Chino Hills Little League Families:
A big welcome to all of you with hopes for another action packed Spring 2008 season!
January and February is our busiest time of the young baseball season, and we would like to say thank you to the men and women who volunteer countless hours to make sure Chino Hills Little League runs as smoothly as humanly possible. Of course, the gratitude for this work comes in seeing our kids on the field enjoying themselves as they play the great game of baseball! If you would like to be a part of this team, please contact us at president@chinohillsll.com. We'd love to have you on our Board of Directors or as a committee member for specific events!
And now, here are the news and views for February:
1. Chino Hills Little League's Opening Day ceremonies is scheduled for Saturday, February 23rd at Community Park. We will have our annual parade of teams, and other fun activities that day. Various food and product vendors will also be in attendance. We will also be drawing the raffle winners starting at approximately noon. The grand prize is $10,000 with lots of other prizes including a Sony Play Station 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, and Nintendo Wii. Tickets can be turned in at the General Membership meeting on Feb 7th, at our next Board Meeting on Feb 19th, or at Opening Day. If you wait until Opening Day, however, make sure you get the tickets turned in prior to the drawing!
2. One last note regarding raffle ticket turn-in: Parents that need to make special arrangements to drop off their tickets should contact our Fundraiser chairman, Mark Drury, at: opie011198@yahoo.com as soon as possible.
3. Games are scheduled to start as early as Monday, February 25 for some teams. Because schedules are constantly in flux up to the last minute, we ask that you please be patient. The schedules will be placed on our website only after we know they are close to a final revision that will most likely be on the weekend of Opening Day.
4. At close to 450 kids, our registration numbers are running slightly ahead of last season. We currently have 24 teams in our lower divisions, 12 teams in AAA/Majors, 3 Junior division teams, and we anticipate having 2 Seniors teams come April. These numbers are drawn from just the eastern half of the city of Chino Hills. Canyon Hills Little League represents the western half of Chino Hills with the dividing line essentially running down Peyton Ave. Between both leagues, Little League has approximately 1000 kids playing baseball in Chino Hills. Truly remarkable.
5. In 2008, we are once again set to play our games at Chino Hills Community Park. This park is one of the finest local sports parks in the Inland Empire. As in past years, a very small percentage of our games in the Tee ball and A Division will be played at Wickman Elementary. This is because field space at Community Park is limited and the City of Chino Hills gives priority to teams in Divisions AA and above.
6. It is important to ensure Chino Hills' residents are using facilities paid for by our local taxes. Did you know the city of Chino Hills mandates that 90 % of the membership of any Leagues playing at Community Park must consist of Chino Hills' residents? You can be assured that both Little Leagues in Chino Hills have only a small handful of kids from outside our city limits.
7. Thank you to Chino Hills High School Coach Kyle Billingsley and his staff for their continuous support of Chino Hills Little League! They put on a terrific clinic for our League on February 2nd for our players and managers. If you would like your son or daughter to get additional quality training from Kyle, be sure to check out his Dirt Dawg Baseball Academy. The phone number can be found on our links page.
8. Chino Hills Little League has reestablished the property player format for the Majors division and higher. This allows players the option to remain on the same team for as long as three spring seasons. We hope this will give families the opportunity to get to know each other better and develop new relationships that would assist with transportation and child care issues.
9. Chino Hills Little League is once again planning on selling Angel tickets for Little League Day. This year's game is scheduled for Sunday, April 6, when the Angels take on the Texas Rangers. For the past three years, Chino Hills Little League has been the biggest Little League Day representative for District 23 at Angel Stadium. Let's see if we can extend that streak to four years! Stay tuned for more info as it becomes available.
10. Chino Hills Little League has been working with Home Depot and they have offered to donate upwards of $15,000 to help improve the practice facility at Los Serranos. The catch is getting through a myriad of red tape put before us by the School District. Your Board of Directors is working hard to cut through the tape, but it is a slow process.
11. Remember Chino Hills Little League has a permanent fence at Community Park Field 6 this year! Local business can take advantage of this with ad banners on the fence from now until July. This is great way to promote your business! For more information, write to president@chinohillsll.com
12. Remember, Little League baseball is all about letting our kids focus on fun, first and foremost. Keep in mind that in the end, kids stand better odds of winning the lottery (assuming they could enter) than ever becoming successful professional baseball players.
13. Little League depends on volunteers like you. Without volunteer managers and coaches, we would cease to exist as a League. Thank you to all the managers, coaches and team moms who have stepped up to the plate this season and decided to give a little back to our community!
We hope to see you all at the ballpark on Opening Day. Until next time, take care and don't forget to keep your eye on the ball!
and is not a part of nor affiliated with the City of Chino Hills.