Our baseball program is open to all youth ages 5 to 16.  Our “league age” is the age of the player as of August 1st of each year.

The following is a brief outline of our programs…

T-BALL – T-Ball ages: 5, 6 & first-year 7 year olds. T-Ball is for the first year player, teaching them the basic fundamentals of the game of baseball.  The emphasis is on fun and learning, in a non-competitive atmosphere.  The teams will have a couple of practices in late-May, then 2 games per week on weeknights.  The games take place within a very localized area.  The travel is very minimal; maybe to the Sunset High School area would be the farthest at this level.  The season concludes mid-July.  I have seen coaches at this level teach their kids to hit a pitched ball, instead of hitting off of a tee.

INSTRUCTIONAL – Instructional Level is for the 7 and 8 year olds, most of whom have had a year at T-Ball, and also for some first-year 9 year olds who have no experience playing sports of any kind.  We do discourage the 9’s at this level, but have made exceptions in the past.  The Instructional Level will give the younger players a chance to learn a more realistic, yet still age-appropriate, way to play the game.  The emphasis is still on fun and learning, in a non-competitive atmosphere.  The pitching is done by the coach or by pitching machine.  The season runs about the same as the T-Ball schedule.  

MIDGET – This program is for players 9 and 10 years old.  Standings are kept, with the qualifying teams going on to the State Tournament in late July.  

JUNIOR – This program is for players 11 and 12 years old.  Standings are kept, with the qualifying teams going on to the State Tournament in late July.  

SENIOR – This program is for players 13 and 14 years old.  The Senior Program is a Spring/Summer league for all levels of play.  The Senior Program begins games in mid April and continues through July.  

The Midget, Junior and Senior age divisions are divided into three levels of play, Federal, American, and National.  Players are divided into these levels based on skill evaluations and tryouts.  The Federal Level is our highest level of competition, with these teams doing a considerable amount of traveling, depending on the number of weekend tournaments the team signs up for.  You will also hear these teams called “select” teams, as the coaches have a tryout before our regular evaluations.  The American Level is for the player who needs to fine-tune his/her skills in a very competitive environment.  Often, there is little difference in the American and Federal levels, other than number of games played.  The National Level is for the player who still needs to work on his/her skills in an atmosphere of less pressure.  The National Level is also for the families who do not wish to play in many tournaments throughout the summer weekends.  It is still a competitive level, but more emphasis is placed on the learning aspect of the game.

Dual Participation

The issue of playing both Junior Baseball and Little League has been a problem for years in our Midget and Junior divisions.  There is a misconception that we are a “summer” program and Little League is a “spring” program.  The reality is that we start practices in March with our Federal Teams, and late April with the others.  There is a significant overlap of the two programs. 

In the past, we have allowed our Federal coaches the freedom of telling the players that they would have to commit to one or the other.  The issue then trickled down to our American and National levels.  We feel that it is not fair to the players who have committed to our program to be the only ones at a practice, while the “dual participants” only show up for the games.  The other issue is we feel it is unfair to make the kids decide which team to let down when the two leagues’ games conflict. 

For these, and other reasons, it is necessary to commit to the Westview Baseball program if your desire is to play in this organization.  Dual participation with any other team while playing in the Westview Program is no longer possible, at the Midget, Junior or Senior Levels. 

The above does NOT pertain to the Instructional or T-Ball Levels of play.