Shetland – Commissioners: Tom Hayes and Mike Poe

Season Recap by Mike Poe

The 2005 Shetland season represented another successful year for the 5 and 6 year-old age division of the Pony League as part of the OYA Organization.

Final Registration totaled 267 kids who made up 23 teams and were for the most part divided into teams amongst neighborhood and special requests.  Many 4 year-olds played up this year to get a jump start on their baseball careers (approximately 10-12 kids were age 4 by August 1, 2005).  Each team had on average nearly 12 kids on the roster.

Because this level may represent to the family its first taste of organized baseball, many are not aware of January sign-ups so the commissioners and the OYA staff allowed for the late entry of almost 40 kids after late-registration.  In fact, an entire team was added as late as April to accommodate bright-eyed eager children.  Although the coaches we had on average were outstanding, we could have used a couple more coaches to level off the team count to say 10 or 11 maximum at this age group. 

Each child received a team jersey, ball cap, and trophy as well as valuable time with friends, coaches, parents and others within their community during the 3 month season which featured roughly 6 practices and 10 games, which concluded in June this year.

Children should have learned to participate to their fullest and leave the fields with a basic understanding of the game and how to play under a few core rules while focusing on the fun aspects of the game.

Everyone batted while the coaches pitched to their kids “from one knee” to simulate opposing pitching.  By the end of the year, most kids were able to hit the pitching and very few tees were needed.

For those children moving on, in the Pony division, kids pitch to each other while the batter is protected by face mask and helmet.  Score is kept and records maintained but no play-offs are applicable.  Here, we play a few additional games while the other divisions conduct play-offs.  Why?  Because like Shetland, at ages 7 and 8, we try to keep the children together by location and special request with less focus on leveling off talent than the future divisions, and we believe that the 5-8 year- olds are a blank canvass and this is the time to nurture their love of the game and allow the typical or average player to participate as much as the highest level of talent.

For anyone that is mildly interested and wants to be more involved, please volunteer to be a head coach or assistant coach.  Some kids remember their whole lives who there coaches were -sometimes better than the teachers they had in school.  At the Shetland level, i) time  ii) patience and  iii) love and caring for other children makes a great assistant coach even with limited baseball knowledge.  Many parents find themselves wishing later in life that they had played a bigger part in the younger years-             So………… grab your glove and we will see you out there!!