May PCA Players of the Month

Each month we will recognize players that exhibit the qualities of our Positive Coaching Philosophies.  We teach the kids about the ELM tree (Effort, Learning & Mistakes) and ROOTS (Respect for the Rules, Officials, Opponents, Team & Self).  The players selected were nominated by their coaches and selected by a the PCA committee. These players exemplify our values and are being honored for the month of May.

PCA Players of the Month for May 2012

Shane Mummey
Minors AAA, Tigers

Shane is one of the kindest most supportive players I have ever coached. He always supports his teammates and never has anything negitive to say. Not once has he asked to play a certain position in the field even though he is one of our best pitchers. During one of our games, he was playing catcher. I noticed he was shaking his hand behind his back, (as he was crouched down behind the plate). I asked him if he was ok. He looked up with tears in his eyes and said that he could not feel his hand, (he never complained and was trying his best to stay in the game even though he was in obvious pain.) We pulled him from the game and the next thing I see (as I am coaching 3rd) is Shane putting on his batting gloves. He is truly a teammate and player who I am grateful is on our team. He is one of the many great kids playing for FCLL.
Submitted by, Rob Lewis, Manager, Minors AAA - Tigers

Andrew Schreffler
Juniors, Lugnuts

Andrew always shows ROOTS. Even though he plays for his school team, he is always ready to give his all for his FCLL Lugnuts team. He shows great respect for the game and all of his teammates at practice and games. Andrew is truely a great kid to coach and have on your team. He is always positive and gets along well with all his teammates. He is always a positive and fills the emotional tanks of all.
Submitted by, Mike Money, Manager, Juniors - Lugnuts

Coaches can submit their nominations for June 2012 by clicking here.

Opening Day Press Release...

For immediate release

Four County Little League 2012 Opening Day…Rising from the Ashes…

Mount Airy, Maryland – April 9, 2012 – Four County Little League will celebrate 18 years of Little League baseball on Saturday, April 14, 2012.  This year is like no other.  Not only will the league be celebrating the opening of the 2012 season, they will dedicate their new buildings built with the help of several generous donations.  On April 10, 2011, the league experience what could have been a huge set back.  Instead, it turned out to be one of the greatest blessings the league has ever been given.  Immediately after the fire, several large donors emerged. Dan Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, heard about the tragedy and wanted to help.  Snyder contacted League President Jim Gill and committed $10,000 to help rebuild.  At the same time, Joe Degiorgi, Managing partner of Century Ford of Mount Airy, called the President of the league and also wanted to help.  Degiorgi and Gill met at the Century dealership in Mt. Airy, Maryland.  Degiorgi surprised the league president with a gift of $10,000.  Jim Gill said, “I was floored with the outpouring of support from our community.  When I found out that our normal Little League insurance would not cover our loss, I was not sure how we would rebuild.  I knew we would be ok and some how come back, but I never imagined we would receive so much in such a short time”.  After receiving the generous gifts, the league reached out to Myer’s Mini Barns in Woodbine, MD to put the money to good use and they too wanted to help.  Myers’ Mini Barns donated an entire concessions stand.  Since then, the league has been planning and preparing for the new buildings.  They took the opportunity to turn the loss into something bigger and better.  “We decided to expand a bit and build a bigger shed which will allow us to keep our equipment and uniforms all at one location.  Instead of having equipment and uniforms at several locations around town, we can have them all stored at one central location here at Russell Windsor Field”, Gill said.  “Now we have an opportunity to thank these folks at our opening day on Saturday”.  Gill said this Saturday’s opening day ceremony will be special in many ways.  He said, last year the ceremony was rained out and the league was unable to celebrate the life of their beloved Coach Al Gordon who died early in 2011.  This year, they will thank their donors, celebrate the life of Coach Al and begin a great season of baseball.

