Roster and USSSA Team Creation -

Please go onto the USSSA baseball web site - USSSA Team Creation Site and create your team with all the specific information that it asks for.  Be sure to include an email address.  DO NOT REGISTER THE TEAM AT THIS TIME - I'll take are of that out of the deposit that you pay.  If you register the team at this time it will cost you more than is charged by the league.  If you need insurance now and can't wait until I process the registrations and insurance after the Feb 15th deposit deadline then go ahead and register your team and I will deduct the $30.00 that is allocated from your team’s league fees as well as the appropriate insurance cost.  If your team is already created (because you played in the fall of last year and your age hasn't changed) then you will not have to recreate a team.  When you create the team, remember that to stipulate "AA" in the classification area.  Don't use "A" as that is for drafted teams only.  After the team is created start entering your roster online.  All teams must now have their roster online prior to participating in any USSSA event (league or tournament). 

Preseason St. Patrick’s Day NIT tournament -
Please send me an email, and register online at www.usssa.com if your team is planning on participating in the March 14-15^th USSSA NIT tournament by ASAP. - Emailing me is not binding in any way but I need to get a better idea on the numbers in each age division so that I can secure the fields.  It looks like we will definitely max out the number of teams we can take in the 11u / 12u and 13u / 14u age divisions.  With the number of  teams in each of those leagues, plus the out of town teams (11 so far) that are coming, I will have to close registrations when we get the maximum number of teams in each division that we have field space for and not wait until the March 1st deadline.  So if you know that you are playing in the tournament, register online and submit your payment ASAP - when the spots in each bracket are paid, that bracket is full. 

Scheduling Philosophies

There has been some concern that a younger / less competitive team would have to play games against teams too strong for their ability.  As I have discussed, you coaches will drive the scheduling philosophy but in the past I had produced an initial schedule that has the first 4 weeks (8 games) of the 8 week (16 game) season.  What I'm proposing will be voted on at the manager meeting on March 5th but I wanted to give you an overview "to chew on" before the meeting. 

Option #1 - To help me in the initial bracketing of the 1st part of the league schedule I would use the results from each teams participation in the NIT tournament (for those who participated) along with having each team present at the meeting on March 5th complete a "ranking survey" to give me a better idea of the strength of the teams in their league.  After I have that information I will split the 12u and 14 league into the appropriate number of pools to limit repeating games between teams yet still present accurate indicators of a teams ability and produce the 1st four  weeks schedules (March 29^th, April 5^th, April 19^th and April 26th).  I will use the results of those initial 6-8 league games and then re-bracket the teams for the next four weeks (8 games – May 10^th, May 17^th, May 31^st and June 7th).  With the idea that when I re-bracket the team (or two) that does the worst in their group moves down a level and the team (or two) that does the best moves up a level.  Using this plan will definitely provide the best competition and parity among the games played but the down side is that teams may play the same teams more than once.

Option #2 – Divide the larger age divisions (12u and 14u) into separate single year age increments creating a 11u league, a 12u league, a 13u league and a 14u league.  With this process I’ll create the schedule for the entire year at one time and you MAY play a team one time but might not have best parity for competition as ranking would not be done to establish pools.

Option #3 – Divide the larger leagues into single year age divisions as in option #2 but also rank the teams and put into pools and schedule similar to option #1.  The only issue with this is, for example, a few 13u teams that have been together for a number of years and would get good competitive games from some of the 14u teams.  This parity would be omitted in this option.

League commitments -
This is shaping up to be a very busy season for me, please don't wait until the deadline to submit your registration.  I really don't want to spend an entire day processing league paperwork, USSSA registrations and insurance if I can do it a few of hours at a time over the next few weeks.  If you’re in - please get your payments and paperwork in ASAP.

Payment Options –

1.  Mail (post marked by February 15^th) the USSSA registration form, Policy Agreement pages (2) and the deposit to:
AAD/USSSA
PO Box 67275

Albuquerque, NM 87193

2.  For those of you needing the credit card option - use Pay Pal.  Make a credit card payment at www.paypal.com - Payable to .  If you are making the $500.00 deposit payment for the league program, make a payment of $515.00.  If you are making the payment for the tournament, make a payment of $412.00.  What ever size payment you make be sure to add 3% to the total.  This will ensure you've paid the event cost and covered the cost for using Pay Pal. 

3.   Meet me Sunday, Feb 15^th at 3pm in the Bank of America parking lot at the SE corner of