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Frequently asked questions
A. At T&C each age division has its own field, so almost all recreation league games will be played on the same field at the T&C complex. There are some exceptions to this with inter league games, tournament games and others. So it is best to confirm game location with your coach if you are unsure.To see a map of the Town & Country complex follow the map link on the baseball home page or under general info on the top list. A. Times may change from season to season, depending on issues like the number of teams and availability of umpires. You should always follow the schedule handed out by your coach. During the season, each team typically plays one game during the week and one on Saturday. During the week, the first game typically starts at 6:00 P.M. and the second game begins 10 or 15 min. after the first game is completed. On Saturday, games for all leagues typically start at either 9:00 A.M. and are played all day with the last games starting around 5:00 P.M. Q. How Often and Where will my Child Practice? A. Prior to the beginning of the season, teams will usually practice twice during the week and once on the weekend. When the season starts and you're playing two games a week, usually practice will be once or twice a week. However, this can vary due to the individual manager's particular schedule. You should expect practices to last a minimum of 2 hours for older children, and 1 to 1 1/2 hrs for younger children. In the fall, we try to have one practice a week and one game a week.
A. Depending upon the date of the league's team drafts, we try to start practicing 2 - 3 weeks prior to the start of the season. Typically, practices start the week after draft night, once the manager has his roster and contacts his team members and parents. Q. When will the Season Begin? A. Please check the calendar page for league dates and events. Typically, the Spring season starts near the beginning of March. The Fall season usually begin in early September. Q. How Long will the Season Last? A. The Spring season (12-13 games) usually lasts about 10 to 12 weeks, and is extended for those that are on the tournament teams. The Fall Season (8 games) is slightly shorter than Spring due to the change in the time (Daylight Savings). Q. What Equipment will my Child Need Before the First Practice or Game? A. The registration fee provides a jersey and cap to each child for use during league games. A uniform consists of a pair of baseball pants, a baseball jersey, and hats. You will need to purchase a belt, socks, pants, and cleats. The pants are usually gray or white, but some teams also choose pinstriped pants. Be sure to check with your coach and team mom prior to buying new pants for the season. Only players in Pony, and Colt divisions are allowed to wear metal cleats. All other divisions must wear rubber molded cleats. Q. Who do I Call if I have a Problem That Needs to be Resolved by the League? A. If at any time you have a problem, or just want information, go to the Baseball Board page and you'll find a list of baseball officers and coordinators. You'll also see job descriptions, e-mail addresses for them. In general, you should bring up concerns or questions to your league's commissioner first. If the league commissioner can't resolve the issue he or you should next contact the divisions Vice President (there is one of the older divisions and one for the younger divisions). But you can always go to any of the board members or officers if you feel you need to. If possible, please provide us with both a day and evening phone number. Our board is a all volunteer organizations but in most cases, we'll get back to you within 48 hours. Q. Can My Child be Placed on a Team With One of His Friends? A. WE CANNOT GUARANTEE PLACEMENT OF ANY PLAYER WITH ANY TEAM OR COACH. Q. How Much do Team Pictures Cost and When are They Taken? A. In the Spring, the league provides a memory mate package consisting of two individual pictures and one team picture to each player. This is included in the registration fee. Additional packages, trading cards, etc. may be ordered from the photographer on picture day. Q. If My Child is Unhappy with the Team He Has Been Placed On, Can He be Moved? A. No, not after the draft. Only in extreme cases do we allow children to switch teams after the teams have been formed. Such requests must be made in writing to the league's Board of Directors. First you need to contact your league commissioner and give him the request in writing. The request should include the reasons why you would like to change. The commissioner will then bring this request to the board. If the commissioner thinks the issue can be worked out between any parties concerned or via a method of help, he my request your assistance in trying this first. If for any reason you feel you cannot go through your league's commissioner, then feel free to make the request directly to the board member (Director) that heads your child's league. See the Baseball Board page for assistance with who to contact. Q. If My Child Decides to Quit Can I Get a Refund? A. No. Unless requested before the games begin, registration fees are non refundable. Q. What are Protected Players? A. The manager (head coach) for each team is allowed to protect their own children as well as their assistant coach's child prior to draft. This so that the manager and assistant coach can work together to manage a team. Some divisions during some seasons allow for a few additional protections please contact your Coach or the specific division coordinator to find out how many Protections are allowed for your Division. (Additional protections usually only apply during the spring season.) Q. How are Children Placed on Teams? A. All players in all leagues (except t-ball and the coaches children) are required to be evaluated prior to the draft. T-ball players are placed on teams by neighborhoods. At the "tryouts" both returning and new players are given the opportunity to show their skills in front of all of the coaches for their particular league. Each manager rates the players and all players are then scored by each coach. This score is only known by each coach. During the draft, the teams will draw a draft number out of a hat to determine drafting order. Then the coaches select their team members with the help of the draft scores and notes made during tryouts. The coaches with the first draft number picks first. During the second round the coaches with the last number picks first. This is called a "snake draft". This continues until all players are picked. This method allows for parity for all teams. Q. What are Player Tryouts and When are they? A. During the spring season, all children (except coaches children) in the T&C program must attend a tryout session to be drafted onto a team. The tryouts gives the managers within the league an opportunity to evaluate each player prior to the draft. The tryouts consist