Our Rookie schedule is complete and has been entered on our website, click on SCHEDULES
and then click on ROOKIE and the schedule will appear. It runs thru to Sept 7th and play-offs
will then begin on Sept 10th.
Enjoy your season and good luck, remember rain line # is 865-5586 after 4:00 pm for fields
in Windsor Jct & Sackville.

July 6th  -  Congrats to Pee Wee AA team for taking silver medals at the Dave Kelly Memorial
Tournament in Pictou on the week-end.  In the round robin portion scores were:
Tri County  0  Kentville  4 
Tri County  10  Pictou  9
Truro 7  Tri County  4
Semi finals  Tri County  15  Hammonds Plains  5
Championship  Truro  21  Tri County  11

Our Tri County Pee Wee AAA team travelled to Fredericton, NB this past week-end to take part
in their 4th Annual Pee Wee AAA tournament and ended up with gold medals. In round robin play
our squad downed Saint John 13 - 0, dropped a 15 - 12 slugfest to New Maryland and then defeated
Shediac 15 - 3 to qualify for semi-finals.
On sunday we fell behind Fredericton 4 - 0 early but rallied back to win 8 - 4 and advance to the championship game. Not to do anything the easy way we again fell behind to Chatham 2 - 0 but once
again rallied to take the gold medal with a 7 - 5 win. Congragulations to players & coaches for an
exciting week-end.

    Last week-end our Pee Wee AAA Tri County team hosted an excellant tournament in Bedford
as part of Bedford Days festivities.  Some excellant baseball was played throughout with all kinds
of close competitive games.

     Our team advanced to sem-finals and played a great game but lost a one run decision (5-4) to
Cole Harbour, in the other semi-final it took Summerside, PEI 9 innings to win out over a determined
Hammonds Plains team.   Summerside then went on to defeat Cole Harbour and win gold in the championship
game.  Congragulations to team, coaches and families for being great hosts and playing some really good
baseball.

Although the registration dates have been completed for 2008 you can still register by emailing Barry at lwfbaseball@hotmail.com or you can also go to "Rules and Forms" to print and mail in your registration as well to save time.

 The umpire rates for umpires in LWF, Bedford & Sackville for the 2008 season are all being raised - new fee structure has been put in under 2008 Umpire Rates on the website.  As all three of our Associations continue to grow we are in ever increasing need of more umpires.  You must turn 13 in the year 2008 to umpire and there is a one day course put on in the Spring,  The course costs $60.00 but our Association will pay $30.00 of that for you plus we do supply the full home plate gear at each of our fields needed to do games.  Games get assigned each week and you do not have to take games you aren't available for and don't want to do.  We are especially in need of adult umpires, if you have any questions or are interested please call Barry at 861-1171 or email at  lwfbaseball@hotmail.com

The Umpires Clinic will be held at the Waverley Legion on Rocky Lake Road April 19, 2008. Registration is at 8:30 am and the clinic is 9:00 am - 5:00 pm.  There will be a canteen for those who wish to buy lunch on site. 

Any new or returning umpires for 2008 are asked to email Barry at the above email to advise that you are interested - please include name, age, phone #'s and email address.

Rates for 2008:

Rookie             $14.00

Mosquito House and Rep  Plate: $25.00  Base: $18.00

Pee Wee House and Rep    Plate: $27.00  Base: $18.00

Bantam House                      Plate: $30.00  Base: $20.00

Bantam Rep                           Plate: $35.00  Base: $25.00

Midget                                    Plate: $40.00  Base: $30.00

As baseball is an outdoor sport and very weather dependant you must be aware of the following numbers to call if weather is iffy.
Our fields at Windsor Jct Community Centre and the Sackville Fields are PRIVATE FIELDS AND HAVE A SEPARATE FIELD CONDITION NUMBER, as we are just miles from Sackville our fields are on the same field condition number as theirs, it is Sackville Minor Ball and is 865-5586. The information as to games being on or off is updated AT 1:00 pm for games scheduled to start at 3:00, updated at 4:00 pm for games scheduled to start at 6:00 or 6:15 and again at 7:00 pm for games scheduled to start at 8:45 PM.
** PLSE NOTE - THE MAJORITY OF THE REST OF THE FIELDS WE PLAY ON ARE HRM FIELDS AND THEY HAVE A SEPARATE SET OF NUMBERS. They update their info at 3:00 pm on week-days and by 10:00 on week-ends. The phone number is 490-7100 but is very hard to get thru on, suggest you go to their website www.halifax.ca/recreation/fields.html when the Home page comes up the 4th category down is "FIELD CONDITIONS" - click on it.

NEW FOR 2008 - Due to the heavy increase in number of players we will be using additonal fields in 2008 so please note:

1) Grand Lake Field - on right hand side of old # Two highway just across from Grand Lake Fire Station, this is a private field so will come under the Sackville rain line number of 865-5586 AFTER 4:00 pm.

