Information for Parents

If it weren’t for parent volunteers, there would be no Mount Seymour Little League. The league has no paid staff, volunteer executive members work all year round to ensure that there will be a next season. One member handles our many equipment needs, another keeps the diamonds in game shape, another works to ensure player safety, and the list goes on.

Team coaches and managers put in untold hours running practices, planning for games, and striving to give each of their players a positive experience. Coordinators spend time helping things run smoothly for the teams within their division.

In addition to all the time they give to baseball, our volunteers have jobs and family responsibilities just like you. They’re not looking for thanks, but they are looking for help. So when you’re called upon, please step up to the plate and give what time and energy you can.

The sections below describe the volunteer roles that parents will be asked to fill each season.

Team Coach/Assistant Coach

Each team has a head coach and then one or two assistant coaches. All parents who volunteer as coaches must have a valid Police Information Check (PIC) – please see the PIC page for details. Coaches are encouraged to attend the Al Herback Teaching for Tomorrow courses which are held each Spring. Little League International also provides an excellent online resource centre: Little League University.

Team Manager

All teams require a team manager. The team manager is responsible for the following tasks:

• Communicating with your team
• Collecting medical forms
• Verifying coaches have their PICs
• Distributing uniforms
• Organizing parents for concession duties
• Assigning other volunteer roles (field prep, score keeping, pitch counting, snacks etc)
• Submitting scores (Minors and higher)
• Distributing photo day order forms and photos
• Rescheduling rain outs with division coordinator

The Team Manager Guide describes the role of the team manager in more detail.

Field Prep

At the start and end of each game the Home team is responsible for field prep. In Rookie Junior and Rookie Senior this involves raking the playing area, chalking the foul lines, installing the bases and setting up the pitching machine. Some coaches prefer to do this themselves, but generally it is best if volunteer parents do the job of field prep such that the coaches can focus on warming up their team.

For AA, AAA and Majors the field prep is a little more involved – the infield and pitching mound need to be raked, the batters boxes and foul lines chalked out, bases installed, and for the Seycove field the home run pylons need to be set up at 200 feet from home plate.

Watch the video below or read the Field Prep Guide provides more details on how to do field prep correctly:

Scorekeeping

Starting in the Rookie Senior division teams will need a scorekeeper for each game. Scoring in Rookie Senior is quite simple as you are only tracking runs scored and the number of outs. MSLL provides a custom score sheet for Rookie Senior (RS Score Sheet).

Starting in the AA division we use a regular score book for games. Scorekeeping can be a little hard to learn at first, but is a lot of fun once you learn how to do it. Not all parents will be prepared to volunteer as a score keeper, but you should try and find 3 – 4 volunteers who are willing to share this task over the season.

For games played on the Majors diamond the Home team scorekeeper and pitch counter will also be responsible for updating the electronic scoreboard.

Score Booth Etiquette

• Home team “owns” the score booth
• Away team should score from the bleachers unless invited in by the home team
• Please do not cheer or comment on the game from the score booth
  • Sound carries directly to the plate area so please keep your voices low

To learn more about scorekeeping, check out this Scorekeeping Tutorial and refer to our Scorekeeping Cheat Sheet.

Pitch Counting

For divisions where the players pitch (Minors division and above) each team needs to keep a pitch count log. The purpose of pitch counting is to limit the number of pitches thrown by young arms, and ensure that they have enough days rest before pitching again. These limits are set by Little League.

Pitch counting is a straightforward job that can be shared out among all families on your team. The volunteer counts each pitch and records the pitchers name, catchers name and the number of pitches in the pitch count log book. For games played on the Majors diamond the Home team scorekeeper and pitch counter will also be responsible for the electronic scoreboard.

The Pitch Count Guide provides more information about pitch counting.

Concession

All MSLL teams that play in Myrtle Park are required to work a few sessions in the concession. Each team will be assigned 1-2 shifts in the concession based on their division. An evening concession shift runs from 5.30pm to 8.30pm. On the weekends the shifts are 9:00am to 12:00pm, 12:00pm to 3:00pm and 3:00pm to 6:00pm. Volunteers work in the concession in pairs, and it is recommended to split each 3 hour session in half to be 1.5 hours, so you will need a total of four volunteers for each concession date that is assigned to your team.

Either the concession manager or one of the concession supervisors will be there to unlock and set up the concession at the start of the session, and lock up and cash out at the end of the day.

Most people enjoy working in the concession as it is a good chance to meet lots of other MSLL families.