Q: Do you have any programs for children not yet in kindergarten?

Q: Why aren’t pre-kindergarteners permitted to play tee-ball?

For players entering Kindergarten in the fall, we have a wiffleball program.

The Rookie Coach Pitch (or Tee-Ball) program begins with students in kindergarten during the current school year, when the season begins.  

The program has included kindergarteners since its beginnings years ago. During the early and middle 1990's the program was expanded to include 5 year-olds not yet in kindergarten and was intended to be a two-year program.

However, many kindergarteners who had completed a year of tee-ball, skipped the second year of the program and "played up" in the coach pitch baseball league with first and second graders.

In 1998 after three years of consistent feedback from parents, coaches, and volunteer league commissioners, it was decided to return to the original program design and once again have Tee-Ball be a one year program.  The program now is for kindergarteners only.

The overwhelming feedback from Tee-Ball parents was that two years of Tee-Ball was too much.  One year was plenty for this beginners program. 

The feedback from parents and coaches in the Coach Pitch league was that, while some kindergarteners might be ready to play with older students, most were not and their participation was a drawback to them and the first and second graders in the league. Much of the concern had to do with the playing skill difference of two years and the social skill differences. Furthermore, a great number of the friends of kindergarteners were in the Tee-Ball program.

In 2008 four pitches were added to Tee-Ball before the ball must be placed on a tee, and the program was renamed Rookie Coach Pitch.

Rookie Coach Pitch program description.