The Rochester Youth Baseball Association's House Program
provides kids with an opportunity to play baseball on fields within the city
of Rochester. There is no travel outside of the city.
The House program consists of the Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd,
and 3rd Grade programs and the 4th, thru 8th/9th Grade programs. The main
difference between the age levels is that K-3 has all skill levels within the
program, but the 4th - 8/9th Grade programs include a Majors and a Minors
division. Placement in a division is
determined prior to the start of the season with 2 - 3 days of tryouts and
evaluations done by school grade. This
is done to attempt to create a safe, but competitive environment where players
can enjoy the game with kids at a similar skill level.
TRYOUTS
The tryouts are evaluations on the fundamentals of fielding,
catching, throwing, hitting, and base running.
During the tryouts, house league coaches may conduct the drills at each
station, but the evaluations are done by traveling program coaches for
impartiality. After tryouts, each
player's evaluation is entered into a spreadsheet. Players scoring above the
median are placed on Majors teams, and players scoring below the median are placed
on Minors teams, but ALL kids are placed on a team. We encourage all players to
tryout. We do allow players to forgo the tryout evaluations, and they are
placed on Minors teams. There will be a future blog regarding Tryouts where I
plan to delve more into the details of House Program tryouts and evaluations.
PLAYERS/TEAMS/COACHES
Last year in all House Programs K-8th there were over 130
teams formed and more than 1,570 registered kids, played in 1,890 regular
season games. We reached out and select
one Head Coach for each of those teams.
They in turn selected at least one or two assistant coaches. Wow! That
number is fabulous. In addition to the
players and coaches, there are many more parents and families members involved
in Rochester Baseball in various ways. Our Motto is "Youth Growing Through
Baseball". Players having fun and along the way learning baseball
fundamentals should be the goal of parents and coaches. We encourage this over
winning games, and hope to instill this sentiment into everyone involved.
GAMES
During the regular season two weekday games are played in
the evenings for all grades. The games
are played either Monday's and Wednesday's or Tuesday's and Thursday's
depending on grade. Games begin in mid May running up to July 4th holiday with
some time off for the Memorial and Independence day holidays. Then a few more weeks of games in July. The
seasons for Kindergarten and 1st grade are then completed.
TOURNAMENTS
For 2nd and 3rd Grade players, there will be an optional
year end tournament around the first weekend in August.
Playoffs for 4th - 8th grade are held after regular season
finishes. Generally starting on a Friday evening or Saturday morning,
concluding with a championship game on Sunday afternoon.
The RYBA website is a great place to visit for updated
information. Once the site is updated for 2014, there you will find Tryout
Schedule, Grade Rules, Coach Training, Team Schedules, and later… Game Results.
There is also an opportunity for each team to create their specific Team webpage
with practice schedule, notes, team stats, and pictures.
Looking forward to successful 2014 Baseball Season.
Tom Jahns - House Programs Director
trjahns53@gmail.com
