Disclaimer: Little League rules win unless otherwise dictated here.
Little League has mandated that police background checks be performed annually for all individuals over the age of 18 involved with the league. This process involves completing a form supplied by the local police and supplying photo ID. At CFR this is coordinated by the Safety Officer.
If you wish to use a CFR field for practice, it is the responsibility of the team head coach or named assistance coach to contact your league convener to book practice times and locations. If a practice is scheduled without booking with the convener, CFR cannot guarantee availability of the field. If teams do not book fields and two teams arrive, the field will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis. For non-CFR fields, team should contact the appropriate owner of the field (eg., school board, City of Ottawa).
A fundamental goal of Little League is to make better individuals – not just better baseball players. To that end, CFR expects all participants in our league to abide by a strict Code of Conduct. Coaches, players, volunteers, Executive members and parents are expected to behave within a set of acceptable behaviours. View the CFR Code of Conduct here
For May, all games start at 6:00PM. During the month of May, no new inning shall commence after 7:45PM. During the month of June, games may commence as late as 6:15 and no new inning shall commence after 8:00PM.
For summer baseball, start times will vary based on game locations. Summer baseball start times may be at late as 6:30. Please check with you team coaching staff for exact start times for summer baseball games.
Little League has a philosophy that every player gets an opportunity to play. Even at the highest levels of Little League Baseball, each player is required to play a minimum number of innings per game and receive a minimum number of at-bats.
Our Spring Baseball philosophy takes it one step further and mandates that every player is given equal opportunity. This means all players must play an equal number of innings in the field and be rotated between positions. Batting orders should ensure players receive an equal number of at-bats over the course of the season. Coaches are strong recommended to track innings played, positions played, and number of at-bats over the course of the Spring Season in order to ensure the principle of equal opportunity is upheld. Coaches must be able to product records upon the request of parents or CFR executive that show players have been provided equal opportunity.
You can find numerous tools in the web resources for coaches section of this website to help you track and maintain records.
After each Spring game, it is the responsibility of the coach from the winning team to enter the score into the CFR Score Entry System on the CFR website.
At the beginning of the spring season each coach is provided a userid and password to access the system. After each game, the coach from the winning team will log into the system, enter the score and any short commentary. If there is a disagreement over the score of the game, the division convener will investigate and decide upon an appropriate score to enter into the system.
Score entry is critical as it automatically updates league standings.
Prior to the start of the game, it is a coach responsibility to decide on whether a game should be attempted. Before arrival at the field, either coach may initiate discussions with the coach of the other team.
Once a game has commenced, it is then the responsibility either of the umpire or adult Game Coordinator to decide on game postponement or cancellation.
By Little League rules, the score for a 6-inning game is considered final after 4 complete innings (3 1/2 if the home team is ahead). In a 7-inning game (Junior and above), it is 5 complete innings (4 1/2 if the home team is ahead).
In house league, a game which is cancelled prior to reaching "final" status is replayed from the start.
CFR makes every effort to balance spring teams. Success during the spring season is having every game decided by one run in the final at-bat. A highly competitive league means the team balancing process worked.
Every year, CFR conducts player evaluations for all leagues (with the exception of Tee-Ball). Evaluations allow CFR to assess players on a number of criteria. Players are given rankings/scores on several areas. These scores determine a player’s overall ranking. It is at this time players are identified as potential pitchers or catchers. Once the assessment process is complete, the divisions move to the team selection process (aka the draft).
At the selection meeting, pitchers are assigned to teams until there are no more identified pitchers available, with each team receiving an equal number of pitchers. The overall ranking of each team’s pitchers should be roughly equal. After pitchers are selected, coaches shall select from the remaining players based on the evaluation rankings provided to them.
If a coach is selecting his/her child, that child must be taken in the round he/she was rated. For example, if there are 5 teams in a league and a coach’s child is ranked 14th, the player is assigned a 3th round ranking and must be selected with the 3rd round choice of that team.
In many cases children wish to play together and CFR will make all reasonable efforts to place players with desired teammates. However, we cannot guarantee all requests for non-siblings to play on the same team. It is our priority to properly balance teams and, in some cases, CFR may receive requests that will negatively impact the competitive balance of our spring teams. In these cases CFR may not be able to satisfy all requests for players to play on the same team.
If, after the draft, there is an obvious imbalance in teams, the CFR Executive reserves the right to rebalance teams.
Head Coaches for CFR Summer competitive teams – at both the “A” and “B” level- shall be selected by the CFR Selection Committee. The Selection Committee is comprised of the President, VP Baseball Operations, and Director Coaching and Player Development. In some cases, a member of the Selection Committee may also apply to coach a summer team. In these cases, the individual applying is removed from the Selection Committee for that level and replaced by the Division Convener.
Only coaches from a Spring CFR league are permitted to apply for and coach a summer team. It is recommended that any coach interested in coaching a summer team apply, in writing, to any member of the selection committee by the April 15. The selection committee will take the input and recommendations of division conveners and determine the Head Coach of the summer team. The Head Coach will provide a list of Assistant Coaches to the Selection Committee for review. As with the head Coach, a summer coach must have coached a CFR Spring team to be eligible.
Application and Selection Process
Selection Criteria
For your information, a committee formed from members of the league executive selects summer coaches. Executive members may not sit on a selection committee if they have a child playing at that age level or if there is a real or perceived conflict of interest situation. Summer coaches are selected using a common framework, as follows:
All factors will be scored on a 5-point scale. Weighting of factors will vary by division. For example, Rookie will emphasize player development more than other factors. Your application letter is should answer each of the above in as much detail as possible as the individual with the highest score will be selected.
If no suitable coaches apply, the Selection Committee will identify and approach candidates directly to gauge interest.
The summer team selection process is similar to the Spring evaluation process. Near the end of June, CFR will communicate summer evaluation dates. These dates are typically in late June, after the completion of the Spring House League season. Any player is welcome to attend the evaluations. The evaluations will take place over 2-3 days and will involve skills assessment and game situations.
At the completion of the assessment process, coaches will convene to select the summer team. Once the composition of the team is determined, coaches shall speak in person to each player to communicate whether the player made the summer team. Coaches shall provide constructive feedback to players who were not selected.
Once the team is selected, parents must complete a registration form and submit payment for registration in the summer season.
In some cases, summer teams may select a “taxi squad”. The taxi squad is a small group of players who may practice with the team but only attend games as necessary.
In some leagues, CFR may field 2 summer teams – an “A” team and a “B” team. In cases where CFR has an “A” and “B” team, coaches will evaluate players for both teams. If a player is not selected for the “A” team, but is selected for the “B” team, the coaching staff of both teams will speak with the player in person.