How do I form a team?
The four most important considerations in forming a team are developing a philosophy for your team, finding committed players, finding a coach and finding a practice facility. The first step must be developing a philosophy. What is the motivation behind forming this team? Will it be a participation team where everyone gets equal playing time or a performance team where playing time must be earned? The answers to these questions must be decided before attempting to find a coach and players. If the coach and the players don’t buy into the philosophy of the team, it will eventually lead to problems and hard feelings.
The philosophy of the team can help to determine how you will go about finding players. Will you run area wide or local tryouts? Will they be open tryouts or by invitation only? Are tryouts necessary or do we just want to keep the school team together for an additional season? Will you charge a fee for participation in tryouts to cover the cost of AAU membership, facility rental, etc.? If you have adopted a performance philosophy, you will probably want to go with open tryouts. On the other hand, a participation philosophy can lend itself to either having tryouts or just keeping the school team together and no tryouts. You will also need to decide how many players you will have on your teams’ roster. Cost, which is addressed below, may have some impact on that decision.
I’ve formed my team, what’s next?
Once you have developed a philosophy, found enough committed players, a coach willing to abide by your philosophy and a practice facility, there are some administrative details that need to be worked out. The coach should go to www.aaubaseball.org and click on “Rules and Regs”. The coach and team administrators need to familiarize themselves with the AAU Baseball rules. If there are still questions after reading through the Handbook, the AAU staff is always available to help coaches, administrators and parents to understand the process.
You will need to contact your AAU District office for playing rules, for any invitational tournaments, qualifiers and District championships; player eligibility; tournament dates and locations; tournament application procedures; AAU athlete or non athlete and club memberships; AAU insurance programs; forfeit policies; age and age/grade eligibility and much more. Call 1-800-228-4872 for help or go to www.aauregionalbaseball.com and click on your part of the country to find your contact information for the AAU Baseball District Sports Director.
What are the costs associated with AAU Baseball?
Another administrative task that must be taken care of is to set the cost for athlete or non athlete participation. Things to take into account when setting the price include: Athlete memberships ($12 or $14 per player), Non-Athlete memberships ($14 or $16 per coach), AAU club membership ($30, $60 or $300), invitational tournament entry fees ($200-$350 per tournament), super regional entry fee ($250-$350), District championship entry fee ($300-$350), uniforms, first aid kit (suggested), baseballs and bucket, equipment bag, and other needed team equipment. You can go online at www.aausports.org and register your individual and club membership with a credit card. Remember to print out your membership information at the end so that you have them available for proof of membership at AAU sanctioned events. All the entry fees listed for tournaments are approximates; you need to speak to your tournament directors for exact fees.
This is also a good time for developing ideas on how you might raise money.
EXAMPLES:
Add all of your costs together, subtract any money you may have received from the examples above and divide by the number of members committed to participating with your team. This will give you to a cost per member.
Once the members of team have been finalized and you have a plan and budget put together you should have a team meeting with all the players and their parents. The team should decide on how many tournaments the team would be attending, the coach should review the information about AAU participation and the final fees should be set. This meeting will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page for the season. If possible, the team should pick the tournaments to enter, fill out the registration forms and get the season schedule set.
The more organized your team is and the more information the parents and players have, the better the AAU experience will be for everyone involved. The AAU staff is always available to answer questions about AAU Baseball or any other AAU program.
How can I find out if the tournaments I am interested in are sanctioned by the AAU?
Go to www.aausports.org and click on “FIND AN EVENT” (located on the list on the left side of the Home Page) and then click on local events
How do I find a team for my son to play on?
If you do not want to form a team, then you’ll have to try and find a team for your son. Try talking to someone you know who has a son who plays AAU Baseball can get in contact with his coach. If that coach cannot accommodate you then ask if he knows of other coaches looking for players or hosting try-outs. You can always contact your local AAU Baseball District Sports Director www.aauregionalbaseball.com to see if he has any leads on tryouts or coaches looking for players.
If you would like an information packet mailed to you, please contact Jeremy T. Bullock VIA email at jeremy@aausports.org with your physical mailing address and contact phone number and a packet will be sent to you immediately.