All,

I will be sending you a series of updates from information I gathered at Western Region this weekend. I am subbing for Brennan and collecting info for him…

I wanted to reiterate something that was readily apparent as I sat here with 310 other DAs from the Western Region in that Little League is truly the GOLD standard for youth sports. It’s an amazing organization with innovative ideas, great implementation (especially when compared to other large youth sports organizations) an the best goals and objectives of a youth sports organization.

It was driven into every part of the sessions that Little League is a youth sports organization that has the sole purpose of teaching positive life lessons to young players using the vehicle of baseball and softball.

They also reiterated:

1. Every kid that wants to play, regardless of ability, should get to play
2. Community is everything!
3. Integrity
4. Fun
5. Teamwork

Everything else drives this… and truly what makes Little League special and better. Better than anything else out there. I am proud of all of you, and appreciate all of your efforts in building and running your leagues. Over the next few emails I will be sending out details of the various subjects in SEPARATE emails so that they can be distributed by topic and organized better. There was TONS of new information…

Here are the basic topics coming in separate emails:

1. Boundary Discussion and new rules – how to implement and administer.
2. Mandatory Tournament Team rosters
3. Mandatory child abuse training, legal aspects.
4. Diamond Leader training
5. State Tournament date adjustments
6. Grants and funding initiatives – money available for leagues
7. Mandatory conversion to Sports Connect
8. Special Age Considerations
9. Umpire resource develop – better recruitment for umpires and ideas
10. New insurance options
11. Mandatory Background Check implementation and rules - JDP

I’ll send out emails specific to the topics for easier reading and understanding. I also talked with Western Region AGAIN about drafts and requirements for drafts and tryouts. Also met with the DA from Idaho whose District borders the Washington 5 and 13 district. There ARE lots of Intermediate and Juniors teams on the other side of the border along with a growing softball group of teams… so plenty of play options. The Idaho folks are ready to play any division across the border with us and are interested in any of the season tournaments we talked about in our Winter meetings.

Thanks for all your work --- we have some good stuff coming!

Regards

JP

DA WA5/13