Calendar
Early December: Spring 2012 Registration Begins
Mid-January: Player Tryouts
Exact Dates TBD
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Vol 18: October 2011 |
Letter From the League President
Your Feedback at Work!
Each year Menlo-Atherton Little League gathers input and suggestions from our player's families
and coaches about their experience with the league. Please take the time to review the action
items below that are now on our "to-do list". Your suggestion may be one of them!!
Coach Development - we will continue to educate, train and improve upon the
foundations established.
Umpire Training -many of you stated you would like to see more training for
our youth umpires and we've heard you loud and clear.
All-Star Process -although the information has been in our league handbook
on the website for a few years it isn't easily found so we'll be adding a section to the
website just for All-Stars information.
Website Navigation -some respondents stated that the website can be a little
user "unfriendly" so we'll be making adjustments in hopes of allowing for quicker and easier
navigation and information transfer.
League Contacts -we'll be improving our "contact us" section on our website
so you can more easily reach the appropriate contact on the board with questions, concerns,
requests, etc.
Email Communication/Newsletters -we were surprised to see many requests for
more newsletters. We are considering increasing their frequency, however, we respect your
time and will try to avoid clogging your inbox.
Playoff Competition and the "Win At All Costs" Attitude -this is always a
challenging one to address/correct because we're dealing with competitive kids, coaches,
parents, fans, neighbors, etc. Rest assured we will continue to focus our efforts on our
Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) goals and objectives for every coach and team. We all enjoy
winning, but we cannot lose sight of the positive and negative aspects of competition that
we knowingly or unknowingly teach our kids/players. Life lessons can go both ways (for
adults and kids alike) and our adults, coaches and fans, must understand that they too must
learn to control their reactions and behavior in dynamic situations (i.e, "the heat of
competition"). The board takes this seriously and will continue to have only those coaches
who best represent our community in our dugouts.
More Practice/Less Games -opinions will vary by division/age of the child
playing but we've heard the requests and will make every effort to reach the right balance.
Majors Division Expansion for 2012 Season
A very important topic to address is our sustained increase in number of registrants. We're
dealing with what many refer to as the "Millennium Bubble" of 10 and 11 year old players.
Due to continued growth the board has decided to expand our Majors division by one team.
Here are some early details to be aware of:
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Majors is expanding to 7 teams for the 2012 season.
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The number of games will most likely drop from 20 to 18 so we can make room for this
expansion team and allow for more practices on a per team basis.
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New draft scenarios for the current season and future seasons will be discussed in
the coming months.
League Challenges
On to some impending challenges we will all face this upcoming season. As many of
you are aware, our league calendar will be very
challenged this season. Not only is the Menlo Park City School District academic year
ending sooner than ever before, we also have 3 consecutive weeks of spring breaks for
the various school districts (public and private schools). We have already decided to
move our season up by one week and are considering another week to help alleviate the
pressure. Every consideration will be heard and all aspects will be discussed as we
aim to achieve the best balance for all families and summer vacation plans.
PLEASE NOTE: There is nothing our league can do to change the all-star
dates as they are set by Little League National and Regional offices. If your child
is planning to play in the AAA or Majors divisions and has aspirations of being selected
to an all-star team, please don't plan on taking a vacation from mid-June through
end of July.
Thank you again to every parent, grandparent, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, etc. for
making our league so special, truly something we can all be proud of. Registration is
happening sooner in December this year, pass the word! Stay tuned for more exciting
news, updates and events coming soon.
Mike
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