Hello Branford Little League Families and Friends! I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself to those of you who may not know me. My name is Tricia Lougal and I was recently nominated and voted in as President of Branford Little League. I feel truly grateful and am very excited to be part of such an amazing community with so many people who are willing to give back to our kids.

As we all know, the numbers for Youth Baseball across America and even in our own district have been slowly dwindling, yet our league continues to thrive and move forward, even during a pandemic. This is a direct result of the amount of dedication and effort being put forth by our coaches, volunteers and board members. This is a very exciting time for our league with everything we have planned and going on. To date, BLL includes but is not limited to our Little League Season, our Branford Junior Hornets Travel Program, a new score board, clinics and trainings as well as the prospect of BLL sending a team to compete in Cooperstown next summer! Let's Go Branford!

As I can relate to everyone's very busy schedules, I want to assure everyone as your new BLL President that myself as well as our BLL board members, that YOUR children are OUR first priority. The goal of Little League is to provide and create a fun, safe, competitive and memorable experience for our kids, while also putting an emphasis on fundamentals, participation, development and teamwork.

As a mother of three children all involved in the BLL community, I can truly appreciate the thrill of seeing your child play baseball for the first time, as well as watching them grow and develop throughout the years. Our board will be constantly working to improve our league and to make it the best we can for the kids in our community.
 

As a new president with some returning, some new and some still vacant positions on the board, one of our goals as a board is to ensure open communication. Moving forward, we will be looking to continue to improve our league in all ways possible. I am available and open to ideas. We will be looking for fundraising ideas, sponsorships, donations and volunteers. We plan to re-open our concession stand and also begin selling BLL apparel to support our league. All money raised will be put directly back into our program, fields, kids and community. Please look for BLL on Facebook as well as Instagram.

Sincerely,

Tricia Lougal

BLL President

Tricia Lougal – BLL President

Don Lawrence – BLL Vice President

Barry Latham – Treasurer

_________ - Secretary

Joe Ball – Marketing / Fundraising / Sponsorship Manager

Brian Gallagher – Player Agent

Jason Darmofal – Safety Officer

Sean Kesik – T-Ball Commissioner

_________ - A-Ball Commissioner

_________ - AA Commissioner

_________ - AAA Commissioner

Don Lawrence - Majors Commissioner

Don Lawrence - Fall Ball Commissioner

_________ - Field Maintenance

Branford Junior Hornets

13U / 14U 

Travel Program

As previously announced, the Branford Junior Hornet Travel Program is planning to start a 13U, 14U and 15U Travel Team for the Fall of 2021. Since that announcement was made we have received several inquiries about the possibility of additionally having a Spring Travel Team for the same age group. We are now calling upon players to gauge this as a possibility in hopes of making that happen. If enough players show interest, we will move forward with a 13U team or, if necessary a combined 13U / 14U team to play in the 14U division beginning this Spring (2021). In addition to our existing coaching staff, Branford High School Coach Steve Malifonte as well as his BHS coaching staff will also be involved in assisting this team to prepare them for the Fall of 2021 and moving forward to the high school level. 

To be eligible to play 13U, players must be born in May 2007 or after. To be eligible to play 14U, players must be born in May 2006 or after. These games will be played on a full 60/90 field.

In order to establish this Branford Junior Hornets team(s), we first need to determine if there is enough interest at the 13U / 14U level to coordinate this for the spring of 2021. If interested, please register below or go to www.branfordlittleleague.net. There is no cost to register.

While we encourage everyone who is interested to register, please understand that registering to express interest does not guarantee anyone a spot on this team. If necessary, tryouts will be held. This team will play in the East Shore Travel League and play approximately 22 games in addition to playoffs. Games will be played on weekends beginning in early April.

Thank you to everyone for your continued support. 

Register:  www.branfordlittleleague.net or Click Here 

BRANFORD LITTLE LEAGUE

2020 SEASON GUIDELINES

BLL would like to remind everyone of the COVID protocols in place for Seabreeze and Fall Ball. We had a successful Summer program with zero issues. Let's all do our part to have a successful Seabreeze and Fall season as well.

UNIVERSAL ITEMS:

• All coaches, umpires and other volunteers who interact with the players on the field during practices and games shall wear face coverings when not able to easily maintain a 6 foot distance from other coaches, players and umpires.  Gloves shall be worn if handling shared player equipment, players equipment or cleaning apparatus/materials.
• All players shall possess their own Bat
• All players shall possess their own Glove. Exception being shared team catcher’s gloves that shall be disinfected between players for Majors, AAA and AA divisions.
• All shared catchers gear equipment shall be disinfected in between each individual players use.
• All players shall possess their own Helmet (NO TEAM HELMETS WILL BE PROVIDED)
• Players will not huddle at any time during practices or games.
• No Spitting, No sunflower seed eating and No Gum Chewing.
• All players must supply their own water for practices and games, no “team” water coolers will be allowed.
• No hand shakes, high fives or physical body contact allowed.
• It is recommended that parents send players with some form of hand sanitizer to be utilized during practices and games.
• Players are not required to utilize a face covering during play, but can be utilized at parent/player preference.  Players shall wear a face covering when not on the field of play or engaged in practice.
• All coaches, volunteers and umpires shall complete a daily health self-screening to check for symptoms.  If any symptoms are present the individual shall refrain from being present for league activities and follow local health guidelines.
• All balls (game balls and practice balls) shall be disinfected before and after each practice or game.
• Each team shall have a new volunteer role assigned to a parent to monitor compliance with these guidelines during practices and games.

