Sheridan Recreation’s Move to Little League

Hello baseball parents,

            Sheridan Recreation District is excited to announce that we have joined Little League Baseball. We wanted to put out information on what this move will mean for our patrons and what advantages and resources we will gain by becoming chartered Little League Baseball. While a lot of the structure of our leagues will remain similar, there are a few changes to our sign-up process, league structure, and rules.

What our community gains from joining Little League Baseball:

·         Provides free background checks for all coaches, employees, and volunteers.

·         Free clinics, seminars, online training for league officials, coaches, and umpires.

·         Little League Rules, including free copies for our coaches, league officials, and umpires.

·         Free coaching curriculum for all leagues that includes age-appropriate practice plans and activities.

·         Opportunities to participate in the District Tournament and State Tournament.

o   Teams that win their State Tournament will also be able to participate in the West Regional held in San Bernadino, CA.

·         A board of directors for our league, includes traditional board positions but also includes positions including a Safety officer, Player agent/advocate, Coaching coordinator, and Umpire coordinator/advocate.

Available leagues:

·         Pee Wee Baseball: Ages 7-8

·         Intermediate Baseball: Ages 9-10

·         Minor League Baseball: 11-12

·         Major League Baseball: 13-15

Sign-up Process:

All sign-ups will have to be done in person at the Sheridan Recreation District office in Thorne-Rider Park. Sign-ups will require a copy of the players birth certificate at the time of registration.

·         Sheridan Recreation will not keep the original copy of birth certificates and instead will make a copy of the document and keep it in a secure locked area.

·         A copy of a birth certificate will be valid for the entirety of the players time participating within Sheridan Webb Wright Little League.

o   For Example: If John Doe provides a birth certificate when signing up for Pee Wee baseball at age 7, the copy of their birth certificate will cover them for future sign-ups until they age out of our leagues or wish to no longer participate and will be destroyed by Sheridan Recreation.

o   Parents/Guardians may request at anytime to have these documents destroyed by Sheridan Recreation.

In the past our leagues have been split up by grades, with our move to Little League, leagues will be split by age. (See Little League 2024 Age Chart shown below)

Sheridan Recreation staff will assist all patrons in ensuring players are registered for the correct league.

Our Leagues

Little Sluggers:

We will continue to offer our Little Slugger program. Little Sluggers is a program for 4-6 year old boys and girls to work on skill development (hitting, throwing, catching), introduction to the positions on the baseball/softball field, and introductions to baseball softball rules. While not a chartered league through Little League, Sheridan Recreation will use curriculum sourced from Little League to prepare players for entry into our Pee Wee baseball league and Minis Softball league.

Pee Wee League:

This league will run similar to seasons in the past. 7 and 8 year old will be placed on teams with their classmates from the schools they attend. Schools may be combined together to fill rosters. This league will be a pitching machine league or may be adapted to a coach pitch league. Games will be one hour in length, teams will have all players bat before switching to playing in the field, no score will be kept in this league as the main focus is developing player skills and understand of the game. Sheridan Recreation will work with and provide information from Little League baseball such as age-appropriate practice plans and activities.

Fast Facts:

·         Ages: 7-8

·         Base path length: 50’

·         Pitching Distance: 40’

·         Maximum Bat Diameter: 2⅝”

·         Maximum Bat Length: 33”

·         Bats: USABat Standard

·         Lead-off permitted: No

·         Stealing Permitted: No

·         Uncaught 3rd Strike: No

·         Game length: 1 hour

Intermediate League:

This league is for players 9 and 10 year olds. These players will participate in a player showcase and coaches will participate in a draft process with Sheridan Recreation staff to create teams of equal skill levels. As in previous season, players from the Tongue River area and Big Horn area will continue to participate on teams of players from their schools. The Intermediate league will be a 6 inning or 1 hour and 30 minutes time limit and will be half pitching machine half player pitch.

Fast Facts:

·         Age 9-10

·         Base path length: 60’

·         Pitching distance: 46’

·         Maximum Bat Diameter: 2⅝”

·         Maximum Bat Length: 33”

·         Bats: USABat Standard

·         Lead-off permitted: No

·         Stealing Permitted: No

·         Uncaught 3rd Strike: No

·         Game length: 6 innings or 1 hour 30-minute time limit

·         Little league pitching limits will apply

Minor League:

This league is for 11 and 12 year olds. These players will participate in a player showcase and coaches will participate in a draft process with Sheridan Recreation staff to create teams of equal skill levels. As in previous season, players from the Tongue River area and Big Horn area will continue to participate on teams of players from their schools. The Minor league will be a 7 inning or 1 hour and 30 minutes time limit and will be player pitch.

Fast Facts:

·         Age 11-12

·         Base path length: 70’

·         Pitching distance: 50’

·         Maximum Bat Diameter: 2⅝”

·         Maximum Bat Length: 33”

·         Bats: USABat Standard

·         Lead-off permitted: No

·         Stealing Permitted: Yes

·         Uncaught 3rd Strike: Yes

·         Game length: 7 innings or 1 hour 30-minute time limit

·         Little league pitching limits will apply

Major League (formerly SRD Babe Ruth League):

This league is for 13-15 year olds. These players will participate in a player showcase and coaches will participate in a draft process with Sheridan Recreation staff to create teams of equal skill levels. Games will be played Redle Field.

Fast Facts:

·         Age 13-15

·         Base path length: 90’

·         Pitching distance: 60’6”

·         Maximum Bat Diameter: 2⅝”

·         Maximum Bat Length: 34”

·         Bats: USABat Standard

·         Lead-off permitted: Yes

·         Stealing Permitted: Yes

·         Uncaught 3rd Strike: Yes

·         Game length: 7 innings or 1 hour 30-minute time limit

·         Little league pitching limits will apply

Challenger Leagues:

Sheridan Recreation is also looking to start a Challenger league. Little League challenger leagues provide an opportunity for boys and girls aged 4-16 years of age with physical and intellectual challenges to participate in a Little League program. While these players may participate in any of our other baseball leagues, we would also offer this program.

Fast Facts:

·         Non-competitive “adaptive baseball” program.

·         A combination of Tee Ball and Coach Pitch may be used.

·         Buddies (volunteers) may be used to assist Challenger participants in the areas of batting, base running, and fielding.

·         Flexible rules and guidelines allow the game to be adapted to meet the needs of individual players.

*This is a program that we are currently planning for in the future as we gauge interest from our community and seek out partnerships within the community*

If anyone is interested in this program, please contact the Sheridan Recreation District.

If you have questions about any of these leagues or finding out what league fits for your player, please reach out to the Sheridan Recreation District at 307-674-6421.

Thank You,

-Sheridan Recreation Staff and Sheridan Webb Wright Little League Baseball