All Most of you have season registrations in full swing. Some things we need to think about: 1. Promoting the clinics we have scheduled. Are you pushing the coaching, umpire, and score keeping clinics in the front of mind? 2. ASAP plans --- get 'em done and save some money for everyone 3. Time for invoices for District assessments to go out. your ADAs will be contacting you about those - $750 per league this year. 4. How about mid-season tournaments? We can be flexible with the teams! - who wants to host and promote? 5. District tournament times and locations are almost set --- be aware of the NEW rules for managers and coaches, and players for District Tournament! 6. District 13 still has not had a League step up and say "yeah lets do it!" - TriCounty - where are you? Also I have talked to a couple of league board members around Spokane - seems as if there is great interest from several Spokane Indians players to return to Little League. This is interesting. Some of the things they are saying about the program are important differentiators between "travel ball" and "Little League" and I find it fascinating that teams/players want to come back to Little League after a couple years of "travel ball" style play. here are a few reasons they are giving: 1. If you are not in the "top 9" players, you often don't get playing time 2. No umpires, poor organization for playing the games 3. Not enough field time for practices 4. General disarray and approach is poor So let me ask you a question - if this is the case, then what actually makes this a "more competitive" organization? If you can't play and the games are poorly executed, the players don't get their best shot at developing. If your player sits on the bench and can't play. then what is the value in a "more competitive" league. none - because it's not. The rules of Little League actually get more playing time for players, better facilities, and a better directed program. So I am curious - has anyone else had any experiences this spring? Let me know your experiences with folks wanting to return to Little League this spring from the Spokane Indians program. The other thing to me that this indicates is a rising level of excellence the community is seeing in how you are running your leagues. keep it up! Lets play ball! Regards JP DA WA5/13