Looking for advice.

Hey all looking for some help.

My wife and I took on the task of starting a little league softball program in the area.
We have joined with the baseball program that is already set and established we ran a camp in the fall which went well. So spring time is here and we have been pushing sending flyers out in schools going to youth basketball games passing out flyers. This weekend was the walk up registration. We are offering 8u 10u and 12u (6u would play baseball co-ed unless a big sign up for softball ). The response so far is that 5 girls have signed up.


So I guess what I'm asking is for anyone with experience with a little start up or any advice in general how can I get this thing swinging in the right direction.

Thanks for your help.

I don't have exoerience starting a program but I can tell you how ours is run:
People/parents aren't good at planning ahead. If you have names from your fall Clinic, start by emailing them. There will always be people who just show up at the last minute- unfortunately those people aren't good at letting you know before a game that they can't make it to.
Keep sending out email reminders.
T-Ball-Co-ed
Coach pitch- co-ed
Farm-U7 I think
Minors- U10
Majors- U12

In our town, LL softball is competing with AAU soccer, Basketball and Lacrosse, not to mention dance, figure skating, etc.

Are there girls currently in the LL baseball program? Do nearby towns have LL softball?
Our senior league numbers were low, so we merged with other nearby towns LL programs and traveled to the other towns for away games.
I don't know if Softball had farm when my older DD was that age so she played coach pitch for a year or two before moving to minors.
If your numbers are really low, maybe do it as a town league first where you have t-shirts instead of uniforms , reserve field time and treat it as a Clinic for the first year, after which maybe there's a summer league in your area where you play teams from other towns.

Good luck!

Contact your local newspaper and ask if they will run a small add in the sports section for you. Our local paper will do a week for free to help organizations like yours. You can always ask.

Call the local schools and ask if you bring in the flyers (ask how many girls in school and take enough for each girl so they don't have to use their paper or print them off) if they will give them out to the girls. Just a couple ideas we have used in the past.

Would not hurt to try to get a local teacher to help.

The best idea we did that really helped was send regristration forms to all schools in the district. That seemed to be the best method.

Facebook. Local swap sites, local sports sites, whatever covers your specific geography. I’m amazed how some of these young parents cannot function without asking questions on fb. Seems like the only place info is exchanged. Some have no idea where to find important info. Good luck and hang in there.

obbay said:

I don't have exoerience starting a program but I can tell you how ours is run:
People/parents aren't good at planning ahead. If you have names from your fall Clinic, start by emailing them. There will always be people who just show up at the last minute- unfortunately those people aren't good at letting you know before a game that they can't make it to.
Keep sending out email reminders.
T-Ball-Co-ed
Coach pitch- co-ed
Farm-U7 I think
Minors- U10
Majors- U12

In our town, LL softball is competing with AAU soccer, Basketball and Lacrosse, not to mention dance, figure skating, etc.

Are there girls currently in the LL baseball program? Do nearby towns have LL softball?
Our senior league numbers were low, so we merged with other nearby towns LL programs and traveled to the other towns for away games.
I don't know if Softball had farm when my older DD was that age so she played coach pitch for a year or two before moving to minors.
If your numbers are really low, maybe do it as a town league first where you have t-shirts instead of uniforms , reserve field time and treat it as a Clinic for the first year, after which maybe there's a summer league in your area where you play teams from other towns.

Good luck!

Click to expand...

Some of the girls do play baseball. But our 8u baseball uses the machine pitch. Which scares off a lot of the girls. Seems they are intimidated by it.

Our county is split up into 7 districts 6 of the 7 have softball 3 to 4 teams per age group. We are the only district not to have a team.

We are in almost every elementary school now there are a couple that the principals are being hard to work with so we have go above them to try and get in.

We have a FB page and website we also set a a Google docs question page.
We are definitely in it for the long haul.

