OUR FULL SCHEDULE OF GAMES CAN BE SEEN IN AN ALWAYS UP-TO-DATE AND EASY-TO-READ GOOGLE DOCS SPREADSHEET HERE

PRINTABLE SCHEDULE AND FIELD MAP

April 29, 2021 – The Falmouth Little League Board of Directors has voted unanimously to follow the new Community Sports Guidelines from the State of Maine CDC and the updated recommendations of the Falmouth Department of Parks and Community Programs

UPDATED FALMOUTH LITTLE LEAGUE POLICY ON FACE MASKS

1. Players and coaches are no longer required to wear face masks on the playing field during practices and games.
2. Face masks only need to be worn when 6-foot social distancing cannot be maintained for a substantial period of time. This applies to coaches, players, and spectators at the game. Common sense should prevail. If several players come into close contact for 30 seconds during a practice drill or during a game, no masks are needed. If a whole team clusters together in the dugout for several minutes to stay dry during a rain shower, everyone should mask up.
3. All players and coaches must bring a mask to every practice and game and have it at the ready at all times.

DUGOUTS POLICY

4. If your team uses the dugout, everyone must mask up on the bench.

If you prefer to play the whole game without wearing face masks, then don’t use the dugout and space your players 6 feet apart along the outside of the sideline fence between the dugout and the outfield corner

5. Avoid big groups clustered together in the dugouts or on the field for extended periods of time. The Falmouth Little League Board recommends that coaches direct their players to park their equipment bags outside of the dugouts along the outside of the sideline fences during practices and games and maintain the standard 6-foot distancing when their team is off the field waiting to bat.  Only the on-deck hitter should be in the dugout area.

IF THE COACHES CHOOSE to place more than two players (or the whole team) on the bench inside the dugout area before or after the game, or during the half-innings when their players are waiting to bat, EVERYONE IN THE DUGOUT MUST MASK UP.

6. To reduce risk of injury, all bats should be stored inside the on-deck area of the dugout during practices and games. Players should only touch their bats when waiting on-deck or batting at the plate. If a player has a personal batting helmet, that should stay with the player’s equipment bag outside the dugout along the sideline fence.

7. Tee Ball games are played on makeshift fields created on the Big Legion Field outfield grass with no dugouts or sideline fences. Coaches and parents should work together to keep players as spread out as possible during practice time before the game and during the game when they are seated waiting to bat.  Coaches may decide to require Tee Ball players to wear face masks if too much clustering for extended periods of times cannot be avoided.

Our plans to safely and responsibly play games in all age divisions.

Safety checklist for players.

All players 13 and older may register here until May 15th.

The registration window for all other age divisions of baseball, softball, and tee ball has closed.

We are planning on playing ball at all age levels this spring! COVID-19 safety restrictions will be determined by the FLL Board working with the Town of Falmouth before we take the fields.

Save the following dates.

Register Online between February 1st and March 31st

Player Evaluations for AAA and Majors –  at Little Legion Baseball Fields Saturday, April 10 (Rain Date April 17)

Teams announced mid April

No Indoor Practices this year for AAA and Majors Baseball and Softball

Outdoor practices in April if weather and field conditions permit.

First Games May 3rd – Season to end June 12th or June 19th

No Opening Day Ceremony this year

CALLING ALL PARENTS OF 4th, 5th, AND 6th-GRADE BALLPLAYERS!

We currently have no returning board members and no new volunteers to help organize and run AAA and Majors baseball and softball in 2021. Help is needed at the AA level as well.

Little League an all-volunteer organization. Most 2020 board members have aged out and it is time for a new generation to take over.

Please email outgoing Falmouth Little League President RJ Matson for more information.  The next virtual board meeting is set for Thursday, February 25th, at 7:00 pm.

June 1, 2020 Update

The Falmouth Little League COVID-19 Safety Plan conforms to rules and recommendations of the State of Maine Checklist for Community Sports in Phase 2 of Governor’s Mills’ gradual reopening plan. We have modified the way we will hold practices and play games to mitigate the risk of coronavirus transmission. We have prepared a summary of what players and spectators may expect when they show up at the Little Legion Complex, as well.

