates to Remember On-Line Registration Opens JANUARY 21st See Page 2 for Details ** (Late Fees applied beginning March 1st) ** Buzz Hannahan: Baseball Camp February Registration Info on page 6 Middle School EAST Gyms $10 Winter Camp: 8 thru 9 Year Old Camp March 9 9:30 am - 12:00 noon Middle School WEST Gyms Pitching Camp - All Ages March 9 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm Middle School WEST Gyms 10 thru 12 Year Old Camp March 9 1:30 pm - 4:00 pm Middle School WEST Gyms Open Gym Travel: 11 & 12 years old March 5, 7, 12, 14 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm Middle School WEST Gyms 13 & 14 years old March 5, 7, 12, 14 7:45 pm - 9:00 pm Middle School WEST Gyms 15 & 16 years old April 23, 25 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Rec Center Batting Cages Open Gym In-house: 9 & 10 years old March 19, 21, April 4 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm Middle School WEST Gyms 11 & 12 years old April 2 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm Middle School WEST Gyms 11 & 12 years old March 19, April 4 7:45 pm - 9:00 pm Middle School WEST Gyms 13 & 14 years old March 21, April 2 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm Middle School WEST Gyms 15 & 16 years old April 23, 25 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm Rec Center Batting Cages Player Evaluations: 9 and 10 All Players Saturday, April 6 Middle School WEST Gyms 11 In-house Saturday, April 6 Middle School WEST Gyms 11 thru 12 Traveling Sunday, March 17 Middle School WEST Gyms 12 thru 14 In-house Sunday, April 7 (DATE CHANGE) Middle School WEST Gyms 13 thru 14 Traveling Saturday, March 16 High School Activity Center 15 thru 16 In-house Saturday, April 27 (Weather backup April 28) Recreation Center (outside) 15 thru 16 Traveling Saturday, April 27 (Weather backup April 28) Recreation Center (outside) Picture Day: Saturday, May 18 Picture times communicated by coaches Mid. Sch. West (Fields 1 & 2) Specific Evaluation times to be posted on our Home Page at In February as well as in the February Newsletter For a complete Youth Baseball Calendar, visit our website at

4 2013 Player Evaluations The most difficult thing we do as an organization is to develop a method of evaluating our players that is fair, accurate and credible. We have done a great deal of research and had discussions with people who study the sport to get ideas on how we can improve our process. People from other organizations, from other sports, and even from baseball professionals who spend their time training ball players today. One thing that is consistent between anyone who has spent time on this issue is it s not easy and will never be a perfect process. This year we have our usual evaluators coming back for our in-house evaluations, but we are eliminating the callback process and extending the one day evaluations for our travel teams. This allows us to reduce the amount of time needed by the players (one day event) while upgrading the evaluators to the more professional group we have been utilizing for our callback process over the last two seasons. It will increase our evaluation cost, but we feel strongly that the results and feedback this group provides is worth the additional cost. Recreational / In-house: We will continue to provide all players with an independent evaluation process but will keep the recreational evaluations the same as we have done in the past. Some people are surprised by the level of commitment required when they first get involved with a traveling sports team. Our recreational teams may only have 2 scheduled events per week while our traveling teams can average 3 to 5 days a week. A list of what you can expect would include: Split between traveling team tryouts and in -house players The reason we continue to evaluate the in-house players is to ensure that we have balance in our teams which provides all players with a better overall experience. The evaluation will give each player 5 ground balls, 5 fly balls, and 5 swings off of the pitching machine. Using our standard evaluation sheets (example to the right) we will accumulate the scores and use them to divide the teams evenly. Traveling Tryouts: We are charging an additional non-refundable fee of $20 to support the incremental costs associated with our more in-depth traveling evaluations. We will give the traveling players additional swings and grounders and will run additional drills so each player will have a much more extensive review by the evaluation group before finalizing the teams. Players not making the traveling teams will be added to the rosters for our inhouse program. We will use their standard scores from the evaluation sheets to help determine where they will slot on one of our in-house teams. You do not have to try out a second time if you do not make a traveling team. We do understand that an evaluation process can be stressful on the players. Although we expect the players to Traveling Team Commitment 16 league games 3 to 4 weekend tournaments League playoffs and a year-end tournament Additional practices Additional expenses (players are responsible for tournament fees) PAGE 4 demonstrate their skills and abilities in front of strangers, we will continue to do our best to provide a proper atmosphere for the evaluation. We also continue to expand our traveling program as we have added additional traveling teams over the last few years to give more opportunities to the ball players interested in raising their game to the next level. If you have any additional questions regarding the evaluation process you can contact the Vice-President Travel Director, John Kelly at (763) ext. 13 or Scott Morris at (763) ext. 10. There is a much larger commitment for the traveling players and their parents and we expect them to treat baseball as their top priority over other sporting activities. We hope it provides your child with an exciting and active summer activity. - GO KNIGHTS!!

