Rochester Youth Baseball Association

 Whether you are signing up for the summer (spring) season, the fall season, or the winter dome seasion, see our registration tab.

New this year, you can register for (or use your existing) an NGIN account to be apart of more of what Rochester Youth Baseball offers. 

Once you open a private account you or your kids will have their own permanent profiles making it much easier for you in all future communications with the Club. As we move into the season we will continue to offer other enhancements to your account such as; you will also be able to receive team email messages, track your orders/payments, and view team specific web pages, just to name a few.

YOUR ACCOUNT INFORMATION WILL REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL. 

YOU DO NOT NEED TO LOG IN TO VIEW THE GENERAL INFORMATION POSTED ON THIS WEBSITE.

Each baseball season (summer, fall, winter) has it's own schedules.  In all seasons, players can be accepted as long as open rosters spots exist but get in your registration soon to guarantee placement.  See each of the season registration session information by clicking on the left menu option from our home page.   Each season has cut-offs where we do not allow refunds because we make decisions on team structures and rosters and when numbers change it causes rework for this defined information.

It depends on what season you are playing!  Assuming you are talking about the Spring/Summer primary season we offset grades by dates.  The K/2/4/6/8 grades play on Monday/Wednesday and the 1/3/5/7 play on Tuesday/Thursday.  This may change because of reschedules or if an odd number of teams in a league and Friday/Sundays may be used on occasion for the older grades.  Traveling evenings are set by the traveling coaches and the leagues they participate in.  See the newsletter for details in the "Spring/Summer Baseball" tab on the left off our home page.

The spring/summer season staggers the start by grades. The 4th-8th grades start in the April timeframe whil the K-3 kick into gear the first of June.   End of the season house playoffs are set in the middle of July and the optional 2nd/3rd grade tournament is usually the first week of August. Each season may be different based on the calendar so I suggest you see the many details in our Newsletter.  Traveling also has different schedules but 11-14 year old tryouts are in March and the 10&Under start in April.

Find the newsletter in the "Spring/Summer Baseball" tab.

You would use his current school grade now, hence 2nd grade in this example.

Tryouts may be scary for some parents and some kids but there is really nothing to fear. While decisions at each level are never "black and white" both house majors and traveling programs have a well defined set of criteria and skills that we are looking for. They also have a number of individuals making the decisions so there are checks and balances in the system.

Ultimately kids and parents have ideas and hope for what levels of play a child make make but at  the end of tryouts our goal is to assign players to a level that match their skills.   It is best for everyone if kids play at the right level that both challenges them and that they can have confidence that allows them to enjoy the sport.  Each program has the guidelines used for the many tryout regions and levels at the following:

• For house majors/minors program tryouts, see the House->Tryout page. 
• For 10&Under traveling through 14 year old tryout information, see the Traveling->Tryout page.

Majors teams are selected within a tryout region by draft and independent of school or geographic region.
Minors teams are selected from within a tryout region and we attempt to place by school and/or geographic region for those that attended majors tryouts. Those that did not attend majors tryouts are placed to fill roster spots on teams.  We encourage all players to attend majors tryout evaluations to best ensure parity across our program.

For the primary summer season, grades K-5 games are at 6pm during the week nights assigned. There are no other practice nights assigned for the team. As kids get older, coaches will work in an  occasionally practice into the schedule.  For games, players will arrive anywhere from 30-60 minutes early for working on fundamentals and warm-ups.

For grades 7-8 games are typically at 6pm during the week nighs assigned but occasionally games at the RBC complex will be scheduled under the lights at 8pm. Coaches will work in an optional practice occasionally into the schedule during the week or on the weekend.  For games, players will arrive anywhere from 30-60 minutes early for working on fundamentals and warm-ups.

