AN UPDATE & FOR
WMLL BASEBALL COACHES
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THANK YOU SO MUCH for volunteering to be a WMLL coach!
We truly appreciate the critical role you play & all that you do to make WMLL baseball a fun, educational & rewarding experience for players & their families. And in this period of great uncertainty, your role will be both more important & more challenging than ever.
As mentioned in an email to WMLL families, WMLL is continuing preparations for the 2020 spring/summer season in a responsible, thoughtful & fiscally prudent manner. To guide these efforts the WMLL Board has approved a situation management plan with guidelines for conducting activities critical to the WMLL organization, mission & upcoming season while protecting the health & well-being of WMLL players, families & volunteers and acting responsibly within our local, state, national & world communities.
As you know, WMLL has suspended
all
in-person gatherings of 10 or more people & all non-essential in-person gatherings of less than ten people until further notice.
All practices & games are included in this suspension.
While you cannot physically gather with your team, please try to communicate with them on a regular basis (maybe weekly) with a greeting, a link to an instructional video, or other fun activity.
West Madison Little League will continue to share news & provide updates to all of you (as well as all WMLL families & volunteers)
in a timely fashion. We remain excited about the opportunity to play ball as soon as it is safe & responsible to do so & hope that, until then, thoughts of spending time at the WMLL ballpark will provide some relief.
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Thank you for helping WMLL successfully complete all baseball drafts - especially given the extra challenges brought on by having no skills session, having to meet virtually & having to make yourself available in a busy & stressful time. We thought it was important to complete the draft so players could know what team they are on, families could know that preparations are moving forward, coaches could begin to communicate with their players, & league officials could work to complete TeamSnap setup.
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WMLL has begun to use TeamSnap as a league-wide management system. This will have many benefits for players/families, coaches & league officials.
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For starters, all coaches get a FREE TeamSnap account.
As a first step, coaches need to "take control" of their team. To do this, look for an email from Scott Fossum with the subject line "
Come and join Team # on TeamSnap!", then click on the link as shown to the right.
If you did not receive this email, please contact Scott Fossum at scottfossum@gmail.com
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Team Roster & Contact Info
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Since WMLL is using TeamSnap league-wide, coaches will NOT have to enter (and should NOT enter) their rosters & player/family contact information. All this will push out to teams from the league very soon. For the time being, please sit tight...league officials are working to complete the rostering step for each league.
Also, please review the information that we have for your team's coaches
HERE
.
Please send any additions or corrections to Brian Beutter at brian.beutter@gmail.com.
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Game & Practice Schedules
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WMLL is not releasing game schedules at this time due to the many current unknowns. When it is time to do so though, coaches will NOT have to enter this information either. It will push out from the league along with cancellations & rescheduled games.
Please remember that until further notice, WMLL teams cannot practice or hold in-person gatherings.
When the situation changes, coaches easily can schedule practices & other team events in TeamSnap.
We have not yet received any information from District or Little League International about Little League tournaments & eligibility. The Little League website states, "Currently, Little League International is working through all possible scenarios for the 2020 Little League International Tournament and tournament eligibility for our leagues and players in our various divisions of play."
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Team Communication, Player
Availability & Welcome Message
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For anyone that has not used a team management app before, two of the biggest advantages are the ability to easily communicate with your team and the ability to track player availability for practices, games, etc.
Please be sure to send out a welcome message to the players on your team to introduce yourself, share the team roster & remind families that there won't be practices or game schedules until further notice from WMLL. Feel free to send out links to instructional videos or other information that your players may find interesting.
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We are working to finalize sponsors & will assign team names ASAP, but not until all team names in any league are known. Until then, teams will be identified by the team number that ultimately will be used on schedules. Thanks for your patience!
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WMLL requires all coaches to submit a volunteer application and undergo a background check every calendar year. Most coaches have already completed this requirement (thanks, coaches!) If you haven't, please do so right away. You should have an email from
WEST MADISON LITTLE LEAGUE with the subject line “
WEST MADISON LITTLE LEAGUE Background Questionnaire Notification
” that contains a link to the application.
The application and background check are extremely important for two reasons. First and foremost, WMLL is committed to protecting the safety and well-being of our players and other children at our ballpark. Secondly, Little League International requires all local Little Leagues to conduct background checks on anyone who regularly interacts with players or teams.
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Until it is safe for teams to practice, WMLL will not be handing out equipment bags or installing the netting on the batting cages. We will order jerseys based on the individual size requests made during registration, so fit should be much better than in past years. Jerseys will arrive about 1-week before the start of games.
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TEAM REPS
(& Team Rep Meeting)
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Please work with your team parents to identify a team rep. For new coaches, the team rep works closely with the coaches & assumes a variety of tasks designed to ensure good communication within the team and the smooth running of off-field team business.
The team rep meeting scheduled for April 8 is being postponed until a later date TBD. Once rescheduled,
all
team reps are strongly encouraged to attend to review the many ways that TeamSnap can make things easier for them (communications, volunteer scheduling, etc.)
The Annual field clean-up event scheduled for April 11 will also be rescheduled.
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The youth baseball & softball coaching clinic with Edgewood College Head Coach Al Brisack scheduled for April 7 is being postponed until a later date TBD. Coach Brisack definitely plans on rescheduling this event & we will pass along information on it as it becomes available.
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Click
HERE
for information about whom to contact with questions about the current situation or the upcoming season.
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Thanks again for coaching! Please stay safe!
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