Happy Friday! Many things are happening at Rockford Little League. Each item is highlighted so you can skip over anything that doesn’t pertain to your family!! We’re excited for the season and hope you are, too!

REGISTRATION is open for all divisions, INCLUDING UMPIRES, at rockfordll.com! Save $10 per player by registering early!!! See the website for registration dates for each division. We encourage everyone to register early so you don’t miss out on a great season! Families registering 3 or more children will receive a $15 discount, and there is now a family cap of $300.

REGISTRATION CLOSING DATES HAVE CHANGED FROM PREVIOUS YEARS. PLEASE SIGN UP EARLY SO YOU DON’T MISS THE DEADLINE. ONCE REGISTRATION CLOSES AND TEAMS ARE FULL…THEY’RE…FULL!

Registration Close Dates:

Jan 22 – Early bird registration ends

Feb 6 – Coach Pitch, AA, AAA, Majors registration closes

Mar 12 – Tball, Juniors registration closes

Apr 29 – Seniors registration closes

**After registration closes, there will be a late registration fee (space permitting) $20/player

Important Dates Coming up:

January 

22-Early Bird Registration ENDS ALL GROUPS

February 

6- Registration closes CP-MAJ

10-Assessments (only players moving from Coach Pitch to Player Pitch division, and players that did not participate in player pitch division for the 2023 season)

12- Drafts (Majors BB/SB) coaching clinic/safety meeting  6:30 SB / 8:00 BB

13-Board Meeting, Walk up Signups (TB, JR, SR)

21- Drafts (AAA BB, AA SB) coaching clinic/safety meeting  6:30 SB / 8:00 BB

25 - Drafts (AA BB) coaching clinic/safety meeting  6:00BB

Evaluations for softball and baseball divisions (MINORS and MAJORS ONLY) will be held on February 10 at the North Rockford Middle School gyms. This is for players that are NEW to RLL or moving from coach pitch into the player pitch divisions. We’ll loosely plan 3-5pm for baseball and 430-6pm for softball. Kid pitch teams are 100% drafted. Evaluations let us know where your child falls within his/her age group. This allows our coaches to draft balanced, competitive teams! We encourage every player NEW TO RLL or NEW TO PLAYER PITCH to attend this event! We know families are busy and have a life outside of baseball. If you cannot make evaluations because of other plans, you’re going to be out of town, another sport…it’s not the end of the world! Unfortunately, there will not be a make-up date. It’s very costly for RLL to rent the school gym and it also takes a lot of time and effort for our volunteer board to put together and run. Players that do not attend evaluations will still be assigned a team! We will need many volunteers to run this event. If you’re interested in helping, please contact Cindy at [email protected]. Are you coaching a kid pitch team? This is a great opportunity to volunteer and scout the talent you’ll be drafting!

Need Financial Assistance? We never want a child to miss out on playing with us! Grants and scholarships are available through T-Mobile here à T-Mobile Little League® Call Up Grant Program - Little League. Please contact us at [email protected] if you need any additional assistance.

Fundraising Opportunities: Mark your calendars for February 26 and April 9 and plan on dinner at THE SCORE. 10% of all sales come back to RLL. We’ll send out a flyer with more information! Also check out our fan gear website where you can order RLL gear! More information below! https://rockfordlittleleague.bigcartel.com/

Rockford Little League FAN GEAR!!!! We are excited to announce that Rockford Little League Gear will be available through our online fan store! Take note of the dates below. A portion of your purchase will come back to RLL, so this is another great way to support RLL and your favorite ball players!

Store website: https://rockfordlittleleague.bigcartel.com/

Today: opening day of the online fan gear store

March 31: store closes

April 22: all orders will be available for pickup at the Concession Stand at ERMS fields!

Baseball and Softball CLINICS!!!!!!

Baseball and Softball Clinics!!

Mark your calendars for the upcoming clinics (more information to come...)

Baseball:

January 20, 8-9AM: coach pitch players ages 6-8 years old

January 20, 930-1045AM: player pitch ages 9-12 years old

February 3, 8-9AM: coach pitch players ages 6-8 years old

February 3, 930-1045AM: player pitch ages 9-12 years old

Softball:

February 3: 9-11AM, 1st-5th grade

February 3 :12-2PM, 6th-8th grade

February 10: 9-11AM, 1st-5th grade

February 10 :12-2PM, 6th-8th grade

We need Help!

RLL runs on volunteers, and we need help. Lots of help!

Be on the lookout for a sign up for field cleanups once the season begins. We’re aiming for the week of April 8 to get the fields and facilities in shape for the season. Some of the work can be done during the week while the kids are practicing. Please consider helping! Lots of hands make light work. Best of all, no experience needed!

We are always looking for help in some form or another. Below is just a small list of Volunteer & Committee opportunities. Continue to watch your email and Facebook for opportunities to plug in and help the league. Many hands make light work! 

• Concessions: We need individuals to work alongside 2 employees during games. If we don't have any volunteers, the fans will have to deal with longer lines.
• Preseason/Opening Day Preparation: Get the fields ready for the start of the season.
• Pictures: Help get teams ready for their time slot and hand out pictures when we get them in.

