With the 2019 player tryouts fast approaching, we would like you and your sons to carefully read this information before committing to the Lou Gehrig Travel Baseball Program. While, the Travel Baseball Teams are vastly rewarding and fun for all it requires a level of commitment from players and parents both.

Travel baseball requires your commitment!

Parent involvement and participation is a critical requirement on every travel team. With your son’s selection to a team, you as a parent are also joining the team. When determining your vacation plans or other activities, you will need to consider the team’s tournament schedule.

Travel baseball practice can begin for some teams in November, with indoor practices. Each coach reserves the right to have a specialized off season training program, consisting of either town facility (Clearfield Rec Center or North Amherst Rec Center aka NARC), Sports Performance Park @ Eastern Hills Mall, All in Sports, Lou Gehrig Laser Softball facility on Roll Rd, or other facilities.  A parent should contact the coach prior to tryouts to determine there projected plan, if its a concern to the parent. We encourage boys to play other sports in the off season.  However, missing your teams off season practices, may slow there personal development. Travel baseball is a team commitment . Every age will have a different schedule, depending on the coaches outline, and training facilities availability.

Tryouts:

Tryouts : 8U teams will be tried out in the first or second weekend of May or as close as possible to that date. The 9u -18u  occur annually at Lou Gehrig in early to mid August. Boys will be evaluated in the areas of pitching, hitting, fielding, throwing and running. The 8u, 9u , and 10u tryouts will be conducted by the Baseball Committee members, using experienced, knowledgeable, baseball evaluators. At 11u and older, each teams manager and committee will conduct there respective tryouts. He may use any combination of Lou Gehrig managers / coaches to assist him in evaluating at team tryouts. At least two board members will be present to assist or watch the process to ensure fairness, safety and integrity. They will also be available to answer any questions that may arise. 

During tryouts, parents are asked to stay in the bleachers and away from the players unless requested. This will minimize the distraction to the boys and allow the evaluators to do their jobs. Some parents may be asked to help out with the younger children within the dugouts. This will be for safety reasons, as we don’t want them swinging bats and throwing balls without direct supervision.

Selection process:

Lou Gehrig will attempt to field three teams at every level, 8u - 15u .  Our goal is to assemble competent teams at each level of play with the purpose of playing competitive baseball. We typically have a large number of boys that tryout every year, unfortunately, some boys will not make a Lou Gehrig Iron Horse Travel Baseball team for their particular level. If your child does not make the travel team, we strongly encourage them to continue with the house program and continue to develop their skills. Lou Gehrig offers many off-season clinics to help develop skills.

For the 2018 season and continuing in 2019, Lou Gehrig YBS, has opened its registration to all interested players.  No one will be turned away.  Our teams are designated red, blue, and white. The red team managers can conduct tryouts independantly or with blue and white managers.  The red teams are selected first,  with blue next, followed by white.   

The VP's of Baseball or designees will oversees the selection process for all teams. Some or all of the factors described below will be taken into consideration when selecting a player to a team.

• Prior year’s performance and commitment on a travel team, if applicable.

• Attitude , hustle, and ability to process the game.

• House league evaluations from the prior season, if applicable.

• Interviews with the previous team manager and assistant coaches, if applicable.

• Tryout scores following the skills evaluation at tryouts

• Personal knowledge of a players strengths or weaknesses

• A players role on the team

Those involved in the selection process include the Team Manager,  Lou Gehrig VP of Baseball, and Baseball President . 

Roster Announcements

We anticipate that the final selection process will be completed by most teams the same day, or with in a few days after tryouts are complete. Due to every team being a little different, amount of kids trying out, it may take certain teams a little longer that others.  It is the responsibility of the player’s parent/guardian to ensure that the league has been given the proper email/phone number etc. during or prior to tryouts. The final rosters will be placed on our website at www.lgybs.com.  Click on Division / Iron Horse Baseball / 2019 Rosters.  

Once the rosters are announced the decision of the selection committee will be final. Any questions following the selection process can be addressed to Kyle Schraufstetter at kvs70@roadrunner.com.

Travel program team requirements:

Lou Gehrig travel baseball team expectations will differ between each level, and each coach. The 8u and 9u teams typically play in 3-4 tournaments , one being at LG, all local, no over night commitment is required. The 8u and 9u try outs are a balanced process, where the red and blue teams are equal as picked by the coaches, after the evaluations are compiled.  The 10u level is the first year of "A" red, and the "B" blue team split, where the red team builds there team first. The 10u team may elect to start to travel out side of Western New York as well at this time. The 10u -12u teams will play in roughly 3- 6 tournaments . 

Some mangers may choose to participate in the Cal Ripken District/State/Regional tournaments.  Their respective team may be selected accordingly. Therefore, the players need to reside or attend school within the boundries of the Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken affiliation.   

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The 13-15 year olds will have a much more complex schedule, where they will elect to play in a wide array of scheduling. From Clarence travel games, WNY Boys of Summer,  and or just tournaments. At 13 and up, there is no house requirement for the boys, so an aggressive coach may run tournaments in May, June, July, and or August in conjunction with some form of travel league.

Each travel team will be registered to play in the WNY Travel, Clarence league or Boys of Summer Leagues. Each league consists of a minimum of 10-18 games plus playoffs.(ages 9-12 ) The 13u-15u's, may elect a alternate scheduling plan.

Players on travel teams ( 8u-12u ) are required to participate in the house program, with the exception of the 12u red team (new 2018).  The 12u Red players must pay for house , but may opt out of playing.  Ages 13u and up, house is optional. If a 13u, 14u, 15u team wishes to attempt to make themselves a State bound team , they must declare it to the travel committee as soon as possible to allow the League a opportunity to get them qualified.

Individual costs:

For the upcoming season we will require one payment to cover the cost of the Field Maintenance and capital improvements for LGYBS. The second cost is to cover professional baseball clinics, indoor training facilities, local league games, tournaments, and uniforms as needed. Additionally, this will cover the cost to fund for concessions there will not be a mandatory fee or obligation for concessions in the upcoming season.

Uniforms are standard from ages 8u- 12u, and usually need an upgrade due to kids growing every year, or every other year. At 13u and up, the jerseys may differ pending approval by the travel committee, where as they can use a combination of LG approved colors : red, white, royal blue, black and grey. 

Individual Player assessment  Fee's, roughly, 8u-9u ($300 - $400),   10u -15u  (900 -$1200) determined by each manager.  Fee's involved are directly formed from the teams expenses which typically can vary widely. The biggest numbers actually arrived from the teams off season workout program, and amount of tournaments they are playing in. My suggestion is to ask the coach up front what he has planned.

Payment schedule:

$250.00 – due within 3 days of being accepted to a team

This deposit is nonrefundable.  

The remaining team assessment fee will be paid directly to your team manager TBD 

Each team will collect fees to cover uniforms, apparel, league play,  tournaments, training, etc.  Fundraising is optional for every team, if they so choose. 

Questions and inquiries may be directed to Kyle Schraufstetter at kvs70@roadrunner.com     

Thanks to all for participating!

Lou Gehrig Iron Horse Travel Baseball Committee