As a board, when it comes to establishing our program’s divisions, it’s our goal to accomplish three things:
- We want our players and their families to have the best possible experience.
- We want to encourage skill development putting players of similar physical development, experience, and skill into the same division.
- We want our players to be as well-prepared as possible for participation in postseason tournament play.
Our divisions have been designed with these goals in mind.
Softball Divisions
Our softball program is divided into six divisions:
- Tee Ball: ages 4-6.
- Coach Pitch Softball: ages 7-8.
- Player Pitch Softball: ages 9-10.
- Softball: ages 11-12.
- Junior League: ages 13-14.
- Senior League: ages 14-17.
Creation of Junior League and Senior League softball teams will depend on there being enough interested players to field those teams. If you have a player interested in either of these leagues please let us know by sending us an email.
Baseball Divisions
Our baseball program is broken into seven divisions:
- Tee Ball: ages 4-6.
- Coach Pitch: ages 7-8.
- 10U Live Pitch: ages 9-10.
- 12U Major League: ages 11-12.
- Junior League: ages 13-14.
- Senior League: ages 14-17.
Overcomer Division
Our Overcomer Division is geared towards ensuring a great experience for every player. The Overcomer Division is open to special needs players ages 4-18 but please do contact the Board if you have a player outside the listed age range who wishes to participate.
Tee Ball
Our Tee Ball division consists of a softball and baseball division for players ages 4-6.
Tee Ball is designed for our youngest and least-experienced players. It consists of tee-ball play where our goal is to encourage the development of a basic understanding of the game, and to ensure our youngest players have a blast.
As the season progresses and the kids gain experience, the tee ball division will also include some coach-pitch.
Tee ball is a ton of fun for the players, coaches, and parents. Competition is present, but very much secondary to skill development and good old-fashioned fun.
8U Coach Pitch
Our CoachPitch League is open to 7 and 8 year old baseball players.
Allowing coaches to pitch in this league leads to exciting games with lots of action. This means lots of fun for the players, an exciting game for the spectators, and ample opportunity for the development of field awareness and position skills as there are lots of hits in this league.
8U Coach Pitch League (Softball)
The coach pitch division is a softball only league for 7-8 year old players.
10U Live Pitch
The 10U Live Pitch League provides an introduction to pitching to both baseball and softball players. The baseball league uses a modified approach to baserunning in which players may not take leadoffs or steal until the baseball has crossed home plate.
12U Major League and 12U Softball
Players continue to pitch in this league. In baseball, the pitching distance and base paths are increased slightly from the distance in the 10U league. The 12U Major Baseball league also allows players to take leadoffs and steal bases following the normal rules of baseball.
Junior and Senior League
Our Junior and Senior Leagues are formed up much the same as our Minor and Major Leagues. There are separate softball and baseball divisions in our Junior and Senior Leagues.
Once signups are complete the HCYBS board will meet to decide how many Senior League and Junior League baseball and softball teams to create.
All 15-17 year-old players will play in Senior League while 13 year-old players will play in Junior League. The 14 year olds will play either Junior or Senior League based on a draft held by the coaches of the Junior and Senior League teams.
Can a Player Move Up or Down a Division?
As a general rule, players need to remain in the division dictated by their age.
The HCYBS Board will consider requests for exceptions on a case-by-case basis. However, exceptions will usually only be allowed if leaving the player in their normal division would cause a safety issue for the player or for other players in that division.
The Board has ultimate authority in deciding whether a player should play in their normal division or will be allowed to move to a different division, and decisions made by the Board are final.
Our divisions have been designed with a great deal of thought and care by our board, which is composed of some of our most experienced coaches and parents of players of all ages and experience levels.