In addition to the above roles needing to be filled, we'd like each family to consider volunteering 1 hour of their time just once during the season. Most of our volunteer board members bring their whole family out when volunteering at the fields. The kids get together and play a game of pick-up ball while the parents tackle the fields. It's a great way to give back to your community and a great way to invest in the children. And it's always fun getting to know other baseball and softball families! If you have any interest in helping, get in touch with us, or watch for opportunities via email or facebook!

If you missed the previous emails with 2024 REGISTRATION INFORMATION including: season dates, player and umpire registration, age divisions, etc. click on this link àRockford Little League > Home (rockfordll.com)

Sponsorship Opportunities:

Rockford Little League is dedicated to building character, courage and loyalty in local area youth by providing fun, safe, and competitive baseball and softball programs. To be successful, RLL requires a tremendous amount of support by the local community.

We are a nonprofit organization whose primary objective is to cultivate and develop young athletes within the Rockford area to become athletes of the future. 

Registration is open, but we will officially kick off our 2024 season beginning April 22, 2024.  We expect to incur many known and unknown expenses in the development of this baseball/softball club.  The expense of creating a club and providing a safe environment for our athletes is much greater than one might expect.  For example, the cost of baseballs, bats, helmets and other associated equipment for training will be a significant expense.  These expenses in conjunction with field maintenance, repairs and other miscellaneous expenses will exceed what we receive in registrations.  In addition, for those athletes whose financial limitations prohibit them from participating, we will work with the families to provide aid so that the child may participate.

We rely on the support of individuals and the local area business to help provide these services to the youth in our community.  We are in the process of developing a variety of fundraisers that will be conducted between now and April 2024 to help fund our season.  Our recruiting efforts indicate that we will register over 800 kids this year.  With this type of enrollment, we expect to be a major player in the youth baseball/softball arena.  By helping us, you can help yourself.  As a sponsor, depending on the level of sponsorship you select, your name and/or organization will follow our teams wherever we go. 

BENEFITS OF BEING A SPONSOR

Your help and support will ensure our area youth are provided a positive baseball/softball experience. As an individual or local business involved with Rockford Little League, you will benefit by being recognized for your goodwill and support of youth baseball/softball.  For less than the price of a full-page ad in any publication, you can broadcast your message every day to the hundreds of people who visit the Rockford Little League complex.

Sponsors are a vital part of Rockford Little League, and we very much appreciate their support of the league.  Without the support of our sponsors, it would be a difficult task to provide smooth operations for a community of our size.  We hope that your business will consider taking part in our growing program this year!

We will display your company or organization on our website so it can be viewed by thousands of people.  In addition, RLL is a 501(c)(3) which means your contribution is tax deductible!

BECOME A SPONSOR
If you or your company are interested in becoming a Rockford Little League sponsor, click here for our sponsorship form! Sponsorship opportunities begin at only $50!

DEADLINE for Sponsorship Commitment:         
February 1, 2024                        Coach Pitch, AA, AAA, Majors Divisions
March 1, 2024                Tball, Juniors, Seniors Divisions                                                                              

 
With your help, we will continue to provide the highest quality of youth baseball and softball to the kids in our community.  Thank you for your consideration.  Please contact us at [email protected] if you are interested in sponsoring a team. 

Sponsor Info (rockfordll.com)

Thank you to our 2024 RLL Sponsors:

Interested in Coaching? Another thing to consider when registering your child is coaching. Please consider being a head coach or assistant coach. One parent is usually at the fields with their child, so why not have some fun and give back to your community. Kids learn and improve faster when they have more coaches helping to run practices and get in more repetitions. If you’re not sure where to start, being an assistant is a great place! Reach out to Bill and Miguel if you have any questions about coaching at [email protected]. We could also use our kid pitch division coaches to assist at evaluations. Let us know if you’d like to help!

Coaches Corner: New from Little League International for the 2024 season…all volunteers, in addition to background checks, will have to complete and online Abuse Awareness Training course. It only takes about 30 minutes to complete and spits out a certificate at the end that will need to be sent to our Coaching Coordinators, Bill and Miguel, at [email protected]. You can email them with any questions as well! Here’s a link for the course: Abuse Awareness for Adults (mobilecoach.org)

We LOVE our RLL Families! Please reach out to us if you have any questions. We are always looking to improve and receive input from our families. You can email us at [email protected]. Please give us up to 72 hours to get back to you; we’re all volunteers here! Follow us on Facebook for the most up to date information! Www.rockfordll.com is also a great source for information. Check out the FAQ section!

We look forward to a great 2023 season and can’t wait to see everyone on the fields again!

Your Rockford Little League Board

Tenille Schlachter -- President 

Kristen Williams -- Vice President AND Sponsorship Coordinator

Bill Flavin and Miguel Quintanilla -- Coaching Coordinator

Cindy Oakes -- Player Agent 

Melissa Pitsch -- Treasurer

Jennifer Stolsonburg – Secretary

Jackie Bosman -- Equipment Coordinator

We need YOU! -- Safety Officer

And YOU!! -- Information Officer

And YOU!!! -- Umpire-In-Chief