The league will also partner with the Oriole Advocates and participate in the Cardboard to Leather program™ (affectionately called C2L™), whereby good, used baseball and softball equipment is provided to underprivileged youth in developing countries. Collected equipment has been distributed in Afghanistan, Aruba, Belgrade, Belize, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Venezuela.  Four County Little League is asking the players and the community to bring their used, but usable baseball items, to Russell Windsor Field on Saturday where an Oriole Advocate will be on hand to help collect the used equipment.  They will be there from 9am until 3pm.  The field is located at 12350 Jessie Smith Road.

About Four County Little League - Four County Little League, a member of the Positive Coaching Alliance, is chartered with Little League International. The league is based in Mount Airy, Maryland, but serves families in all of the four county areas. The league provides a supervised program of youth baseball instruction and games for players between the ages of 4 through 15 under the rules and policies of Little League International.  Each summer the best players are chosen from the league and play in the Little League International Tournament culminating in Williamsport, PA at the Little League World Series.  

Four County Little League

www.fcllbaseball.org

information@fcllbaseball.org

P.O. Box 512

Mount Airy, MD  21771

866-741-4123

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Cardboard to Leather

On opening day, April 14, 2012, Four County Little League, in cooperation with the Oriole Advocates, will be collection used baseball equipment.  The program is called Cardboard to Leather.  Please start collecting your used baseball equipment and bring it to Russell Windsor Field on April 14, 2012.

Be Local...What's it all about?

Recently I was contacted by one of the league parents and was asked to mention the BeLocal survey.  At the time I said I would offer a link to the survey in our monthly newsletter.  Well, here is the link.  In the process of setting up the link, I made an Interesting discovery.  The BeLocal website's about us page says...

BeLocal Mt. Airy is local citizens group in Mount Airy, Maryland actively seeking to strengthen our town’s sense of community, sense of place, and local self-reliance. Our motto is “Grow. Play. Shop. Act.” which encompass both the local-first thinking and the wide-range of initiatives which emerge from a grass roots approach to listening to the residents of Mount Airy, MD.

As I read their website, I began to realize that BeLocal and Four County Little League have some of the same goals and dreams.  If I read it correctly, their idea is to "think local first" and in doing so will strengthen our community as a whole on many levels.  What does this have to do with Four County Little League, you might ask?  Since I started with FCLL, I have been proud of the fact that the organization is family oriented and stands apart from others by doing more than just teach baseball. We teach our players life lessons through baseball.  Most of the players in Little League will never play past high school baseball, but all of them should grow up to be productive citizens and contribute in some way to our society.  Having said that, the goal of teaching them how to together be a team, overcome adversity and winning with honor is our legacy.  


There are three words on the Little League Logo;  Character, Courage and Loyalty.  Loyalty is defined, "as state or quality of being loyal...a feeling of allegiance."   Belocal is saying, Be Loyal.  Be Loyal to the local shops in Mt. Airy or Be Loyal to the architect in town.  Well, Four County is saying, Be Loyal and Local to our league. We have so many incredibly talented players who's parents have sold them this glorious notion that they will go further if they play for this team or that team.  We have players in Mt. Airy living in Carroll County who play in Frederick.  We have other players in Mt. Airy on the Frederick County side who play for Howard County.  Some have even been recruited to play in Finksburg.  This does not make any sense what so ever.  Why are these talented players not playing for the local Little League? 


Playing for teams outside of your local reach has so many negatives and so little positives.  Some folks feel that playing with a select team will give them a better opportunity to get a college scholarship.  What do our friends at the Positive Coaching Alliance say about this?  Well, if you have been to the training, you will know that the average athletic scholarship is somewhere in the $2000.00 range, so I don't think that is going to work.  Your best bet is to study harder and go for an academic scholarship.  The fact is that college recruiters are not watching our 10 to 14 year olds anyway, so what's the deal?  If the players stayed local and played with their home town team, they would increase the talent and make their home town team the select team.  Stephen Keener, President and CEO of Little League Baseball, says...

Because of the misleading comparison between tournament-hopping travel teams, and the “Road to Williamsport” traveled by Little League International tournament teams, critics claim the tournament is detrimental and contradictory to Little League’s mission. 

