As mentioned on the tryout page things will look a little different for our travel teams in 2024 and I wanted to take a few minutes to explain our thinking as to why we have made these changes.
As a reminder, the motto of the HHMBA is "We provide the opportunity to foster, promote and teach amateur baseball for youth within the Town of Halton Hills, for the betterment of their physical, mental and social well-being." We feel that the changes we have made for the 2024 season support this motto.
Why is there only one single aged team in 2024?
Registration Levels
The decision to not have a 2nd single aged team this year was for different reasons at almost every age group. We looked at every single age, including who we had registered last season, who has already registered to date and who we anticipate not returning to baseball in 2024 and after assessing all that it made the most since to have single team at each age level.
Team Classifications
Every year during December and January we must inform COBA of what COBA tier we want our teams to play in and there are generally three tiers in COBA known as Tier 1, Tier 2 and COBA Select. When we have two teams at a single age cohort Team 1 is placed into the Tier 1 loop and Team 2 is placed into the Tier 2 loop even though sometimes some of our teams are at a significant competitive disadvantage when compared to other teams in their loop. COBA requires any team that classifies for their regular season as Tier 1 to then classify as AAA or AA for the OBA championships and any team that classifies into Tier 2 as A or B for the OBA championships. When we have a single team at an age group we give the head coach the option to determine where they feel their team is best suited to be competitive and learn to grow. This is true for getting to select where to play OBA championships as well.
Umpire and diamond availability
During the summer of 2023 we had an extremely busy schedule when it comes to games, practices and umpires and having 22 travel teams contributed greatly to this. By reducing the overall number of travel teams we are fielding in 2024 we will alleviate some of this stress on our facilities and umpires and will lead to better diamond options and better umpire coverage next season.
What happened to the COBA Select teams that we used to have?
Nothing happened to these COBA Select teams, they just have a slightly different name to them on the tryout schedule as this is how we will be referring to them as an association going forward. All of our teams that participate in a COBA select loop as well as Select OBA Championships are considered a full travel team in the eyes of our association and we want the naming of the team to reflect that. Going forward all teams will be known by their Age and team count within that age level.
In 2023 we had the following teams:
12U Tier 1 (players born in 2011) - Classified in 12U Tier 1
12U Tier 2 (players born in 2011) - Classified in 12U Tier 2
13U Tier 1 (players born in 2010) - Classified in 13U Tier 1
13U Tier 2 (players born in 2010) - Classified in 13U Tier 2
12U/13U COBA Select (players born in 2011 and 2010) - Classified in 13U COBA Select
In 2024 we will have the following teams
12U Eagles Team 1 (players born in 2012) - Classification TBD (12U Tier 1 or 12U Tier 2)
13U Eagles Team 1 (players born in 2011) - Classification TBD (13U Tier 1 or 13U Tier 2)
13U Eagles Team 2 (players born in 2012 and 2011) - Classification TBD (13U Tier 2 or 13U COBA Select)
These changes are in line with how other centers approach their teams and how COBA and Baseball Ontario sees our teams from a naming perspective. We hope that the name clarity is going to help when attending tournaments and participating in COBA qualifications.
Does this mean we will never have never have additional single aged teams in future years?
No, not at all. Every year we evaluate how many players we have registering for tryouts and what age and classification levels we expect those teams to be competitive at. This configuration applies to the 2024 season but may change in future years.
Is there a chance this changes before tryouts?
Yes, there is a chance but it will be based on an assessment we make before tryouts starting. Registration for tryouts opened on August 5th and we asked for as many players to be registered as early as possible as this impacts our coaching decisions as well as our tryout schedule. We will be evaluating things on a regular basis and will communicate on our main tryout page if anything changes.
We realize that this is a lot of information but we wanted to share some of the details and thinking that went into the decision that was made. Please reach out if you have any questions.
August 16, 2023
Scott Stubberfield