Tips for New Softball Coaches and Managers

So somebody talked you into forming a new team or taking over an existing team? You may be asking yourself, “Now what?” This can be an intimidating and oftentimes thankless task. Anchor Town Sports wants to make things as easy for you as possible. We offer the following tips and suggestions, and encourage you to call or e-mail anytime with questions. We are all in it for the fun and enjoyment. Although there are some really basic concepts in this manual, there are also some tips that even the most experienced coach or manager may not have thought of. We hope these suggestions make life easier for everyone.

Approaching Sponsors:

Sponsors are very important for helping to keep the costs down for your players. Many businesses feel softball sponsorship is a relatively inexpensive and cost-effective means of advertising. The business name is emblazoned on the jerseys.

Before talking to your sponsor or potential sponsor, give some thought to what you need, what you would really like to get, and what you think your sponsor can or will provide. Some sponsors pay for only the team registration fee, but some sponsors are much more generous and pay for a combination of expenses. Very few sponsor pony up for all the costs (team registration fee, player fees, tournament fees, uniforms.)

Be realistic in your approach, and be flexible. And when you get a sponsor, always do whatever you can to give something back by supporting your sponsor and encouraging others to do so.

Putting Together a Team:

First, make sure your players are eligible for the league and classification your team is in. This is easy for the unclassified leagues (Recreational Open and CoRec 7/3). Any eligible player can play in the unclassified leagues. For the rated coed teams, though, there are a few rules that sometimes are overlooked. Here are guidelines by classification:

Coed C: Players may not play on any Anchor Town Coed D or Coed E team!

Coed D: Players may not play on any Anchor Town Coed C or Coed E team!

Coed E: Players may not play on any Anchor Town Coed C, Coed D or Men’s D team! Coed E is the recreational level division. For this reason, there are also restrictions on players who play in the other organization. Generally, if you have players that also play across town on a Men’s, Women’s or Coed E or higher team, you should call the Anchor Town office to discuss whether your team would be eligible for Coed E. Most of the players in this league have limited experience.

Just as there are restrictions for the rated coed teams, there are also restrictions for the rated Men’s teams. Essentially, E level teams are limited in their experience or abilities, while D level teams are more competitive.

Of course, in putting together your team, in addition to making sure all players are eligible, you will also want to make sure you have players for every position. For coed teams, make sure you are aware of the rules regarding placement of men and women. Start with your battery. Every coed team must have a male pitcher and female catcher, or a female pitcher and a male catcher at all times. The remaining players must be split with two women in the outfield and two women playing first, second, third or shortstop. Naturally this leaves two men in the outfield and two men in the infield. (Note that this rule does not apply to CoRec 7/3, where there is no need to have a male/female battery, and the women can play anywhere in the field.)

Registering Your Team:

All Anchor Town teams are registered through the Amateur Softball Association. To register a team come to Anchor Town Sports at 601 W. 36th Ave. #2. When you pay your team fees at the Anchor Town office, your registration will be complete. You can then pick up player registration forms for the players to fill out.

Fees:

Each team must pay a team registration fee and each player must pay a player registration fee. The following are the team fees:

Coed E: $400
Coed D: $400
Coed Church/Faith: $400
CoRec 7/3: $400
Coed C: $400
Men's: $575

There is a $50 discount for registering and paying the team fee prior to March 21st.

Player fees are $50 per player. If a player is on more than one team, he or she must pay separate fees for each team. However, Anchor Town Sports offers a discount for players who register on multiple teams. Registering on a second Anchor Town team requires paying a fee of $40, and any subsequent Anchor Town teams are only $30. Active duty military and dependents are not required to pay player fees at Anchor Town Sports.

Organizing Your Team:

From the beginning you are going to want to make sure you can reach your players. Keep contact information whenever you find new players. We suggest you keep a list of home phone, work phone (if the players can accept calls at work), cell phone, and e-mail addresses. A mailing address may be useful in some cases. All of this information can be taken from your copy of the player’s contract you need to file with Anchor Town Sports. We have also tried to help by putting a box on the contract for players to tell you their preferred jersey number and size. That box is there solely for your benefit, we do not use that information for anything.

Before the season starts you will need to keep players informed of practice times, organize jersey purchases and all kinds of other details. After the season starts, it is important to have someone on the team who can help you make phone calls in the event of short-notice events like rainouts.

Make sure the team has all the equipment you will need for the season. Anchor Town provides sufficient new balls for each team’s regular season schedule, and provides balls for tournaments. Anchor Town also provides line-up cards and scorebooks. Your players need bats and gloves. You also need used softballs for practice and for games. (At each regular season game the home team brings a new softball and the visitor bring a used ball in good condition. For coed, this means one of each – women’s and men’s balls.) Anchor Town has plenty of used balls available if you need them. Anchor Town also provides team bags for easy toting of scorebooks and player contracts. You should always have a copy of each player contract with you at games, in case you need to verify that a player is actually registered. (Participation by unregistered players is a serious insurance violation and Anchor Town must enforce this provision.)

At regular season games, the home team provides the official scorebook. Even when you are the visitor, you will want someone to keep the book for your benefit. If there is a discrepancy between the two scorebooks, ask the umpire to help resolve it. The “official scorebook” only means that is where notes about protests are written; it does not mean the official scorebook is automatically considered “right” when there is a dispute.

For regular season games, your scorekeeper can keep a book as detailed as you want it to be. The only requirement from Anchor Town is that we need to know the score and the position of all runners, batter at bat and number of outs at the time of any protest.

You will want to familiarize yourself with the rules. The Amateur Softball Association, through Anchor Town, provides one rule book for each team. The rules are also listed on line asasoftball.com It is always a good idea to have your rule book with you at games in the event of protests or appeals. Anchor Town generally uses the national rule book, but has some exceptions. These exceptions are provided to each coach and the umpires.

Putting a Team on the Field:

Come game time, you will need to be warmed up and ready to play, but you will also need to have prepared the line-up card. For coed teams, you must remember that the batting order must alternate between men and women, and you must remember to put two men and two women in the infield, the same in the outfield, and have a male/female battery.

Extra batters are allowed in all games. Men’s teams may bat one or two extra batters. All Coed, Recreational Open and CoRec teams may bat two extra batters, but it must be one of each sex(Excluding Senior teams. It is important to remember that if you start a game using extra batters, you must finish the game using extra batters. If you have 12 people show up for a game and use them all as batters, if any player leaves the game for any reason and there is no substitute available, the vacant spot in the lineup is an out, even in Men’s and Women’s leagues.

After the Game:

Anchor Town coaches do not have to call in the score. All the coach has to do is make sure the umpire knows the score and writes it down.
We hope these suggestions and guidelines help make your task easier and your softball season more enjoyable. If there are any questions at all, do not hesitate to call the office at 272-4200 or e-mail us at atsa@gci.net. It’s going to be a great summer for softball!