July 30, 2009

Updated Sep 2 -Baseball registration is now  closed                                         

 

 

Dear Greenville Little League Family:                                                

 

I hope you all are having a great summer and looking forward to the 2009 GLL Fall Ball season. As most of you know, Fall Ball is an instructional season, with more attention being given to player development and less emphasis on winning and losing. We feel it is a good time for players to work on developing their skills and gaining more confidence. In addition to the games and team practices, we hope to be able to offer an extra training day or two for the Coaches Pitch and Minors kids. This would include multiple coaches (and volunteers) for those players wanting a little more help with certain parts of their game.

 

As we continue to grow as a league and expand our offerings, I am happy to announce that we will be starting a girls softball division this fall. As this is still in its infancy, we plan to start out slow and hopefully grow interest by offering fun, low-key instruction this fall and not worry about organized games within or outside of our league. We feel by offering girls a chance to “try it out”, we may gain more short and long term interest. We don’t want to run the risk of playing official games immediately and turning someone off before they really have a chance to get started. Our initial thought will be to offer instruction to 7-12 year olds and run the session for approximately one month and end up with fun “games”. Please check back soon for more specific information and please spread the word to any families you believe would be interested.

  ( WANTED: Former star softball moms.   Please feel free to help!!)

 

For baseball, Registration is now closed.   The registration deadline was Tuesday, Sep 1 and registered players and parents will be contacted soon by the coaches with information on team rosters and practice schedules.

 

For softball, you may register for the Fall League by clicking here on the Softball Registration link , filling in the form and returning it to the address below.

 

 

 

Baseball registration forms must be returned by September 1, 2009 and softball registration forms by September 11, 2009 to be guaranteed a slot for Fall Ball. 

 

Previously playing in our league does not guarantee you a slot, so please register as soon as you can. The participation fee for baseballl will remain the same as 2008 and is $75.00. This will include a t-shirt and cap.  The fee for the softball instructional camps will be $50.

 

The baseball teams will be selected by the Coaches during the first week of September and practices will begin soon thereafter. Games will begin Monday September 14 and end around October 30.   Softball instruction will follow the same general schedule with "fun" games starting in late September or early October once the girls are ready to play!

 

As always, we need volunteers to help run our league. If you are interested in being a coach, team mom, field worker, etc., please indicate this on the form or let me or another board member know. Additionally, if you have friends or neighbors with children in the 7-14 age groups, please tell them about our league and encourage them to participate. We can only allow players within our boundaries or with prior special permission to play in the league during the spring season, but registration is open to anyone in the fall.  

 

Two final notes of interest:

 

Our All Star teams have finally finished their seasons and I am proud to report that we had four teams participate in the District 7 Tournament this summer, with two advancing to the State Tournament. Our Coaches Pitch, 11 Yr Old Majors and 11/12 Yr Old Majors teams were all Runners-Up in the District. The Coaches Pitch team had a strong tournament run and finished 3 ^rd in the State. The 11/12 Majors team finished the tournament with only one loss and handed the eventual State Champion their only loss of the tournament. Thank you and congratulations to the players and coaches for another great year.

 

As most of you know, Greenville lost its bid to become the new home to the Southeast Region of Little League International, when they decided to relocate their offices to Warner Robbins, Georgia. Even though this and the sudden drop in Hospitality Tax revenue has temporarily delayed the process of renovating and adding to the old Braves Stadium, your GLL Board is still busy working with civic leaders in the City and County on plans to eventually make this our new home. As we work toward this goal, we are fortunate to have Timmons Park and Butler Springs Park to use for games and practices.

 

I am excited about my new position on the Board, but would like to thank Mike Cooter for two great years of leadership and all of the other hardworking volunteers that allow our great league to succeed. Please don’t hesitate to let me or your other board members know how we can make the league better. Thank you.

 

Bob Shaw

 

GLL Board President