We, the Falmouth Little League Board of Directors, acknowledge our right and responsibility to exercise our judgment and cancel play at any time if players and/or coaches show symptoms or test positive for COVID-19, if our safety guidelines are not being met, and if the rate of infections in Cumberland County rises dramatically and unexpectedly.

http://falmouthlittleleague.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/FalmouthLittleLeague-SafetyPlan-2020.pdf

http://falmouthlittleleague.net/site/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/FLL-Covid-19-Player-Rules.pdf

May 23, 2020

Out of ongoing Covid-19 safety concerns, in deference to the guidelines for youth and community sports released by the State of Maine on May 20th, and because many families in the younger divisions already have opted out and depleted our numbers, the Falmouth Little League Board of Director has voted to cancel much of our 2020 baseball and softball program and modify the way we will play on in the older divisions.

T-Ball – Cancelled

AA Baseball  – Cancelled

AA Softball – Cancelled

AAA Baseball – Regular season cancelled. Possible sandlot games would begin not before June 15th.

AAA players will not divide formally into teams. Falmouth Little League will offer the possibility of practices and/or sandlot games twice a week according to rules described in a new program created by Little League International. https://www.littleleague.org/play-little-league/sandlot-fun-days/

AAA and Majors Softball – Regular season cancelled. Possible sandlot games would begin not before June 15th.

Players will not divide formally into teams in AAA. Our Majors softball team does not have the option of playing teams from other towns. We will offer the possibility of practices and/or sandlot games twice a week according to rules described in a new program created by Little League International. https://www.littleleague.org/play-little-league/sandlot-fun-days/

Majors Baseball – Regular season with 4 teams.  No games against teams from other towns.

All players in Majors will be notified by an email from the league president on Saturday, May 23rd. Players will learn who their teammates are when notified by their coaches on June 1st.

Practices will begin no later than June 15th. Practices will continue for a minimum of two weeks before we try playing games under our new Covid-19 safety and social distancing rules (to be posted here on Friday, June 1st). Some experimentation will be required this year, and as we learn what works best for players and coaches, we will adjust our rules, by consensus, accordingly.

We will plan to play a regular season of games beginning after the July 4th holiday, during Phase 3 of the governor’s reopening plan for Maine. The season will wrap up in early August.

Juniors Baseball – Sandlot games beginning in June. Players will be notified of further details by their coaches.

Refunds

Families requesting a refund of registration fees may do so before June 15th. Please write to league president, RJ Matson, to request a refund check.

To help defray regular field maintenance costs in 2020 and to keep the facilities at the Little Legion complex in good working order for the 2021 season, we invite families to apply their 2020 registration fees to their 2021 fees or simply donate their 2020 fees to Falmouth Little League. Email our league president to make your wishes known.

Covid-19 Safety Plan

Our full safety plan be posted here Monday, June 1st, after further consultation with town officials.

May 20, 2020 Update

Here are the State of Maine’s new guidelines for community sports. https://www.maine.gov/decd/sites/maine.gov.decd/files/inline-files/COVID%20Checklist%20for%20ME%20Phase%202%20Community%20Sports.pdf

April 22, 2020 Update –

No Little League Games or Practices in May

While there is always a possibility that local, state and federal authorities could end all or most social distancing requirements sooner than we hope, the Falmouth Little League Board is not planning to start our season in May while our children are still attending school from home.

Little League International will make a new set of recommendations in “early May.” Falmouth Community Programs has released its summer brochure and is planning (hoping) to start summer camps on June 22nd. Accordingly, Falmouth Little League will plan on starting practices sometime in June and playing regular season games between June 22nd and the end of July.

Tentative Regular Season: June 22nd to August 1st

Everything is subject to change. If we can can make a determination in Mid-May that we can start practices in late May or early June and start playing games earlier than June 22nd, we will do so.

Tentative All Star Season: August 1st to August 15th

If there will be no official Little league All-Star tournaments this summer, Falmouth and other local leagues have all expressed an interest in creating an ad hoc All Star post-season. Most likely, those games would be played during the first two weeks of August.