In reality though, those who support travel ball are in many cases fulfilling a self-serving goal by seeking out a “higher level of competition” for the expressed purpose of supposedly increasing their child’s chances of landing a major college scholarship, or professional contract. (taken from "Too much baseball is not a good thing")

What does it say about a coach who will go to the ends of the earth to pick up or find a player? What happens when he finds a new and improved better performing player?  Guess what, your player is out.  If you stay local and play for your local Little League team, you never have the chance of being pushed out by a "ringer".  Most of the select or travel teams have no rules about playing time, so in some cases you spent all this time and money to travel to all these different games and your young player might not even get a chance to play.  How is that going to help him/her get a scholarship?  You are better off having him/her play with Little League which has playing rules which ensures every player plays on the field.  


Look at what these teams are doing to our ever eroding family life.  Many of these select teams play in tournaments which are several hours away and often times require over night stays in hotels.  This requires more money, time off of work and days away from our family.  Oh you are going to bring the whole family?  What happens when your 13 year old and your 9 year old both want to play sports.  Guess what...you are going in separate directions.  By playing for your local Little League team, you have a better chance of ending up at home in the evening laughing and talking about the game that day while having a burger with the entire family.



When you go to the Mount Airy Fall Fest and see Knill's farm market selling their fruit, we often times feel good about the local fruit being produced.  Mr. Knill did not go to the port of Baltimore to get his fruit.  He got it from his own farm.  He cultivated the land, planted the seeds and grew local fresh fruits and vegetables.  There is a sense of pride in what the Knill's have accomplished.  This might sound strange, but Four County Little League is no different.  We cultivate our young players.  As they grow, they learn more and get more competitive.  We don't travel around looking for other ball players to play with us.  We harvest the best fruit here in our area.  Then we showcase our talents each summer.  Last season our 9/10 team placed 3rd in the state.  Every one of those players came from our local area.  We have boundaries that we can not cross.  We can't take a player from Frederick who is best friends with one of our coaches and ask him to play.  It just can't happen.  Other organizations have no rules.  They take what they want and leave the rest.  This attitude by others hurts every one of our local players, the teams and our league.  The idea of Being Local makes complete sense in so many ways.



This article came about because of information provided to me by someone at BeLocal.  It makes total sense to me and I can see how thinking local first should be primary.  I know some might be offended by some of my words.  For those who are inside our local Four County Little League Boundaries, I encourage you to think about the possibilities of what we can do as an organization if we come together.  You have a choice to look outside for answers or BeLocal and Be Loyal.  Four County Little League is Mount Airy's home for Little League Baseball.  We are proud of what we have accomplished and look forward to the day when everyone can BeLocal.

Important 2012 Safety Information

2012 Safety Program

The season is fast approaching.  Little League takes pride in the fact that we have a safety track record second to none.  Some of the safety innovationsyou see in other youth sports got their start here in Little League.

Part of our Safety plan is that ALL of FCLL's volunteers go through a background check prior to interacting with our children.

If you are a Managers, Coach, Umpire, Team Parent, or have any other continuous contact with the players of FCLL, you MUST complete a volunteer application and submit it with a copy of your driver's license.  This needs to be done each year you volunteer.  Even if dad want's to help the manager at practice for a few practices or games, you must complete the form.  It only takes minutes and only needs to be done once a year.

Please take a minute to download the form by clicking here.  Then you have a few options to turn it in.

1. Scan it and email it to safety@fcllbaseball.org (the form must be complete, have your signature and you must scan your driver's license as well - Note:  this is the preferred method of turning in your form)
2. Fax it to 866-741-4123 (the form must be complete, have your signature and you must fax your driver's license as well)
3. Mail it to:  P.O. Box 512, Mount Airy, MD  21771 (the form must be complete, have your signature and you must mail your driver's license as well)
4. Hand it to a league representative (the form must be complete, have your signature and you must provide your driver's license as well)

The league receives discounts and incentives for being 100% compliant.  Last season we were 100% compliant.  Let's do it again in 2012.  We need to have all the volunteer forms to a league official by March 1.  If you have any questions, you can email safety@fcllbaseball.org

If you even think you will help out, please submit the form.

Thank you for your help.