 All boys and girls that are CURRENTLY in Grades K through 8 are eligible to play in the RYBA House program.  The Traveling program has more restrictive elgibility due to participation in the Metro League. Click for more info on traveling

Many players at all levels have their own bats but it is not required. It does allow you to utilize and practice with the bat in your own time and when youre just playing pickup down the street at the neighborhood field.  Bat rules have all been changed in 2012. For specific information by traveling age and/or house program grades see the "TRAVEL" or "HOUSE" tabs and then selecr "RULES" on the left. You will find detailed information on bat sizes and what markings they must have to be legal.

There are many websites that help you choose the right size of bat for your player based on height and weight.  They do not typically take into account skill so you should remember that hitting the ball is more important than how far you hit it.  The weight of the bat is probably the most important factor in your decision both because lighter bats allow better agility and potential to hit the ball. Also using physics and mathematics the velocity of the swing actually is actually more important than the mass (weight) of the bat being swung.  Energy = mass times the velocity squared.

RYBA posted this article on the 2012 changes.

Each team is assigned a team page and a team calendar that the coach and up to one parent may have access to edit but the entire team can see it.  To find out more both on how to get access and some basic information on how to utilize see this link.

The userids used for permissions to team page editing is the NGIN account.  If you don't know your NGIN userid or your password the link above will also help you.

1. Go to your team page that displays your team calendar
2. Click the iCal button located at the bottom of your calendar.
3. Copy the url info (e.g.  webcal://www.rybamn.com/ical_feed?tags=145855)
4. Go to your google calendar in a browser
5. On the left bottom of your default calendar view, click the "Add-->Add by URL" option.
6. Paste the url info from above (decide if you want it public..such as a coach wanting to easily share it with others..no harm in being public since its already public on RYBAMN.com...note that google doesn't allow you to change your mind, ever on this question)
7. It should now be listed in your list of calendars within google
8. If you have a smart phone with calendaring it will work like any other calendar you have within google and can be synced with it.

The official standings can be found at http://www.rybamn.com/page/show/335235-standings

In 2012, RYBA no longer includes fundraiser cards. Based on a survey in 2010 and a follow-on survey in 2011, it was made clear that limited RYBA families actually sold the cards and the usage was more limited than expected.  

RYBA sponsors are very important to the overall program and to help keep the overall costs down for individual players.  Our sponsor names are on the provided uniforms and these house program assigned jerseys must be worn and not altered in any way.   The requirement of gray pants must also not be adjusted via "team decisions".  There are almost 2000 kids in our programs and not all can afford doing "special" things for teams nor would they want anyone to know this.  At every level of baseball there are rules governing uniforms and this includes RYBA House League.

Easy to do...and it's free!

Read up on more info and sign up by clicking here.

I tried signing up for the alerts, but I'm supposed to have a validation code. Where do I get that?

The RainedOut alert thing sends you a validation code via text (if you do cell phone) or via email (if you do email alert).  You need to enter that validation code or click on the URL in rainout to get on the list. it is done this way so that you validate you really want to be on the list rather than someone else mass importing cell phone numbers without your knowledge or desire.  Let me know if you hvae trouble but I think you can re register to get a new code.

Anytime we send a mass email to members, whether its to a group, to the entire member directory, or via a registration report, the email will go to the NGIN account inbox as well as any email addresses listed on that account. Registration sessions collect data with the questions your members answer. Our registration information asks for a secondary email and there are two options below this field:

Option1:  Cc: This is someone else’s email address. Invite this person to be Cc’d on your messages. Handy for spouses, parents, guardians, and more. 

Option 2:  Ignore: Don’t do anything with this address.

If they choose option 1, it will send an email verification to the email address provided in the field.  If the person clicks on the link within the email verification/confirmation, it will attach that email to their account.  If they choose option 2, it will simply ignore the field.  Since Tamara did not add an email address to her account through the registration process, then she would need to do this manually through her account settings if she would like to receive communications at that email address.

See NGIN information
 

RYBA has adopted the NGIN facility from a 3rd party. They do have a good frequently asked questions related to your account.  See http://support.ngin.com/categories.php?categoryid=106 to view this list. Note that the account is actually with the NGIN facility not with RYBA and the benefit is it will work with other organizations that have adopted the same NGIN company, specificially basketball (RCYBA) and hockey (RYHA).

