Gorham Youth Baseball and Softball Association (GYBSA) recently announced that it would be affiliating with Little League beginning in the 2018 playing season. Gorham previously played under the Cal Ripken program which had age specific teams from U9 through U12 and was formerly part of District 2, the largest Cal Ripken district in Maine.
Little League is very similar to Cal Ripken; however in years past, Little League had much stricter rules, over local playing rules as well as field requirements.
After fielding numerous requests from parents, the GYBSA board decided to learn more about a possible switch to Little League. In 2017, GYBSA president Cressey Mollison was invited to meet the new local District 6 administrator for Little League and found that many of the previous rules had been relaxed. The entire GYBSA board was then brought in to formally discuss and vote on the Little League proposal.
According to Mollison, the main motivation for the switch is to allow Gorham to play games against neighboring town teams during the regular season. Those towns include Standish, Westbrook, Scarborough, Windham, Portland, Falmouth, and Cape Elizabeth to name a few.
Post season play will take place within Cumberland County (District 6) unless a teams wins the district, at which time more travel throughout the state will be required, depending on which district is hosting the state tournament. The state tournament site will rotate and must be hosted by each district. Therefore, it is possible that Gorham teams could end up traveling as far as Calais or Fort Kent for a state tournament.
Under Little League, players will be sorted according to their age groups into Minors and Majors. The GYBSA board chose to stay with the same age delineations that have been in place for six years: 8-12 year olds. Mollison hopes that each team will play at least four games on the road against neighboring towns.
There will be no difference to the players involved for the 2018 playing season; however, Little League does have a different date of birth cut off for baseball than Cal Ripken did and it will go into effect in 2019. The Cal Ripken cut off was May 1, whereas the new Little League cut off is September 1. The softball cut off will remain as January 1. GYBSA’s baseball program for 13 to 15 year olds will continue to participate in Babe Ruth, playing in the Portland League.
Mollison shared, “There are more Little League teams in Southern Maine than there are Cal Ripken teams so based on sheer numbers, I’d have to say that the competition is going up a few notches. We have always been very strong in both baseball and softball, and I still feel that will be true with Little League.”
GYBSA will continue to partner with the Town of Gorham and the Recreation Department for field usage. GYBSA pays an annual fee for access to the fields as do the other sports programs in town. The Recreation Department will maintain the playing surfaces and Public Works will maintain the mowing.
There will be some changes but Mollison reiterated his hope that parents and players will give the Board some time to work out the kinks as it’s a learning curve for all. He said, “just remember that this is for the kids, please be patient.”
Registration is now open at GYBSA. com. Player assessments will be held at the USM field house on March 25. Check the GYBSA website for more details.