PRACTICES:

• Coaches should be able to easily organize drills to include social distancing. This can be achieved by splitting the players up into small groups (2-4) placed at locations spread out around the diamond. Avoid queuing/stacking of players, but if this is necessary training aids such as cones spread 6’ or more apart shall be utilized to remind players about “social distancing”
• Practice spectators shall wear a face covering and maintain social distancing unless doing so would be contrary to his or her health.
• Practices shall be schedule with at least a 15 minute buffer to prevent overlap of players and allow for time to clean and disinfect commonly used surfaces and equipment.

BATTING PRACTICE:

• Queuing/stacking of players shall be avoided at all times. Provide time slots to players within the allotted batting cage time so there is no more than 4 players there at any one time.
• Batting Practice spectators shall wear a face covering and maintain social distancing unless doing so would be contrary to his or her health.

GAMES:

• Games will be scheduled with at least a 30 minute buffer to prevent overlap of participants and allow time to clean and disinfect commonly used surfaces and equipment (i.e. Benches, dugouts, catchers gloves and etc..)
• Dugouts are to be allowed for coaches and for batters who are “in the hole” or “on-deck” only (maximum of 4 players/coaches).  Players who are otherwise waiting will sit outside the field in a player supplied chair.  It is important for coaches to ensure that the players chairs are placed at 6’ distances when not on the field of play. Dugouts are to be disinfected before and after each use.
• Umpires shall be positioned appropriately distanced behind the mound, 1 Umpire per game only.
• As listed above and reinforced here. Balls shall be disinfected before and after each game or practice. Shared equipment (i.e. catchers gear) shall be disinfected before and after each players use as well as in between each game and practice.
• Bats handled by coaches after an at bat shall be disinfected prior to being put back in the bat caddy in between innings.
• No sharing of bats, non-catchers gloves, and helmets is allowed.
• No Post game hand shakes, both teams shall line up along their base line appropriately distances and tip the cap as a sign of respect for the other team’s performance.
• No catchers will be utilized for the Coach Pitch. A coach will be positioned against the backstop to retrieve any baseballs or move bats to a safe area after an at bat.
• Game Spectators are required to bring and wear face coverings that completely cover the nose and mouth unless doing so would be contrary to his or her safety due to health condition. Spectators shall maintain 6’ social distancing at all times.

Facility Guidelines:

Games, practices and batting practices will be scheduled with a 30 minute buffer between the end and start of each event for each field.

• All commonly used surfaces such as, but not limited to; dugout areas, benches, bleachers, door handles to concession areas, field houses and concession area counter tops will be disinfected/sanitized before and after events by coaches/volunteers.
• Bathrooms will be sanitized/disinfected daily.
• The use of bleachers is not permitted.
• Concession stand, If used, will be limited to the sale of prepackaged food and drink only. 
• Families will be allowed to attend games by staying 6 feet apart in the outfield area. 

Branford Little League 2020 Spring Refund Process

After consulting with Town officials and reviewing the current LL guidlines, Branford Little League has decided to cancel the Spring season.  We understand Governor Lamont is still targeting June 20th as the start of Phase 2, which allows selected youth sports to begin.  We will continue to monitor the situation as well as the required safety protocols necessary to get all our kids (T Ball to Majors) on the field.  We are planning to have a summer/fall season. More on that to come as information becomes available.

BLL knows you, the parents, signed up for a baseball season that started in April and ended in June.  Therefore, we are giving you the option to refund your registration in full.  Or, if you are interested in having your child play when available, you can roll over your registration to either the late summer or 2021 Spring season.  A new registration will open for the 2020 Summer/Fall season when we have more details.  

Please go to our website at www.branfordlittleleague.net or click here to go to the refund form.  Refunds will be applied back to the credit card used at registration.  Please provide an address to mail a check if you paid by check.  

Again, we may have canceled the Spring season but it doesn't ,mean we have given up on baseball in Branford this Summer or Fall. Stay tuned for updates.    

Hi BLL Community,

BLL created a new Instagram account to further communicate with our families in town. We want to invite you for #greathometraining videos and #baseball info to follow us on Instagram @branfordll.

Thank You,

BLL

Please be aware of the No Dog Policy at Sliney Field. There are no dogs allowed inside the Sliney complex or at Sampson Field.  This is a Town of Branford rule. We must respect the Town while at Sliney Fields.

Thank You

BLL