of players fielding ground balls, throwing balls to first from shortstop, and hitting with a coach or a commissioner pitching. We try to hold tryouts in a non-intimidating environment. We give out draft times at registration. Please check the Calendar for tryout dates. Q. If My Child does Poorly at Tryout will He/She be Cut? A. In all divisions, all children participating in player tryouts will be placed on teams during the draft. All players missing the draft will be drawn blindly and placed on teams. Q. Are Regulation Baseballs Used in t-ball? A. No. In t-ball we use a RIF or Reduced Injury Factor baseball. It is the same size as a regulation baseball, but softer. Your child's first introduction to a regulation baseball will occur in the Pinto division. Q. Do Children or Coaches Pitch in t-ball? A. No pitching is allowed in t-ball. All players must hit the ball off the tee. For the specific rules, see the Rules page. Q. Is the coach pitch (7-8U) League an Instructional or Competitive League? A. This is the player's first introduction to competitive baseball but the primary focus of the AA Pinto division is instructional. There is also a AAA division (note: there is no AAA division in fall. Just spring). These teams are usually made up of 2nd year Pinto players but there may be some first year players. If you're playing in the AAA division, it will be more competitive. We do keep track of the standings and scores in both leagues. This is where the competitive element tends to creep in. Q. Do Children Pitch in the 7-8U League? A. No kids pitch in the 7-8U league. Only coaches are allowed to pitch in both the AA and AAA leagues of 7-8U. For the specific rules, see the Rules page. Q. How are Tournament Teams Selected? A. Spring Only. A. AA leagues are our regular "recreational" leagues. This is offered from ages 7 to 14 (Pinto to Pony). They will play other AA T&C teams in their league. All the games will be held at the T&C fields. They may also play in mid-season tournaments. A. AAA leagues offers a more competitive environment over our regular league play. AAA Teams are available for kids from the age of 7 to 14. Teams will be picked through tryouts and a draft conducted at Town & Country. AAA teams for the ages of 9 to 14 typically play only at T&C, but may occasionally travel to play other AAA teams from surrounding leagues. A. Open leagues offer a highly-competitive environment compared to our regular league play. Players are usually between the ages of 11 to 14. Each team will typically be age specific. i.e. - All kids on the team will be of the same age. Player are selected by the teams coaches players are not drafted. Each team will conduct one tryout at Town & Country usually in the fall or January. Open teams will often travel to play other open teams from Georgetown, Old Settlers Express, Sam Bass Baseball, LCP, and Lake Travis. Most teams will play and travel to tournaments throughout the season. Each team will play approximately 8 games at T & C and 8 games at other league games elsewhere. The registration cost is approximately $180 however, open teams have additional costs for tournaments, uniforms, travel and equipment not included in the registration cost. If you have an interest in open baseball contact the team coach or the open coordinator. A list of open teams and information regarding those teams will be posted on our web site when the information becomes available. A. This is the one day before each season starts (Spring and Fall) where we spruce up the fields and bring them to game-ready condition. We call this day Field Day. We require all coaches, heads and assistants, to work field day. We also ask parents or anyone interested in helping to come out and help. Some seasons, it is as simple as putting down some new dirt, painting, raking, and cutting back some grass. Other seasons, it may require replacing bases, mounds, fencing, batting cage nets, etc. T&C Baseball is a completely volunteer organization. All board members and commissioners are volunteers and don't get paid a dime for their hard work. We ask you to volunteer some of your time to help make T&C a great place to play for our kids. Thanks for your help. A. To become a coach, you must fill out a coaches application during registration. You are also required to give permission for a background check. You need to give coaching background, if any, and character references. The Baseball Board will review all applications and select the coaches for that season. Q. How do I Become a Commissioner? A. To become a commissioner you need to contact a board member and speak to him/her about your wishes. They well invite you to a meeting (meets on the second Monday of every month ). Once you request to volunteer, there will be a vote for your approval. If you are approved, there is a $10 dollar fee. You'll be given a hat and board member shirt. The money goes for food and drinks at the meetings. Its that simple. Commissioners are just volunteers. The board is open for everyone. We need all the help we can get. See the Baseball Board page for a list of Board members and their e-mail addresses. Q. What is Coaches Certification? A. Our certification program provides training, support, and continuing education to adults who volunteer to coach out-of-school youth sports teams. Our program works to "sensitize" coaches to their responsibilities when working with children in sports and hold them accountable to a Coaches’ Code of Ethics. We require all coaches to become certified. See the Calendar page for dates. Coaches can renew their membership from their web page. Q. What are the Age Cutoffs for League Play? A. The league cutoff date is April 30th. A player's league age is determined by his or her age prior to May 1st. For example, if your player turns 9 on May 2, then the player is considered to be a 8 year old for that Fall or Spring's play. Another player who turns 9 on Apr 29th is considered a 9 year old since the birthday occurs before the cutoff date. For other league cutoffs check the age chart on this web site. Q. How to read rain out information? A. The web page will be updated as soon as we can get the information that games are canceled. On large rain event days, it will be an easy call for our baseball board to make. They will contact us and we will update the page between 3:00 & 5:00 PM weekdays, and between 7:30 and 8:30 AM on Saturdays. On days when there is thunder, lightning or light rain just before at or during game time, a commissioner will need to evaluate the fields and contact us with specific information about which fields are playable and which are not. We may not get the data updated until closer to or at game time on these days. Remember, the baseball board and the commissioners are volunteers and have regular jobs. On some days it may be impossible for them to leave work early to evaluate the fields and an update may be later than we all would like.
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