Why Wiseburn Little League?

The current landscape of youth sports is far and wide, so why choose Wiseburn Little League?

Wiseburn Little League is currently the ONLY co-ed youth athletic program to wear the Wiseburn name!  Our focus is on nurturing the love of baseball within the Wiseburn community.  We strive to create an environment that is welcoming for players of all abilities.  We offer play that is both accommodating and competitive, and allows nearly all participating families the ability to walk (or bike) to our fields. 

The little league age chart mimics the age system used to place children in the appropriate grade in school.  This makes Little League the ideal program for children who want to play baseball with their classmates.  Little League has been ingrained in our community for almost 70 years, we aim to make it the best community focused program that we possibly can!

Divisions of Play

Tee Ball is an instructional level to teach four and five-year-old players the fundamentals of baseball by the simplest method possible - letting them play the game.  It is intended for all four-year-olds and five-year-olds who have not played previously.

Emphasis is on instruction and fun, not competition.  Tee Ball coaches are allowed on the field to offer instruction during the game.  Every player will be given the opportunity to try different positions and every player plays the entire game in the field.  On offense, every player gets an at bat every inning and there are no outs.  We use a 50-foot diamond and do not keep score.  We focus on the excitement of the game and fundamentals of teamwork and sportsmanship.

Tee Ball is great fun, but the kids need to be ready to play and the parents need to be involved.  This is a team sport, and not a drop-off activity.  It typically takes multiple coaches/parents to effectively run a Tee Ball game.  Parents should be practicing baseball skills at home as well to maximize player development and love of the game.

Tee Ball participants are allowed to request coaches and teammates.  We cannot guarantee requests, but we will do our best to honor as many requests as possible.  Encourage your friends to come play with us and see how much fun baseball can be!

Tee Ball Developmental Goals:

• Fundamental baseball skills. 
• Holding a bat, standing in the batter’s box, running the bases.
• Learn fielding positions, which areas to cover, fielding a basic ground ball, throwing to first base, fielding a basic fly ball.
• How to catch a ball, fingers up or fingers side.  
•  Encouraging good habits on and off the field.

Single A is an instructional level to teach five and six-year-old players the fundamentals of baseball by the simplest method possible - letting them play the game. It is intended for all six-year-olds and for five-year-olds who have previously played baseball.

Emphasis is on instruction and fun, not competition. Every player is given the opportunity to try different positions and every player plays the entire game. Coaches will pitch to the players in this division, and the tee will only be re-introduced if the player cannot make contact with the ball.  Every player is in the batting order, and the concepts of outs and runs are introduced during the course of the season.  The field is a 50-foot diamond.

Single A players are allowed to request coaches and teammates. We cannot guarantee requests, but we will do our best to honor as many requests as possible.  

At this age, some families may feel that their player is ready for a more competitive experience.  This would be limited to Single A players who already have a solid grasp of fundamental baseball skills.  Hitting well against kid / coach pitch, fielding balls on defense, and making accurate throws consistently would be skills needed to fall into this group.  If you believe this is the case for you, please contact us at [email protected] to ask about attending evaluations for our AA division!  Players will only be allowed to “play up” by attending an evaluation and getting approval from our player agents.

Single A Developmental Goals:

• Learn fielding positions, which areas to cover. 
• Hitting while a coach is pitching.  Batter timing with a pitcher.  Grip, stance, load, bat knob to catcher / knob to pitcher swing.
•  Getting outs after the ball is put in play.

Double A is an instructional level to teach seven & eight-year-old players the fundamentals of baseball.  Emphasis is on instruction and fun, but this is the division where we begin to keep score and where the game begins to feel like “real” baseball.  Every player will be given the opportunity to try different positions and every player is in the batting order.  Innings are limited to 3 outs (or 5 runs).  This level uses a combination of kids pitching and the blue flame pitching machine, on a 60-foot diamond.  We have an end of season tournament, where teams compete to win.  We also assemble select teams at this age group and play tournaments with other surrounding Little Leagues.

Starting with Double A, we require all players to participate in the pre-season player evaluations.  We want all of the kids to have fun and develop as players.  While we recognize that kids this age want to play on the same team as their friends, it is not a positive experience for everyone if teams are stacked and games have lopsided scores.  It is a lot more fun and better for everyone's development, to have a division with balanced teams and competitive games. We know that your kids will make some incredible new friends on the diamond this season!

AA Developmental Goals:

• Pitching.  Learning how to pitch with a consistent delivery and accuracy.  Sticking to a single pitch type and working towards 80% strike accuracy.
• Introduction to catching:  Catching the ball, blocking the ball, throwing back to the pitcher, tag plays at home, force plays at home.
• Baserunning situations. 0/1/2 outs. Fielding situations. 0/1/2 outs.
• Hitting the ball during player pitch, hitting the ball during machine / coach pitch.

Triple A is a developmental level, teaching nine and ten year old players more aspects of real baseball.  This is the first division where kids pitch the entire game.  While the AAA ruleset is modified per the Little League guidelines,  kids can now run the bases on passed balls, errors, etc.

All Triple A players are required to complete a pre-season Player Evaluation to help us place kids on teams.  Our goal is to create balanced teams that will have competitive games.  We find that it is a lot more fun for everyone, and much better for each player's development, if we create balanced teams.

AAA Developmental Goals:

• Pitching.  Getting ahead in the count and consistently throwing strikes.  Multiple pitch types not recommended unless a pitcher can achieve 80% accuracy with a fastball.
• Catcher development continues.  Building on the core concepts introduced in AA, plus throwing plays to 2nd and 3rd base. 
• Baserunning, stealing after the ball crosses home plate, advancing on passed balls, “tagging up” on less than two outs, running hard on 2 outs.
•  Fielding - The Three “B”s of defense - Going for the Ball, covering a Base, or being a Backup to another player.  1st and 3rd situations. 

Majors is a competitive level, teaching eleven and twelve-year-old players additional aspects of competitive baseball.  Players are playing a modified Little League ruleset, however additional MLB concepts such as the “dropped third strike” are introduced.  This is a kid pitch division with a 60-foot diamond (46 feet to pitchers mound).

Most Majors players have been playing competitive baseball for many years, however we still encourage new players to play!  Teams are balanced to ensure all players have a positive experience during their season.  

All Majors players are required to complete a pre-season Player Evaluation to help us place kids on teams.  Our goal is to create balanced teams that will have competitive games.  We find that it is a lot more fun for everyone, and much better for each player's development, if we create balanced teams.

Majors Developmental Goals:

• Pitching.  Accuracy and getting ahead in the count above all else.  Introducing additional pitch types if accuracy is achieved with a 4 seam fastball.
• Continue goals from AAA with more specialized situation practice.
• Running on dropped 3rd strikes, catchers throwing to first on a dropped 3rd strike.