by Rob Merlino

Created on: February 10, 2007   Last Updated: May 01, 2007

Organizing a Little league Team
I have coached Little league for 7 years (soon to be 8) and I am often asked why our team is always successful. Success to me means: the kids have fun, the kids get to try out different positions, the kids have a positive baseball experience, the kids win more than they lose.

Obviously, as a coach, I can't play the game. My job is to put each kid in a position to succeed to the team will have success. The following is a handout I give to each kid and parent at the beginning of each season:

Little league is a competitive league. We have umpires, we keep stats, we keep score, publish scores and standings on the web and hand out trophies to the winner of the World Series. The goal of the Team is to win. The goal of each boy is to do his very best to help the Team win. Remember these three things:
Safety: Nobody swings a bat or throws a ball without checking to be sure that everyone around them will be safe;
Fun: We are here to have FUN. If anyone is not having fun, let the Coach know and he will work to remedy that;
Winning: "Winning" is an Attitude. If you are Safe, having Fun, and have a Winning Attitude, the Score will take care of itself!"

I will be putting an emphasis on pitching and would like to get as many kids on the mound as possible. You must demonstrate the ability to throw from the mound to the plate with consistency to get into a game. For the first few games kids will pitch one inning. Then they'll pitch one and "earn" the next inning. Over the course of the season, pitching ability will become evident and the kids who can really shut the other team down will get 3 or possibly more innings in an outing- it will depend on the game situation. I will throw in a few "pitching potpourri" nights where we'll revert to the one inning philosophy for all or part of the game. This becomes necessary when we have games that are bunched close together. We will use the walk rule: walk 3 in a row and you come out, walk 4 in an inning and you come out. This doesn't mean you won't get another chance-it just means you can't help the team that particular day with your pitching. Getting the boys to understand the importance of the team will be an underlying theme in everything we try to do.

We'd like to do as much scrimmaging at practice as possible and I am working on a pre- season scrimmage or two. We'll also devote time to all the skills through a variety of drills and exercises. Infield and outfield defense can only be improved upon by getting

• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next Page >>