“AFTER FALL BALL”
Thank you for an outstanding year of baseball. It’s been a privilege working together to provide our boys with an exceptional experience. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome for all-stars or fall ball.
The CVLL 7U squad has had a storybook start, and it would be a shame not to capitalize on our team’s success by staying cohesive and competitive next year.
I’ve learned from older all-star team coaches, who kindly let me observe how they formed a “travel team”. At the start of the fall season, they asked if I wanted to do this with the 7U team, I declined because I felt we needed to focus on pitching development. I believed our regular CVLL fall program was ideal for trying out new pitchers. Now, I’m confident that there IS a good reason to keep the boys together and form a USSSA team.
I propose practicing over the winter break on a relaxed schedule, focusing on fundamentals. We all deserve a break, but teams we’ll face next year (Encino, Sherman Oaks, northridge , etc.) are keeping their kids together with travel teams or select programs.
I believe the best path is to stay the course. Our 2025 summer season was the perfect start for a successful, lasting team. Next year, the CVLL 8U all-star team (mostly our core) will likely be forced to transition to the fall “travel-ball” league after the all-star season, following our predecessors’ precedent.
Instead of waiting until after all-star season and being caught off guard, let’s start now, post-fall, keeping the kids together and practicing comfortably through the next few months.
It’s critical to develop our kids through the spring season to ensure they return as all-stars next year. The CVLL 2026 Field 3 regular season has a strict draft process to form balanced teams. Our team will split up for the spring season at CVLL. Some will have great coaching, others may not. Forming a supplemental travel team will help keep the core together and secure nominations for our kids next year. I’m confident our kids will earn nominations, but it’s not guaranteed. All-star selection for 8u is a political process.
I propose we continue practicing, form the USSSA team now, and complete the paperwork. If possible, we might enter local tournaments. I’m participating with the 9U team currently and learning the process. In my observation, USSSA is not much different from all-stars in process. It’s not expensive to register a team or player with USSSA. The only costs arise if we opt to enter tournaments, then we would need to get uniforms.
Fortunately, there are many local tournaments, looks like once a month there are reasonable options We don’t have to feel pressured to participate, but we’ll be ready if we choose to.
During the regular CVLL season, we’ll try to maintain weekly or bi-weekly supplemental practice. By next all-star season, we can have a battle-hardened, travel-ready team, also eligible for local USSSA tournaments or, at minimum, the local fall-ball “travel” league, where competition is much tougher than CVLL’s fall league. This is what our all-star competitors and CVLL’s older teams are doing. I don’t want to wait or lose players to other programs thinking the grass is greener. From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t get better than what we have. Chemistry is key. Let’s do this ourselves; we have great coaches, and the kids already love each other.
Here’s the plan: finish fall ball, relax, but keep practicing at least once a week, no pressure, let’s brainstorm, and when the opportunity arises, let’s go play ball…
Please consider joining. it’s not overwhelming. We can be as relaxed as we want, but I’m convinced starting now is best for the kids who want to remain at CVLL and continue crushing into next years all stars.
Feel free to reach out, anytime if you have questions, practice can remain Fridays directly after fall ball. I am sending this initially to the core and coaching staff and I will follow with a bullet point list of what we hope to do differently and some exciting things to look forward to.