For our younger players, aged 7 and under playing Instructional level, all that is required is a baseball glove, batting helmet and a good pair of running shoes.  FHLL provides bats.  For our older players, 8 and over, a baseball glove, batting helmet and protective cup or jill are mandatory, baseball cleats are recommended for our older players as well.  While FHLL does provide a couple team bats many players find it worthwhile to have their own bat.

FHLL wants to make sure that playing baseball is fun for everyone.  Therefore, we will try and honour one friend request per player in our lower leagues.  Priority will be given to siblings and then players that have both listed each other as a friend request.  However, player rankings and team placement processes can take precedence over friend requests, and therefore we can not guarantee all friend requests can be honoured.

Once registration is closed an evaluation schedule will be made up for Minors, Majors/Nationals and Intermediate/Junior players.  Players will be informed of their evaluation dates.  Players are evaluated on hitting, pitching and fielding skills.  Players are then placed on teams based on their evaluation scores and the requirements of each team and the association.

Evaluations commence once registration is closed and are targeted to be done by early April.

In the last 5 years our association has grown from approximately 150 players to over 500 but the number of volunteers on our board and across our teams has not changed.  Unfortunately, this has put tremendous pressure on our limited number of volunteers and they have not been able to keep up with the demands of running a larger organization.  We came very close to not being able to field teams in some of the divisions due to the lack of coaches and assistants, and some of our fields are starting to fall into disrepair due to a lack of volunteers.  In order to maintain a high level of play and fun for our players we need to spread the work across everyone who is involved.  We are asking that everyone participate in the operation of the league through this volunteer commitment.

Under the Little League charter, no child may be excluded from play based on inability to pay.  Subsidies are available through Kidsport or Jumpstart.  You can also contact our league President or Vice-President for assistance.

Participants who request a refund before the close of registration will receive a full refund (less a $15 administrative fee to cover our registration company fees).  Participants who request a refund before April 8th will receive a 75% refund.  Unfortunately we will be unable to provide a refund to participants after this date.

The All Star program follows the completion of regular season play for Minors, Majors, Nationals & Juniors.  Players are selected on a try-out basis in late June and the season goes until the first weekend in August.  It is a great opportunity for players that want to continue playing baseball into the summer and experience a higher level of play.  However there is a more significant commitment level required as teams practice 3-4 times per week and usually play games or tournament every weekend.  For more information click on this link.

Baseball is a team sport with each player having a key role in the overall success of the team.  While FHLL understands that other events and sports take place at the same time as baseball, teams are constructed so that each player gets the maximum amount of playing time to aid in their development.  For games a minimum of 8 players is required to field a team at the lower levels and 9 for the higher levels.  Teams that do not have enough players forfeit their games.  Additionally, players who continually miss practices and games tend to develop at a slower pace then the other players, creating an inequity in ability damaging a teams competitiveness.

In 2018, Little League International changed the age chart to match players ages to the school calendar.  This had the largest effect in the Minors age group where 8 year olds are now competing against 10 year olds.  Many 8 year olds do not have the strength to pitch 46 feet and the number of walks per game reduced the fun for everyone, since the ball was never in play.  By splitting Minors into A, AA and AAA we are able to have players of similar ability and ages play against each other thus allowing us to modify the rules for AA & A that so that players can succeed in the role of pitcher by throwing strikes, thus developing pitchers at a younger age and putting the ball in play for everyone to have fun.

FHLL’s policy on moving players between divisions is that players register in the division that they should play in based on their age and only under special circumstances will we move a player up or down.  Once registration closes the division coordinator will then look at each request individually and in consultation with the Board decide if we can honour the request based on the following considerations:

1. Space Availability in each division:  If we can we use extra players up or down to balance teams as well as what does moving players up or down do to the balance of each division’s team.
2. Playing Time: We don’t want to take playing time away from either player by putting too many players on a team or in a division that would reduce the amount of playing time for all players involved.
3. Competitiveness of our teams.  If we move a player, for example, from Juniors to Seniors we probably have made made our Junior team weaker, which can impact the season for the remaining 11 or 12 players.