Team,

We had a great first practice that was a lot of fun. Here are the things we worked on today:

• Athletic stance (everything starts from here!)
• Identified throwing hand, glove hand, and throwing foot (back foot in throw)
• Throwing position (athletic stance, glove arm/shoulder/elbow pointed at target, throwing arm behind body toward SS) 
• Catching ball out front with no glove (no T-Rex arms... AKA, don't catch with your face!)
• How to hold a bat (align knocking knuckles, glove hand on the bottom, throwing hand on top)
• Plate approach, batting stance (athletic stance, bat to shoulder, check grip, take bat off shoulder, raise hands)
• Identified first, second and third base, and home.
• Running through first base (break down after the base, turning and walking back to first)
• Running through first base on a hit (get outside, round the base, break down, then turn and go back to first)

Parents, please work on the things we practice at home with your child! I recommend that you purchase a larger ball (like a foam dodgeball) to work on catching out front with the arms extended at home. Make sure your child is tracking the ball all the way to their hands. We will be practicing the things we learned today in different stations in the future. I will need parent help to accomplish this.

Our next practice will be this Friday, 19 February, at 4:30 pm at HNOJ. I will send out out pre-season schedule in the next email. See you then!

Kevin

 

Team,

Due to the weather we are expecting to come in tomorrow, I've decided that moving our practice up to 8:30 am will allow us enough time to meet and cover administrative tasks while also being able to hold a (roughly) 1 hour long practice before the rain starts. 

I know three families are out of town this weekend, so if you're not one of them, please let me know if you'll have a tough time making 8:30 am. We are meeting at field behind the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church that located at 1200 Valparaiso Blvd in Niceville. If you have your child's medical release form already, please make sure to bring it so we can check it off. 

For jersey numbers, I copy the following:

Henry Borup - 5

James Farley - 7

Alexander Hernandez - 9

Emerson Mullendore - 22

Kade Osborne - 85

If you have not contacted me yet about a jersey number, please do so ASAP -- email or text. 

See everyone tomorrow,

Coach Kevin

 

Parents and Players,

Welcome to NVLL Minors C Coach Pitch! My name is Kevin Farley and I will be your coach this season. I am excited to have this opportunity to instruct your child. My aim this season is to help your child develop a firm foundation of fundamental baseball, good sportsmanship, and competitive spirit,. I also want to inspire in them a life-long love for the game of Baseball. I expect to have fun in this pursuit while building on other lifelong skills such as team work, and stick-to-itiveness. Safety for our children will always be my number one priority.

Our first team meeting & practice will be, Monday, 15 February, at the Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church at 9:30 AM. The address is 1200 Valparaiso Blvd, Niceville 32578. There is a big field behind this church where we will frequent for practice until we can work a schedule to fit with the high demand of Twin Oaks. In case it is still raining on Monday, we may have to delay our meeting until the afternoon. I appreciate you all being flexible with the timing of our first meeting. I will keep everyone in the loop — if anything, we will need to knock out gathering administrative items. I hope we can practice too!

Once the season starts, you can expect to have no more than two games per week with one or two practices in-between. Our pre-season will be busy as we only have a few short weeks to come together as a team before our first game on March 8. There will be 2-4 practices per week until opening day. I plan on developing the schedule as soon as I get more information from the league and I hope to release it soon. All updates regarding the team roster, game/practice schedule, and news bulletins will be published on the NVLL website. Please ensure that you check in regularly for any/all updates. I may extend scheduling to the SSU Play App that you can download on your phone in the app store -- more on this later. I recommend that everyone download this app and we can talk about it on Monday.

In the meantime, please make sure that your child is equipped for the season. They should have, at a minimum, a glove, cleats, a water bottle, and practice attire (baseball pants, an athletic shirt, and a hat). The league will provide our game uniforms by the first week of March just before opening day. If you plan on buying a bat for your child, please ensure that it meets USA-bat guidelines. You can find bat information on the NVLL website under League Info—LL Bat Information. I am also requesting that you send me an email, or text, with your child’s top 2 jersey number preferences.

Administrative: For our first practice, please come prepared with (1), a copy of your child’s medical release form. This form will keep us informed on how to help your child in the event of an emergency. Please also address any additional safety needs that we should be aware of. (2), I am without my assistant coaches that I had last year and I am calling on 1-2 of you to volunteer to fill this roll. Along with assistant coaches, any additional help that we can get from parents during practice and pre-game preparation will be phenomenal. In particular, I want to highlight the importance of (3), our Team Mom. This person will take on a great deal of responsibility and will work closely with me throughout the season. We will also need (4) a volunteer to help keep the dugout in order (believe me, this is no small task with children this young!). And finally, we will need (5) one person to volunteer to keep the score book -- I will show you how to keep the book if you don't know. This will help free up our coaching staff so they can focus on our players.

If you would like to help out (assistant coach or team mom), please fill out the volunteer application located on the NVLL website (and let me know you’re interested!). Important documents can be found under League Info—Documents. I also encourage parents to be familiar with Little League Rules as well as NVLL Local Rules / Regulations. 

Together, through our joint effort, we can make this season a fun, fulfilling and memorable experience. I look forward to meeting each and every one of you. I encourage all parents to facilitate your child’s growth in this sport by taking the things we practice home with you – whether it’s just talking through baseball rules and game situations at home, or playing catch and swinging the bat – anything you can do with your child is value added and will help ensure their life-long love for the game. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Play Ball!...

Kevin Farley 

cell: 702-327-6990