As you may have heard, there is a new baseball association on the North Shore. This was formed when Forest Hills Little League and North Vancouver Central Little League voted at their respective AGMs to dissolve their Little League associations and then to reform as one combined league under a BC Minor charter.
As Forest Hills Little League and North Van Central Little League no longer exist, the boundaries of Highlands Little League and Lynn Valley Little League were redrawn to ensure that all North Shore kids were still eligible to play Little League baseball. District 5 now consists of 5 leagues: Mount Seymour, Lynn Valley, Highlands, West Van/Cypress Park and Howe Sound. Mount Seymour Little League boundaries were unaffected by this change – our boundary still includes all players who live east of Lynn Creek or attend one of the schools within our boundary area. We predict that we will continue to be the largest North Shore Little League – although all District 5 Little Leagues have seen increased registration over the past few years.
Little League and BC Minor both offer a structure for youth baseball and are similar in many ways. One difference is that Little League focuses on playing in your local area in balanced teams during the regular season and then offers high level representative play during the post season with All Star teams. BC Minor allows for teams to be tiered by ability during the regular season (higher age groups only). BC Minor includes more inter-league play and therefore also involves more travel during the season to play games against other Lower Mainland leagues.
At MSLL we are not expecting to see a significant impact on our league from the formation of this new association. We know that some players will choose to explore the BC Minor option, however MSLL has always seen a few players leave to play with BC Minor in Burnaby or Coquitlam – so this will likely not be a huge change. We have a strong, happy and vibrant league and our registration numbers have been growing annually for the last 5 years. As of the end of December our 2017 registration numbers are tracking ahead of 2016 and we are busy getting ready for another great season of MSLL baseball.
If you have any questions, please contact MSLL President or any member of the MSLL Executive.