2) Waverley Legion Field - Waverley Legion is on Rocky Lake Road between Waverley & Bedford, the field is just in behind the Legion building. It also is a private field so will come under the Sackville rain line number.

3) Eddie Leblanc Fields (Sackville) - Take First Lake Drive off of the Cobequid Road and go towards the Old Sackville Arena. Just before you come to the first stop sign on First Lake Drive the fields are off to your left alongside the Lake. These are HRM Fields so will come under the HRM raing line/website numbers listed above.

    Out of our 400 players we currently have about 40 girls playing from Novice thru to Bantam and it is a huge goal of this Association to have more girls playing the game.  In 2007 we had 5 girls playing Bantam Division for the first time and we had one female coach in Mosquito and six more in Rookie (including the Championship Hurricane team).  We would like to take the next step which is having an actual girls team for 2008 and we have had discussions with neighbouring Associations (Hammonds Plains) who will also field a team in 08 to play against.

     What we are planning for the 2008 season is that our girls will play as before on the mixed teams  BUT  those that are interested can sign up to ALSO  play on a girls team.  We will not over burden you but our intention is to get the interested girls together a few times a year to practice as a team and also to play a couple of exhibition games and maybe two one day mini-tournaments.

    We cannot guarantee you a place on this team (depending on numbers interested and age group picked) but we would like to know how many are interested.  We are hoping to have players on the team that will be 10 yrs old to 12 yrs old in 2008 but may increase the age limit from 9 to 13 if required.  If you are interested you are asked to email or call Barry Dalrymple at  lwfbaseball@hotmail.com   or  861-1171 and advise your name and date of birth and that you are interested in playing in 2008.

    Novice Division is for 4/5 year olds and Rally Cap is for 6/7 year olds (if your child was in one of these divisions last year they can move up to another division if you wish).

    The response in both of these age groups in 2007 was a little bit overwhelming as both of them ended up with over 60 kids.  While that was a fantastic response and the kids were absolutely terrific we were unable to deliver  as high a quality program  as we would have liked.  While  we all had a lot of fun and did accomplish many of our goals we feel we can do better in 2008.

    To that end we have already booked the Waverley Legion Field on Monday evenings so that we can split these two groups in half for next year.  For 2008 there will be two separate sessions in each of these divisions and you will have a choice to sign up for either one, please note on your registration form your preferance.

NOVICE DIVISION:

Either Monday nights from 6:00 to 6:50 at the Waverley Legion Field or Tuesday nights from 6:00 to 6:50 at the Windsor Jct Community Centre Small Field. 

RALLY CAP DIVISION:

Either Monday nights from 7:00 to 8:00 at the Waverley Legion or Tuesday nights from 7:00 to 8:00 at the Windsor Jct Comm Centre Small Field. 

The LWF Baseball Association is for boys and girls from 5 years old right thru to 21 years of age, we started ten years ago with one mosquito aged team of 12 kids and have grown today to about 400 players on teams from novice right thru to junior, we also have our own umpire division with over 40 umpires. Our Association mainly covers the communities of Fall River, Windsor Jct, Lakeview, Waverly and Wellington however we also have players from the Grand Lake and Enfield areas.
Our home field for teams from Novice to Bantam House is the Windsor Jct Community Centre while teams from Bantam Rep up to Junior play out of Sackville or Bedford.

In addition our LWF Association is partners with Sackville & Bedford Associations to form the Tri county Rangers Rep system with teams from Mosquito thru to Junior in A, AA & AAA leagues.

The following is a general outline of the various age groups:
NOVICE - Registration $70.00 - is mostly for 4 & 5 year olds, at this age we start off with a batting tee and quickly graduate to parent pitch. Novice is only once at week at the Windsor Jct Community Centre and is mostly skill sessions and we'll gradually work them into playing innings of actual games. We use safety (rubberized) bats and softer balls at this age. Due to huge numbers we will have two groups of Novice in 2008, one will be on Tuesday nights at Windsor Jct Community Centre and the other will be on Monday nights at Waverley Legion (plse indicate on reg form your preference).
RALLY CAP - NEW FOR 2007 - registration is $85.00 and is for ages 6 & 7, this age group will be on the field once a week at the WJCC Fields and is geared solely to skills and fun, we will graduate to "games" by the end of the season, the full RALLY CAP PROGRAM as sponsored by Baseball Canada is 50 very interesting pages of info and drills and can be read on our website by clicking on the COACHES BOX section and then on RALLY CAP. We encourage all parents at this age group to take a peek at this as it is the program/sessions we will use this year. AS IN NOVICE THERE WERE HUGE NUMBERS in this age group in 2007 so for the 2008 season we will have two groups, one will be on Tuesday nights at Windsor Jct and the other will be on Monday nights at the Waverley Legion (please indicate your preferance on reg forms).
ROOKIE - Registration $110.00 - is mainly for 8 & 9 year olds but we will allow some 7's to play here if they are deemed safe to play and we will allow some 10 year olds to play especially if they haven't played ball before and need a year to develop skills. At this age we use the pitching machine as the pitcher during games and I'm sure anyone that has seen these games will agree they are very action packed and exciting. We have our own rookie league so all games are played at the Community Centre, there are opportunities here for exhibition games against teams from other places and we normally host one tournament a year in this age group. In 2008 we will be changing the Rookie division slightly in that we will be scheduling a larger ratio of practices to games to better enhance the playing skills of our players.

