|
Expanded Opportunity
With the large number of Babe Ruth leagues in NH,we facilitate cooperation and coordination between leagues to broaden each league's game schedule. This provides a richer season and is mutually beneficial to small local leagues looking for more variety in their schedules.
Program Structure & Support
Creating a program of this nature is no small undertaking. Babe Ruth has thousands of person-years experience in building youth based programs. By joining Babe Ruth, a league gains the use of all that experience. Each year, the league receives:
- Full complement of manuals for each critical position in the league from President to Secretary.
- Guidelines and checklists for getting a season started.
- Rule Books designed specifically for youth oriented programs.
- Access to comprehensive and affordable league accident and liability insurance.
- Researched and approved optional fund raisers.
- Sponsors lists, often with discounts for authorized Babe Ruth programs.
- Infra-structure of state level personnel specifically assigned to softball and dedicated to the success of each local program.
- Access to the National Umpires Association to attract and train quality game officials.
Besides all of this, participation in a state organization allows the league to network with other programs. The benefit of this cannot be understated.
Flexibility for Local Issues
Unlike most other national programs, Babe Ruth is perhaps unique in its understanding that local leagues often have local issues that require some flexibility in program design. Therefore, each league is allowed a wide berth in structuring its program. The overriding Babe Ruth goal is that the youth benefit from the program.
The only issues where the rules are rigid would be where safety or liability may be concerned, or those involving tournament eligibility.
Tournaments Based on Parity
Certainly one of the greatest advantages of any international program is the opportunity to compete at a higher level. This really serves two purposes. First and foremost, it provides an opportunity for the most skilled and committed players to challenge themselves beyond the local league season. Playing at a higher degree of competition will help them advance their abilities. Participating and advancing through a national tournament trail is an exciting experience that will remain with them forever.
Moreover, this level of competition allows any program to benchmark its progress against other similar programs. Each event is an opportunity to learn through competition and to exchange ideas and information.
The key to productive and healthy competition however, is enforced program parity, and in this respect, the Babe Ruth design is unparalleled.
Babe Ruth eligibility is based first on properly rostered players and coaches. Next, each league enters a tournament team for every ten teams registered for the local season. Each tournament team is drawn from only the players registered in that division. Therefore, all teams are drawn from the same sized player pool.
Please note, and this is important, Babe Ruth allows multiple divisions under one charter. Each division may consist of 4-10 teams. Unlike other programs, Babe Ruth does not insert an intrusive practice to break up community based programs just because they have been successful in drawing in a large body of players. The Babe Ruth structure allows for large community program and still enables parity so that a small town may compete evenly with a large city.
|
|