You could certainly have 1 AAA team at each level and it would in theory have a better record at the end of the year than if we had 2 AAA teams.  You would have 1-2 kids be primary shortstops, 4-5 kids primary pitchers, and 1-2 kids primary catchers.

We have 4 large high schools in Rochester and at minimum each needs a shortstop, 3 pitchers, and a catcher (along with every other player position and 10-11 offensive threats).

Our goal is not to win state championships, its to develop baseball players and individuals.

Having 2 AAA teams at each age allows us to develop twice as many players at the most elite level of baseball in Rochester.

Check the stats, Rochester High School basebal year in and year out is competitive not just with the Big 9 but also with many of the metro area schools.  Many sports are more cyclical based on talent.

In RYBA's opinion a successful season is one that is enjoyable, kids development and win/loss record is "about .500".   We are always going to have age groups that are competitive and do much better just as we have age groups that will not be so good.

One could argue we could make decisions based on how many kids try out. However, we have to sign up for tournaments in January so that they are not filled.  It also would come down to someone's opinion on if the level has enough talent or not for two AAA teams.  Let's be honest, what coach wouldn't want 1 team so they can go and win more games. 

Final answer?  While one can argue points both ways and certainly have quite a discussion on this topic...and note that we do every year, we continue to believe that two AAA teams is in the best interest of the program and our players. 

Read all about it at http://www.rybamn.com/page/show/484643-understaning-the-levels-of-the-traveling-program

RYBA provides many options to play baseball and the single A program is certianly unique in how it is implemented.  Please see the single A info tab under Travel tab.

 Yes there are.  We have them listed under the "Links" tab on the home page:

http://www.rybamn.com.prod.ngin.com/page/show/294785-links-to-other-programs

We have many ways that you may support the RYBA Program whether it be a team sponsor, a straight donation, or online advertising.  Fore more info and prices, see this page.

If you are a coach and need to contact someone related to your House Program equipment (e.g. you missed pick-up or drop-off at the end of the year) please contact your Grade commissioner found in contacts page or our equipment manager, Scott Walston.

MN Concussion Law Announcement

Minnesota Legislature's New "Concussion Law" Requires Online Training for All Coaches and Officials and Concussion Education for all Parents and Athletes Starting this Fall

The Minnesota Legislature recently passed a "Concussion Law" which requires any municipality, business, school district or nonprofit organization that organizes a youth athletic activity and charges a fee to follow the statute's requirements, including implementing concussion training and education to improve player safety and establish safe return-to-play policies for athletes who sustain a concussion.

The law mandates that:

• All coaches (head and assistants) and officials receive concussion training and education by September 1, 2011, and then at three-year intervals thereafter.
• Coaches must remove an athlete from activity if they exhibit signs, symptoms or behaviors consistent with a concussion and/or are suspected of sustaining a concussion.
• The law also requires a doctor's signature to return to play if an athlete is removed due to a concussion or is showing signs or symptoms of a concussion.

RYBA is using the same Concussion training that RCYBA used in the 2011-2012 season and if you have had this training within the 3 year perior you may upload through our Concussion Registration session the same certfiicate.   You must register and upload proof of this education with the RYBA registratoin found under the coaches tab.

RYHA uses a USA Hockey education program including age specific modules in 2011-2012 season and it does include the mandated concussion training within this education.  If you have a PDF file of this certification completion it will count towards the concussion training if it is within the 3 year period. You must register and upload proof of this education with the RYBA registratoin found under the coaches tab.

If you have coached at the High School level, the certification through MSHSL is also valid and if you can upload a digitial certification or record/proof of taking the training, it will also suffice.

Thanks for trying our Q&A page!

For further assistance, please email help@rybamn.com as we monitor this email.  Our contacts tab contains many other options, as well for specific questions, along with a hotline to phone.