5 PAGE 5 Coaches Corner In an environment where there is frequent pressure to have kids specialize in a single sport, I need to confess that I am a huge supporter of young athletes that choose to participate in a variety of sports activities each year. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a smaller community where we were able to participate in a different sport every season without having to worry about falling behind or losing a spot on the team. With very little research on-line, you can find volumes of information on the benefits found for those that choose to participate in multiple sports or other activities. It is also difficult to replace the lost competition for those that just do off-season training activities targeting a single core sport and there is nothing that can replace true competitive events. But I am also a true believer that the benefits of what a child receives from participating in athletics spread far beyond the field and provides a great framework as they move forward into college and ultimately into the dreaded real world. I was just reading an article that talked about a series of benefits from athletics. It discussed how the young athletes are usually more interactive, have greater success in school, less discipline issues, and are more likely to graduate and attend college. The article also discussed how the athletes learn how to deal with failure and develop strong interactive and teamwork skills. Then there was the flip-side of the specialized athletes who experience frequent burnout and are historically less likely to remain active as adults. I wish I would have saved the entire article so I could properly reference it, but you get the just!? As coaches in our Youth Association, I am hoping that we are encouraging our kids to experience a variety of activities whether sports related or not. There is a lot of temptation to push players to continue their development in the offseason, but I m hoping we keep our focus on maintaining longer term participation without pushing the players towards early burnout. Now that I have that off my chest, I must turn to my baseball fanatical side. Slightly hypocritical, but I do NOT discourage players from doing drills to keep their skills fresh during the off season regardless of the sport. Keep those gloves and bats indoors (leather does not like the cold weather and the expensive composite bats can actually crack). Work with a tennis ball to keep the flow of your fielding and footwork and keep a bat handy for practicing your swings. I also appreciate the number of training opportunities that are offered by the many organizations that focus on baseball. A great way to begin your preparation for the season. If interested in our training offerings, take a look at the Buzz Clinic and Winter Clinic options and choose one that fits your players goals. Enjoy your other activities during this cold spell and I look forward to seeing all of the players back on the fields. Sponsorship Money from our business partners in the community help to keep our player costs down. As our communities grow, so does our Association and our needs. Last year alone, we had more than 80 team and expect to grow once again this season. This brings an increasing demand for current and new sponsors. Team sponsorships are currently being accepted at a very reasonable rate. There is also an option to advertise on our website which is a main source of information for the association and will consequently see a lot of traffic. If you would like more information please contact the Sponsorship Director, John Olson at (763) ext. 18. Thanks for the continued support! Contact the Association by main@stmabaseball.com

6 St. Michael Albertville Youth Baseball P.O. Box 217 Albertville, MN Bulk Rate U.S. Postage Paid Permit #3 St. Michael, MN RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED Phone: (763) Check us out on the Web! PRESIDENT S DAY WEEKEND 3 Day Baseball Warm-up (February 16-18) Register for our 9th Annual Buzz Hannahan Winter Baseball Camp. The perfect preseason warm-up with a focus on baseball fundamentals Fielding, hi ng, base running. Buzz is a former Minor League Player with the Philadelphia Phillies and previously an Assistant Coach with the 2009 Division III Na onal Champions, St. Thomas University. Special Guests: Buzz Hannahan Baseball Camp Returning for a third year: Jake Mauer - Former Twins minor league player, current Twins Minor League Coach and is probably best known for being Joe Mauer's big brother. Sign up On-line Beginning January 21st at under the Registra on tab Camp Calendar Session I Session II AGES: 8 thru 11 AGES: 12 & Up 9:30am - 12:00 noon 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm ** LIMITED # OF PLAYERS PER SESSION **