Darien will enter one team in each of the 11/12 year-old, 10/11 year-old and 9/10 year-old divisions of the LL District Tournaments. A meaningful change from 2015 (as approved by Little League International) is that DLL will field one vs. two LL District Tournament teams in each age group. Please contact the VP-Baseball or the Post-season Coordinator if you have any questions regarding these changes.
In order to be eligible to be selected to a District team, players must 1) meet the minimum playing requirement established by Little League International of one at bat and three innings in the field in 60% or more of their team’s spring regular season games (which includes Pool Play games), and 2) record a minimum of 18 plate appearances during these games (local DLL rule). As Majors and Minors teams are scheduled to play 12 regular season games, a player will need to meet the minimum playing requirement in 7 of those games to meet the 60% threshold.
While 11 year-olds may be selected to either an 11/12 or a 10/11 year-old team; historically, a substantial majority of players on the 11/12 year-old team are twelve years old and the substantial majority of the players on the 10/11 year-old team will be 11. Nine and ten year-olds playing in the Majors and Minors are eligible for selection to the 9/10's team.
The selection process for the 11/12 and the 10/11's teams is similar and will be overseen by the Majors Commissioner and the Player Agent. Selection to each of the teams is done, separately, by a vote of the Majors players and a vote of the Majors managers during the first week of June. The manager vote is conducted following a meeting during which all managers review league statistics and discuss the strengths of each player and team composition.
Because 9 and 10 year-olds are split between the Majors and Minors Divisions, the selection of the 9/10's team will require a different process - an invitation-based tryout. All eligible 10 year-olds that played in the Majors will be invited to the tryout. Players in the Minors will be invited based on a review of manager evaluations and league statistics and it is expected that up to two players from each Minors team will be invited to the tryout. The tryout will be held near the end of the spring regular season.
Player notifications for Districts will be made by the second week of June and District team practices may begin around that time as well (if they don't interfere with Spring season playoffs). Games are expected to commence during the last two weeks of June and the season can stretch into the second half of July (re: advancement or further tournaments). Players are expected to attend all District games and the substantial majority of practices if they accept a District spot (post-District tournaments are optional).
Most importantly, District baseball is but one of the opportunities to continue playing baseball into the Summer months with DLL. In addition to the District teams, DLL will field up to two Friendship All-Star teams for each of 10U and 12U age groupings (and 8U and 9U if you have younger children). These are excellent opportunities to continue playing competitive baseball. Invitations to the teams are determined by the respective league managers, with assistance by the respective league commissioners and also overseen by the VP-Baseball and the Post-season Coordinator, and generally extend to the top three to four players on each team (less for the younger age leagues teams that don't have a "District" team as well).
If you have any questions on the District or Friendship selection process or season, please contact the the Post-season Coordinator.
