Dear Oceanside Little League community and families,

While it may be difficult to be thinking of baseball and softball when the temperature has trouble breaking 30 degrees on most days, our Board of Directors are busy planning the 2020 season. In our most recent board meeting several topics were discussed, but primarily focused on baseball divisions, registration fees, and candy bar sales. 

Over the past several years candy bar sales have been used by the league to help fundraise and supplement registration fees for those who chose to participate. The Board of Directors has voted unanimously to not sell candy bars for the 2020 season. Candy bar sales takes a large amount of up-front cost with a large amount of manpower to pull off successfully. The board agreed the amount of time and energy that is devoted to candy bars may be better suited in other areas of fundraising.

Little League registration fees are one of the major contributors to our league’s yearly operating budget. Registration fees go primarily towards field maintenance, Little League charter and insurance, and concession stand start-up money. Unlike other leagues in our area, Oceanside Little League owns the Pleasant St fields and is responsible for 100% of the cost needed to maintain them. This year’s projected cost including initial prep, mowing, and materials needed throughout the season to keep our facilities maintained and safe to play on is ~$10,000. In addition to field maintenance Little League International charges individual leagues a charter and insurance fee. This year’s charter/insurance fee was ~$2100. The average initial start-up costs for the concession stand is generally ~$2000.  

The board wanted to make playing for Oceanside Little League as affordable as possible for families without sacrificing a major source of revenue for our operating budget. The board voted unanimously to reduce the registration fee by $15 per child for all divisions across our league. The registration fees for 2020 are: Major League - $75, Minor League - $45, and Tee Ball $15. Residents of South Thomaston, Thomaston, and Cushing will have their registration fees supplemented $30 per child by their town’s recreation department. St. George residents will continue to have 100% of the registration fee supplemented by their recreation department. These discounts are decided upon independently by the towns.

Finally, after a lengthy discussion the league has voted to dissolve our 9-10 year old and 11-12 year old baseball divisions and return to the more traditional one division of 9-12 year old players. This decision did not come lightly or without a lot of very thoughtful discussion. The two leagues were formed in an effort to get more kids involved in the game, to play a bigger role on their teams, and help them grow as players in confidence and ability. While the board feels we have accomplished this to some degree it has also been a challenge each year to field teams in both divisions due to declining registration numbers. The board is often scrambling the night before tryouts to determine if there will be enough players to field teams. This often times means pulling children out of our minor league program to fill spots in our major divisions to simply have enough teams to play out our schedule, causing our minor league divisions to decline in numbers as well. It is the board’s intent to field an appropriate number of major division baseball teams consisting of 9-12 year old players that will provide first, and most importantly, a safe playing environment while maintaining a competitive balance throughout the league. These teams will be determined, as always, with an evaluation process. Players will be “drafted” to teams by league appointed managers and coaches. Any players deemed “not ready,” by virtue of the safety of the player in the major division, will be placed in the minor division where fundamentals will be a priority. All players league age 9 and above will be required to attend the evaluation day scheduled for March 28th at The Pitch in Warren.

While we understand that not everyone will agree with these changes, the Oceanside Board of Directors, as always, based their decisions 100% on what is thought to be best for the continued success of Oceanside Little League, the league’s families and communities. If there are any questions or concerns please feel free to contact us at oceansidelittleleague@gmail.com. 

Registration is now open at oceansidelittleleague.org. If you are returning to Oceanside Little League simply login and register your player. New users will need to create an account before being able to register. Please be aware there are no “in person” registrations. All registrations need to be done through the website unless prior arrangements with the league have been made.  A confirmation email will be sent after registering with additional information regarding the evaluation process.

I look forward to another great year of Oceanside Little League baseball, softball, and tee ball!

Respectfully,

Davin Putansu

President 

Oceanside Little League