What does my Registration Fee cover? 

• Player uniforms (one shirt & hat)
• Field usage and light fees to the City of Lincoln $15
• Field lights (at fields where applicable)
• Umpires & Jr. Umpire program for upper divisions
• Equipment - (team catcher's gear, bats, balls, first-aid kit, etc.)
• Insurance expenses
• Venue fees for meetings (player draft, manager and team parent)
• Little League International fees
• District 11 fees
• Scorekeeping supplies
• Sanitation supplies
• Field equipment & field maintenance expenses
• Games and practices (weather and pandemics permitting)

Are uniforms included? Yes, you will get one jersey and hat.

 Last Day to Register? Regular Registration will end on January 15th. After Late Registration ends, players will be placed on waiting lists and availability is not guaranteed.

 Refunds policy? Refunds of your base registration fee will not be accepted after your child has their first practice. We are unable to refund $50 league raffle fee and $15 City of Lincoln assessment fee. Refunds are not given due to player injury, whether or not the injury occurred during and/or outside of Lincoln Little League play.

 When is Walk-In Registration? We will not have walk in registrations available this season.

Practices start? Team practices will start around early to mid February.

Games start? Games are scheduled to start around early-March.

Am I required to volunteer my time during the season? LLL is a 100% volunteer organization that requires a minimum of 4 hours of volunteer service for each family. Managers, two coaches, and the team parent are exempt from volunteer hours beyond their managing/coaching/parenting hours. A volunteer services deposit of $150 is required for each player. Volunteer checks will be collected by Managers when uniforms are handed out before the start of the season. Players will not receive their uniform until the volunteer check is provided. Please make checks payable to Lincoln Little League.

 How are teams determined? Can my child play on the same team as his friend or can I request a coach? 

LLL has several methods of putting together teams depending on the division.

 T-Ball/Farm/A/AA Divisions - Players may request to play with a friend or manager. The league will do its best to honor requests. If your child does not have a request, we try to build teams based on balances the ages of players to make balanced teams. The earlier you register the more likely this can happen. When you register late and teams are already formed or drafted this becomes more difficult and/or cannot be done.

 AAA/Majors/Jr. Divisions - LLL uses a player tryout system to evaluate a player’s skill level relative to others within the division. These divisions are then drafted by a team in their respective order by managers after tryouts. All players wanting to play in those divisions must attend one day (Select 8, 9-14 yr. olds). Tryouts are held over a two-day period. Players will be assigned a time slot upon arrival and group with players around their league age or skill level as much as possible. When the player arrives at the tryouts they will be directed to the registration table. The players will all be given an identification number to attach to the back of their shirt, and then directed to the warm-up area 30 minutes prior to their time slot.

How do I volunteer to be a manager/coach? We always need great coaches and managers. Please register/enroll as a volunteer on our website. Background checks and safety training courses are required for all managers, coaches and team parents, and scorekeepers, etc.

How do I volunteer for the league? The league operates on 100% volunteers. Many are just like you who with multiple kids, sports or jobs. We are always in need of umpires, board or committee members to help. Please reach out to our League Information Officer (LIO) 

When are Player Assessments/Tryouts?: Player Assessments/Tryouts are usually occur in late January.

Cancelled games:  If field conditions are damaged or unsafe, games may be cancelled by the league or City of Lincoln. We will do our best to reschedule games.

What is the structure of Lincoln Little League? LLL is a member of District 11 Little League, comprised of teams from the Sierra Foothills including: Rocklin, Tri-City, Auburn, Bear River, Penn Valley, Grass Valley, Nevada City, Foresthill, Mid-Placer (Newcastle) & Sierra Foothills.

When will we find out what team my child is on? In the levels of AAA and above, teams are assembled by a player draft following a player assessment usually at the end of January. We typically are assembling teams and hope to have them distributed by the second week of February.

Who will contact me regarding my child’s placement on a team? The team manager (head coach) will contact you by email at the email address of the account used to sign your child up.

When does the season start and end? Upper division practices begin early-February. The regular season games start early-March through mid-May for all. ***AA/AAA/Majors/Juniors participate in a local Tournament of Champions (TOC) after regular season ends. Please see Local and District TOC Overview). Immediately after Local TOC's is the District 11 TOC for winning AAA/Major/Juniors teams (AA does not participate in Districts) usually around mid-June. All-Stars the stars for selected players ages 8 and up begins with practices about mid-June; tournaments begin late-June and could take most the summer if the team is fortunate enough to win tournaments and advance. Our league does not control these dates. Once D11 determines host cities/leagues, volunteers and umpires are coordinated, they will share these dates with the league.

When is opening day? Saturday March 4th a 10am. The ceremony consists of an introduction of all teams and managers, the playing of the national anthem, recognition of local officials and our fundraising raffle prize drawing.

What is the raffle and city assessment fee for? Players are charged a $50 raffle fee and $15 city assessment fee when they register for Lincoln Little League.  The raffle fee can be recouped if the player chooses to sell raffle tickets prior to Opening Day.  The $15 city assessment fee is charged by the city to help upkeep the fields that we use for games and practices.

Where are practices and games held? For the most part, all practices and games are held at the following fields: Twelve Bridges Elementary field, Lincoln Crossing Elementary field, Joiner field, McBean park, and Potters field.

When are practices and games held? Lower divisions, AA and below can expect two, possibly three events per week. AAA and above can expect three to four events per week. Practices occur on weekdays starting potentially as early as 4pm and running through sunset. (Majors and above utilize fields with lights and may frequently have games or practices running to 9pm. AA will rarely utilize a field with lights. AAA will occasionally utilize a lighted field.) There is also usually one weekday and one Saturday game per week.

