Spring Leagues – Team Selection

HOW TEAMS ARE SELECTED

Team selection is a very time consuming task for your league administrators.We know that every registered player is placed on a team – so you should have no concern about that. But what’s the process and how do we fill all of the teams?

There are many methods that can be used to divide teams, but our WYBSL procedures outlined below have withstood the test of time as being the best possible method to achieve as much parity as possible.

Part of the process is the same regardless of the age of the group involved – in all leagues, the first players to be assigned are:

• Sons/Daughters of Head and Assistant Coaches.
• Returning players in the same age league as last year, unless they ask to
  be reassigned.
• Siblings in the same age league are automatically placed on the same team,
  unless otherwise requested.

Then we move to the second phase. In all cases, your League General Managers will try to balance the Playing Ages on each team so that no team has a disproportionate number of older or younger players (but no continuing team is penalized because all potential returning players wish to return to the team).

In Tee-Ball and Coach-Pitch Leagues, the players remaining are assigned to teams by each league’s selection group. Although we attempt to honor parent’s requests, a key goal is to group players together by neighborhood or school.

In Girls’ Blue Hat, players should attend the Skill Assessment Session listed on the Calendar page of the current issue of Batter Up!, the WYBSL newsletter. Later in the week, girls will be assigned to teams by the league staff based upon “play with a friend” requests, skill level and age balance — and pitchers and catchers are divided among teams — as much as possible.

In Girls’ Green Hat, Red Hat and Boys’ Black Hat, Blue Hat, Red Hat and Green Hat leagues, players are selected in a “skills assessment” and “draft” procedure. If a player is new to a division or wishes to play on a different team than last spring, he should go to the Skill Assessment Session listed on the Calendar page of the current issue of Batter Up!, the WYBSL newsletter. Later in the week, all coaches participate in a Player Draft to balance Playing Ages and perceived skills. At the end of this draft, any player who could not attend this skill assessment session are assigned to teams using a “blind draw” or “age and alphabet” assignment except in Green & Red Hat Softball. In these leagues, players are assigned by the league staff.

Then….coaches call their players and the fun begins – the practices and games!