Skills evaluations take place this weekend and next. If you still need to sign your child up for an evaluation time, please refer to prior emails or the links above.

• What to Expect:

• The skills evaluation for your child should last approximately 60 minutes for the competitive divisions and 45 minutes for Baseball Single-A league age 7s, alongside 18 or fewer participants from the same division. The players will play catch, field ground balls, throw to first base, hit, and run. Divisions AA and above will also have stations for fielding fly balls + making longer throws and pitching.  

• What to Bring:

• Glove and bat with sports attire. Sports cleats (soccer ok) are recommended, but not required if you’re apparel shopping in January. 

• No Pressure – Not Tryouts and a Bigger Picture is Evaluated:       

• Help reduce any anxiety or stress your child might encounter with skills evaluations.  These are NOT tryouts. Every player will be on a team and will play baseball in WCLL. Skills evaluations help us establish balanced teams for equitable play (and even these efforts have their limitations). Every player should be excited about the team they end up on as we work to establish a level playing field. Furthermore, the coaches assessing skills evaluations are looking at more than just the drill result. If your child misses a ball or has a wild throw, the player should not come away feeling like he/she failed. Did they hustle to recover? Display readiness for the next play and a short-term memory? Are they following coaching directions and focused on the drill? Help us diffuse pressure players may place on themselves to perform and reassure them we’ll get a great sense of their abilities simply seeing their attitude and approach (even if they aren’t perfect).

• Emphasize This on the Car Ride to Skills Evals..

• Coaches evaluate hustle, and see through mistakes.                

• Everyone is rusty and it may be cold–no expectations of perfect play!   

• Relax, do your best, have fun, look forward to a great season!  Remember, everyone makes a team!!  This is not “tryouts.”