What division (playing level) should my child play in? What are the differences of each division? First, please understand a few of our rules. Players may not skip a division from year-to-year. Each division has a minimum and maximum age. Exceptions are made, but rarely, and typically only for safety reasons. We do encourage all players to move up one division each year unless they were still struggling to adapt at the end of the prior season. Minimum and maximum ages are: T-Ball age 4-6 (batting tee). Farm age 6-7 (coach pitch). Single A age 7-8 (coach pitch). AA age 8-10 (player pitch). AAA age 8-11 (player pitch and draft). Major age 10-12 (player pitch and draft). Juniors age 13-15 (player pitch and draft).

If I sign my child up for the AA/AAA/Majors offering, how will I know what level they’ll play in? This will be sorted out by the draft process following tryouts. All 12-year-olds must play within the Major Division unless specifically requested by a parent to remain in the Minor Division AND approved by the District 11 Administrator due to a safety issue. 11-year-olds not selected to play in the Major Division must be selected by a AAA manager. 10-year-olds not selected to play AAA Division must be selected by a AA manager. Depending on the availability of managers, we typically attempt to have enough Major/AAA/AA teams to ensure most players are drafted.

Which divisions have assessments, and do we have to attend? And, what’s the purpose of assessments? For players in AA and below, we do not have assessments. All levels AAA and up have an assessment process. Yes, all players in AAA and above should attend the assessment weekend. Players who do not attend assessments create unnecessary complexity in the draft process due to the fact that not all managers had a chance to evaluate that individual player. Players who do not attend assessments go into the “blind” draft and usually get drafted at the end. The purpose of assessments is for managers to evaluate players before the drafts.

What happens at assessments? When the player arrives at assessments, they will be directed to the check in table labeled by division. Only players who are paid registrants through the LLL website will be allowed to participate in the assessments. Registered players should sign up for an assessment time slot via Sign Up genius that will be posted on both the Lincoln Little League website and social media accounts.  There will be a walk-up registration table for those players who still need to register. They will receive the next available time slot to be assessed.  The players will all be given an identification number to attach to the back of their shirt, and then directed to the warm-up area.  During the assessment, each player will be evaluated while performing the following drills:

 1.    Catching fly balls

 2.    Fielding and throwing to 1^st base

3.    Soft toss hitting and running to 1^st base

Excluding checking in and warming up, the above drills will take about 30 minutes.

Can I keep my child in a lower division and prevent them from being drafted to a higher division? Parents of players aged 8-11 can request to stay in the division the child played the previous season. You must inform us of this at or before tryouts. Parents of players aged 12 can request a Little League waiver to play in the AAA division.  Each request must be approved by the LLL Board of Directors and subsequently forwarded to the District 11 Administrator for final approval. Please be aware of the following conditions when approved to play in a lower division:

1.    Players will not be eligible for a future “call-up” to replace players in a higher division.

2.    12 year olds are not eligible to pitch in the minor division

3.    Players will not be eligible for any of our All-Star teams that year.

What is a Call-up? Little League regulations require Major Division teams to play with the same number of players on each roster. In addition, LLL applies this rule to its AA and AAA Divisions. Should any Major, AAA or AA team lose a player during the season for any reason, a process has been put into place to replace players with players from a lower division. Players requested to move-up should see the promotion to the higher division as a positive experience. Players are not required to accept a call-up to a higher division. However, if a player declines a request to move-up, the player will be ineligible for future opportunities to move up to the higher division.

What equipment and uniform needs will my child have for the season? All teams will be equipped with catcher's gear, batting helmets and a bat. LLL will supply all players with a baseball hat and jersey. Players should purchase:

• Baseball pants (long or knicker/short style)
•  Belt
• Long baseball socks (only if you use knicker/short pants)
• Baseball cleats (yes, younger kids can use your soccer cleats)
• Glove
• *Bat bag
• *Helmet (if you do not want to use league)
• *Protective cup (not required until upper division but recommended boys get used to it)
• *Consider investing in a batting tee for practice at home.

 We understand you do not yet know your team colors, but you will still be using pants and socks for practice. Feel free to purchase exchange when you get your team colors. Coaches will specify your team colors for belt, pants and socks. New parents this can get expensive. *Items are not required. You can visit recommended items at Little League International for more information: https://www.littleleague.org/university/articles/get-the-gear-and-what-to-wear-for-little-league-practices/

Are there rules for minimum playing time? Yes, each division has a minimum play rule.

 Junior Divisions: In a 7-inning game, each player is required to play a minimum of 9 defensive outs and have one at-bat.

 Major Division: In a 6-inning game, each player is required to play a minimum of 6 defensive outs and a minimum of one at-bat.

AAA and below, a continuous batting order is employed.

Minor AAA and AA Divisions: All players will play a minimum of 2 innings in a game.  In addition, players must play a minimum of one inning at an infield position per game (1B, 2B, 3B, SS, P, and C).

A Division: All players will play an infield position (1B, 2B, 3B, SS, P, and C) for a minimum of two consecutive innings.

Who do I contact if I have a problem that needs to be discussed? LLL wants to ensure that each family will have an opportunity to address any concern. The league asks that you first address concerns with your manager. If you would like to address concerns with a league official, your first point of contact should be the Player Agent of your respective division. Please refer to our Board List at: https://lincolnllbaseball.org/content/21/Board for the league official most applicable to your concern.