TRI COUNTY RANGERS REP SYSTEM

- Four years ago our LWF Association merged with Sackville and Bedford at the rep level, we started this four years ago with great success, it allowed us, for the first time ever, to field rep teams in every age group and every division, see separate entry on "rep" process" as we have both rec & rep programs at every level from Mosquito up. Our merged Rep teams all fall under the umbrella of the Tri-County Rangers.

MOSQUITO - We have teams at AAA, AA and House - registration $135.00 - this is for 10 & 11 year olds but we will allow some skilled 9 year olds to move up and we are allowed a few overage 12 year olds to play on house teams as long as they don't pitch or catch. Our house league last year had 3 LWF teams, 5 Sackville teams and 3 Bedford teamsso all games are close by. Again, there are opportunities for exhibition games, tournaments and provincial entry if the teams wants to. Our home field for Mosquito house is the WJCC and it has lights.
PEE WEE - We have teams at AAA, AA and House - registration is $135.00. This is for 12 and 13 year olds, we are allowed a few overage 14 year olds to play on house teams but they cannot pitch or catch. Last year we had two LWF Pee Wee teams at house level, Sackville had 4 teams, Bedford 1 team and Hammonds Plains had 1 team. Our home field is the WJCC and it has lights, there are opportunities for exh games, tournaments and provincial play.
BANTAM - We have teams at AAA, AA and House - registration is $135.00 and this is for 14 and 15 year olds, last year at House level there was one LWF team, 4 Sackville, 1 Hammonds Plains 1 Chebucto and 1 Halifax teams. Home field is at WJCC and games are under the lights, opportunities for exh games, tournaments and provincial entry.
MIDGET - We have teams at AAA - AA - A level, there is no house league at the Midget level, this is for ages 16 to 18 - registration is $150.00 - last year we had one Merged Association AAA team which played out of Bedford, one LWF AA team which played at Bedford, a second AA team playing out of Sackville and an A team which played at Sackville. We have already committed for 2007 to have one AAA team one AA team, we feel we will probably have two A teams.
JUNIOR - We will field a merged Association Junior team this season, it will play out of Sackville or Bedford, registration has not yet been determined, this is for 19-21 year olds.

As all of our House Divisions are opening within the upcoming week here
are some helpful things to remember:
1) Our fields at Windsor Jct and the fields at Sackville are "privately owned
& operated" and are on their own rain line #, to see if games are on/off at
these fields call 865-5586 after 4:00 pm. There are many calls going into
this number so you may have to call back a number of times. IN 2008 WE ARE

GOING TO BE USING GRAND LAKE & WAVERLEY LEGION FIELDS AS WELL AND THEY ARE ALSO PRIVATE FIELDS SO THEY WILL ALSO BE UNDER THE 865-5586 AFTER 4:00 number.
2) The fields in Bedford (Lenihan & Meadowbrook) are HRM operated and go
under the HRM rain line # for sports fields but it is much easier and quicker
to go to the HRM website and go to Recreation and then to Field Conditions.
3) COACHES ALL DIVISIONS - please designate someone on your team that will
diligently email game scores in each night so we can keep our websites updated.
All game scores should be sent in that night to two email address - lwfbaseball@hotmail.com & sackvilleminorbaseball@hotmail.com
4) PARENTS - teams are allowed to borrow players from another team if they know
they are going to be short because of holidays etc, if you are going to miss
a game please ensure you advise your team.
5) It is imperative we get games going on time so the late games don't get too
backed up and coaches need time to know who is there and make up line-ups etc,
you should be at the field AT LEAST 15 minutes prior to game start time to warm
up etc.
6) COACHES ALL DIVISIONS - if you would like to schedule practices (one at a
time or the same time for the whole year) we have lots of field times available
at Grand Lake field and at Eddie Leblanc field on First Lake Drive in Sackville,
to book practices please email Barry at lwfbaseball@hotmail.com

Heh Coaches - For the 2008 season we remind all coaches to check the RULES SECTION on our website. House league rules for all divisions (Rookie, Mosquito, Pee Wee & Bantam) including the "no walk"rule in Mosquito are all posted. See the headings on the left hand side of website, click on RULES & FORMS, you will see all divisions listed, click on your division and check out your rules of play. Please remember to email your game scores in that night to both lwfbaseball@hotmail.com and to sackvilleminorbaseball@hotmail.com - thanks, and good luck.