Cancellations

If your summer schedule will prevent you from participating in Falmouth Little League in June and July, please email me with a request for a refund before May 15th so we can select our teams based on an accurate number of players available for summer ball.

Any refunds requested after May 15th will be honored, of course, and if the entire 2020 season has to be cancelled, we will be prepared to refund all registration fees.

(The website which processed your registrations promises to have updated its software by the end of April to allow us to issue refunds directly to the credit and debit cards you used to sign up. This will spare our Treasurer the labor of writing hundreds of checks.)

If you have signed up to coach and will be unavailable to coach in June and July, please let me know as soon as you know, preferably before May 15th

-RJ Matson

President, Falmouth Little League

April 2, 2020 – Little League International continues to recommended that all local leagues delay the start of their seasons until May 11th.

Governor Mills has issued a stay-at-home order through April 30^th, and the Superintendent of Falmouth Schools is now proposing a tentative re-opening date of May 4^th. Accordingly, Falmouth Little League will allow no practices before school is back in session. May 16^th is still our tentative date to begin playing games. That, of course, is subject to change.

Safety Protocols

If we do play games in 2020, Falmouth Little League will consult with the Town of Falmouth to develop a set of coronavirus safety protocols.

Summer Ball?

The Falmouth Little League Board is exploring the possibility of extending our season into July and even August, assuming we would not be cleared to play in May. The possibility of playing our season in the summer depends in part on decisions yet to be made by Little League International regarding the scheduling of district and state of All-Star tournaments. If the Little League International were to decide to cancel the Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA, in August, local leagues would have the freedom to play their regular seasons throughout the summer months.

While we are in a wait-and-see mode, the Falmouth Little League Board made the following decisions:

Field Maintenance

We will spend money in April, as we do every year, to prepare the fields for play. We will repair and improve the batting cages, and we will repair or purchase a new scoreboard for Grubb field. That money will come out of a surplus in our budget carried over from previous seasons, as well as a generous donation recently bequeathed to Falmouth Little League.

Refunds

If the season has to be cancelled, we will refund all registration fees by check. (Unfortunately, the website we used for the registration process does not allow us to issue refunds to credit or debit cards used to register.) We will not spend any of the 2020 registration money we have collected until we know for certain we will be playing a full season.

Team Announcements

We will not announce teams until we know for certain that school will resume and our season will start. For now, our plan is to announce teams the week of April 27^th.

Opening Day Ceremony Cancelled

The Board has decided there will be no Opening Day ceremonies for the 2020 season.  A gathering of several hundred people on any date in May or June would be too risky.

5 and 6 Year-Old T-Ball Schedule

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/106y01VQdCn3MN5h521upvzFaPrv82kgHhpn0uVSYUaQ/edit?usp=sharing

Please follow this link to sign up for Monday-Wednesday games or Tuesday-Thursday games. Games will begin at 5:45 pm.  If your schedule is flexible, please sign up for your first choice and also indicate you can play either schedule. This will help us balance the number of teams in each league as well as the number of players on each team.

All 4 year-old T-Ball games will be played on Saturday mornings at 9:00 am.

Registration Site

Players may continue to sign up for AAA and Majors baseball today and tomorrow, Tuesday, March 10th.

T-Ball, AA Baseball and Softball registrations will be accepted until March 23rd

Final deadline for Juniors registration is March 31st.

AAA and Majors teams will be announced on Friday, March 20th

T-Ball and AA teams will be announced on Friday, March 27th

We will establish separate Monday-Wednesday and Tuesday-Thursday 5-6 Year-Old T-Ball leagues. Beginning March 16th, parents may select the evenings they prefer. All who have registered will be notified by email.

4 Year-Old T-Ball games will be played on Saturday mornings at 9:00 am

Longtime President Kevin Grimes and five other board members aged out of Falmouth Little League after the 2019 season. Five current board members will age out after the 2020 season leaving the possibility of just one board member with experience to begin the 2021 season!

We need a new generation of parents to step up to carry Falmouth Little League into the next decade. There are several board positions still unfilled. Please email league president, RJ Matson, if you’d like to attend our next board meeting early in February.