Thanks for the suggestions please keep them coming

Westwind said:

Facebook. Local swap sites, local sports sites, whatever covers your specific geography. I’m amazed how some of these young parents cannot function without asking questions on fb. Seems like the only place info is exchanged. Some have no idea where to find important info. Good luck and hang in there.

Click to expand...

I second Facebook. In our area there are a lot of neighborhood Facebook pages (or pages for specific schools), and DD's league advertises on those pages regularly.

burlap1980 said:

Hey all looking for some help.
We have joined with the baseball program that is already set and established we ran a camp in the fall which went well. So spring time is here and we have been pushing sending flyers out in schools going to youth basketball games passing out flyers. This weekend was the walk up registration. We are offering 8u 10u and 12u (6u would play baseball co-ed unless a big sign up for softball ). The response so far is that 5 girls have signed up.

So I guess what I'm asking is for anyone with experience with a little start up or any advice in general how can I get this thing swinging in the right direction.

Thanks for your help.

Click to expand...

- Walk up registration are inconvenient and annoying. Make sure you have an ONLINE way to signup. People expect that today.It is easy enough to set up through any number of team websites.

- Offer a special SIBLING discount for those already in the baseball program

- Many Cities have emailed newsletters. Get on them. Same with community magazines - great place to promote the sport.

- How many of the campers are signed up? Can you have another event for those who sign up (Our local HS coach and his girls come out every year to run the first clinic of the REC season)

- Can you do roadside small signs? Like the 'OPEN HOUSE' signs - big letters, easy to read and put them at shopping centers, front of the parks, etc. These are 1000% more effective than posting signs

- FACEBOOK - you have to basically spam it. There will be groups like "State Fastpitch Player Search" or "State Fastpitch Forum" or similar. In Florida there is roughly 12 of these groups - post there 2-3 times a week or whatever is the maximum allowed. Have everyone share your posts. Even spend some cash boosting posts if you are getting a response. Having a page is good - but it just a start.

- There will also be some for of local tryout posting forum for travel. Go find it - post there a lot. Once or twice a week

- Local YMCA kids events or similar are always a good spot to hand out flyers (we always get kids from the local 'movie night'

- One year we found out that soccer had too many kids and had a major waiting list. We actually worked with them to offer a discount for those on the waiting list once it as clear they didn't have room for them (i..e their teams were formed)

- Make sure you have a SEPARATE website or separate advertising from the baseball side. Flyers that say signup for Baseball and Softball only work for Baseball. You will notice softball will ALWAYS be second on these efforts. People subconsciously notice that you are an afterthought. SOFTBALL front and center - don't rely on piggybacking on baseball. It doesn't work.

- While you might have a good relationship now, everyone who has been through that joint baseball/softball thing will tell you that baseball WILL drag you down. You will eventually end up hating that softball is a secondary thought to all the boys teams. Just something long term to think about.

- FOCUS on 8U and 10U to start. 12U is going to be much tougher to get players. You will build from these younger girls.

- Don't give up - they will turn up.


BTW, when you do get enough for 6U - if you can't have an all-girls division at least have an all girls team. Experience says 95% of girls don't come back if they are on a co-ed team but 95% do come back if it is a an girls team or division. Retention is key.

ADDED: Information. You must have ALL the information people want on the website and FB page so they can make a decision.
- Cost
- Number of games
- Practice days
- Game days
- Start date of season and likely last day.
- Times
- Coaches
- Umpires
- Rules
- Locations
- CONTACT INFO (specific for softball) - email, phone, FB, twitter, smoke signals... every option you can think of
- Clinics, events, promotions, etc, etc...

Good luck

Ditto the online presence you HAVE to have a way to sign up online. Every girl that was at fall camp should be your first target, girls that played LL baseball should be your next target, getting a flyer home from school in every kids backpack is also key.

A website example attached below from my old stomping grounds.



Keep pushing we have had registration tables outside the local sporting good stores (usually two weeks) it does not bring in a lot but maybe another dozen or so plus it spreads the word.

Unfortunately parents are notorious for signing up at the last minute...we offer early registration discounts.