Ridgefield Little League - Safe return to Play Spring 2021 & League Updates
February 2, 2021 – Ridgefield Little League would like to announce plans to have a Spring 2021 Little League Baseball & Softball season. The past year has been very hard on everyone and especially our young athletes. After the delay and eventual cancellation of the Little League Spring & Fall 2020 seasons along with all other League involved events we are extremely excited to start planning for a start & registration of a Spring 2021 Baseball & Softball season. While there are still some conditions and unknown timelines, The District RLL is a member of has decided on starting a season rollout around the middle of April 2021 and running through June 2021 for regular season play.
RLL is also planning other events for this coming season outside of the regular season activities, including a ‘Return to Play - 2021 Opening or Closing Ceremony’ in some fashion, the 2021 MLB Pitch, Hit & Run competition & MLB/Little League Jr. Home Run Derby as well as RLL Hitting League competitions, Clinics and camps with local coaches and organizations, including the Ridgefield Raptors!
Ridgefield Little League has been working closely with Little League, other local area leagues, The City of Ridgefield and the Ridgefield School District for a safe return to play at the facilities that RLL uses for practice, games and events. RLL will be following all directives and guidance from the State of Washington and local government regarding resuming our Little League program, while also following the Little League Best Practices Guide (Found at https://www.littleleague.org/downloads/best-practices/ for download.)
Currently in the Phase the region RLL resides (SW Washington region), once registration opens and eventually teams are formed and practices start there will be requirements that will need to be followed by all involved, including the athletes, parents, coaches and spectators. Athletes and coaches will be required to wear face coverings at all times, indoors & outdoors. Outdoor team practices are allowed and players will need to be organized into groups of 5 or 6 athletes in separate parts of the field, separated by a buffer zone. Brief close contact (ex: 3 on 3 drills) is permitted. Indoor practice facilities will be used but must adhere to guidelines for the number of athletes and coaches allowed to participate in the particular facility. Spectators and parents will not be allowed to remain inside certain facilities to allow for the per person square foot occupancy for the athletes and coaches.
While all these guidelines seem like a lot to handle and can be frustrating, our region continues to progress in Phases, and limitations will be eased. These guidelines keep our community safe and most importantly it gets our Baseball & Softball players back out on the fields playing a great game, building friendships and memories.
New Website and Player Management System
Ridgefield Little League’s volunteer Board of Directors has been working hard to plan a transition to a new and more informative website and Player management/registration system. The new platform with Stack Sports is fully integrated with Little League to allow RLL to have better management of the data for players, parents and coaches including team pages, schedules, scores, events and many other Baseball and Softball Rulebooks, Apps and Little League resources that are available.
New users will need to register as a new user/player/parent, however RLL will be migrating existing users to the new platform over the next week and once the new website launches and registration opens, existing users will receive and email to setup credentials for their migrated account. As this will all be new, we thank you for your patience and understanding in this transition.
Be sure to follow RLL on our Facebook page and our website for any updates over the next week. We look forward to finally getting the kids back out there playing!