Baseball Parents,

KWBA is excited to announce that registration is open for a Summer House Baseball season.  This season will be different than any other, but with everyone’s cooperation we hope to be out on the baseball fields soon.  We are hoping to run a six-week house season beginning the week of July 6.

We are planning on offering House Baseball for PINTO through BRONCO this Summer.  After further discussion and consideration, we are not planning on offering PONY level baseball this Summer.  If you have any questions about PONY please email secretary@kwba.org.

Also, considering the overlap of the shortened Travel Season, we are opening the HOUSE LEAGUE FOR NON-TRAVEL PLAYERS ONLY.

Expected offering (ALL grades for registration are from the child’s grade level during SPRING 2020 class session):

1 Game per week

1 Coach led practice per week

1 Illinois Baseball Academy Clinic per week

PINTO: Kindergarten and 1^st Grade

STALLION: 2^nd Grade

MUSTANG: 3^rd and 4^th Grade

BRONCO: 5^th and 6^th Grade

REGISTRATION LINK

REGISTRATION IS CURRENTLY OPEN.  We anticipate a very quick turnaround so REGISTRATION IS ONLY OPEN UNTIL TUESDAY, JUNE 30^th.

Parents, it is vital to have coach volunteers.  Please use the COACH REGISTRATION LINK to register as a coach for your child’s team.

Further we wanted to provide additional detail regarding Phase 4 Youth Sports Guidelines and expectations as understood currently:

As predicted, Governor Pritzker has announced that the State remains on track to move to Phase 4 and, barring unforeseen developments, will do so effective this Friday, June 26th.  In anticipation of this, the State has issued updated Phase 4 guidance for Youth Sports.  See Youth and Recreational Sports Guidelines, Phase 4 (https://dceocovid19resources.com/restore-illinois/restore-illinois-phase-4/youth-and-recreational-sports-guidelines/).  These Phase 4 Guidelines contain various rules and restrictions, but they do permit competitive baseball games to take place.

We will circulate additional information to coaches and registrants about how these guidelines are expected to be implemented at each age group as we get closer to the start of the program.  However, we did want to share our plan in the event of an actual or potential COVID-19 exposure:

Based on a the normal flow and spacing of a baseball game, it is unlikely that any of our players or coaches will be in “close contact” (which the State Guidelines define as as “household contacts, intimate contacts, or contacts within 6 ft for 15 minutes or longer”) with someone who has COVID 19 during a baseball game, clinic, or practice.  By maintaining social distancing when not actively in the game and having our coaches avoid close contact with players, it is unlikely that players and coaches on the same team would be within 6 ft of each other for longer than 15 minutes at a time.  There will be times when players from opposing teams are within 6ft of each other, e.g., the catcher and a batter during an at-bat, fielder holding a base runner, or tag play at a base, but not such encounter is likely to last 15 mins or longer.  That said, there could be times during the season in which one of our teams has a confirmed or potential exposure to COVID 19 either from someone connected to the team or from another team.  First, we can ensure that any such exposures have minimal risk/impact on our teams by taking the social distancing and guidelines seriously and making sure the players follow them.  Second, if there is a potential exposure, we will inform the team as soon as practicable, we will provide as much information we can gather regarding the potential or confirmed exposure so each family can assess the situation and seek advice from their doctors in accordance with their particularly circumstances, and make a determination regarding how the potential or confirmed exposure will impact team activities in accordance with the State guidance.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and for being flexible.   We are excited to get baseball going again.