| Registration Info: Waiting Lists |
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As we move closer to the start of the
season, we wanted to provide some insights on our waiting list at Sunnyvale
Little League (SVLL). If you have attempted to register your child and they
were placed on a waiting list, here are some things to understand.
What the waiting list is
After a certain time,
SVLL moves our registration into a waiting list state. This means that a child
who is on the waiting list is not guaranteed a spot in the league.
Why a waiting list
Baseball requires a certain
number of players to be on the field when playing defense. This number will
vary from 9 players (for our Minors, Majors, Intermediate and Juniors
Divisions) to as few as 5 (for our T-Ball Division). Our goal as a league is to
provide every player with suitable playing time so that they may develop their
baseball skills.
We also need to ensure that we have teams with player
counts that meet the minimum required by Little League Baseball Inc., so we
will field teams with more than the minimum in the event that players are
unable to attend due to injury, illness or a personal conflict. For divisions
such as Minors and Majors as an example, we try to establish teams consisting
of 12 players.
We don't want to exceed 12 players for these divisions,
because with a maximum of 9 players on the field, we would have too many
players sitting and thereby not getting the appropriate opportunity to develop
their baseball skills.
When we approach the start of the season, we
need to ensure that we're building teams that fall within these target roster
sizes for each division. Once we achieve that, we move our registration to a
"waiting list" state.
How children are moved off the
waiting list and onto a team
Being on a waiting list means that
the league does not have a spot guaranteed for a child that is on the list.
This does not mean that the child will be left out of the league, but there are
a few things that need to happen to open up a spot.
1) We may see
enough additional registrations in a given division to form a "whole team" in
that division (e.g. if there were 12 children on the Minors waiting list, we
could form an additional Minors team). This can only be done for our Farm,
Minors, Majors, Intermediate and Juniors teams BEFORE player evaluations are
held in late January. We can build additional teams in the T-Ball and Pioneer
divisions throughout the season.
2) SVLL holds player evaluations for
our Minors, Majors, Intermediate and Juniors Divisions in late January. In
those evaluations, a child may be deemed over-qualified or under-qualified to
play in a specific division and may be reassigned to a different division. This
may open up spots in that division. This will be addressed shortly after player
evaluations are complete.
3) If a child that has been assigned to a
team can no longer continue with the league (i.e. they move or they suffer a
season-ending injury), their spot may be filled with a child from the waiting
list. This may occur at any time during the season.
Attending player evaluations if a child is on the waiting
list?
If a child is on the waiting list and are age appropriate
for our Minors, Majors, Intermediate or Juniors divisions, they MUST attend
player evaluations in late January to be eligible for placement on a team.
Those children who would play in our Challenger, T-Ball or Pioneer Divisions
should not attend player evaluations.
What parents can
do to help a child move from the waiting list to a team roster
The only thing a parent or guardian can do to help their child get placed on a
team from the waiting list is to recruit enough other players to form a new
team. For the Farm, Minors, Majors, Intermediate and Juniors divisions, this
must happen by mid-January.
For our T-Ball and Pioneer Divisions, we
can add additional teams later in the season (depending on field availability).
In all cases, the creation of whole new teams also requires that a
parent serve as the Manager (i.e. the head coach), and that we have parents
serve as assistant coaches and a team administrator. If we are unable to
identify volunteers to fill these roles, it would prevent us from creating an
additional team.
In closing, while we want to see every child out on
the field, this is not always possible. We encourage families to register their
children early in order to guarantee a spot in the league. SVLL offers two
seasonal leagues: Spring (which runs from March through June) and Fall (which
runs from September through the end of October). Registration for our spring
league typically opens at the beginning of November, and registration for the
fall league opens in July.
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