WILLIAMSPORT TOURNAMENT INFORMATION      

Background

 Little League Baseball, under the auspices of the Tournament Committee of Williamsport (PA), sponsors an international tournament for players aged 11 and 12. Players who meet the eligibility requirements and are selected for the team will compete in the Tournament, which culminates with an international and US champion, and a decisive game between the two champions in Williamsport, PA in August of each year.

Eligibility

Wellesley Little League selects two Tournament teams, one from the AL North Division and one from the South Division. Although most players will be 12 years old, 11 year olds are eligible under Tournament rules.  To be eligible for selection, each player must: 1) provide a copy of his birth certificate, 2) provide three documents proving residence within the Town of Wellesley (parent driver’s license, a utility bill, and a real estate tax bill or lease will suffice) 3) have played in 60% of his Spring AL team’s games, and 4) agree to be available for the Tournament’s games.  Parents will be required to sign an affidavit certifying to player’s age, residence and availability.

The Williamsport Tournament     
The two Wellesley teams will begin play in District 11, towards the end of June.  Little League International announces the tournament details in early June.  Most games will be played in Norwood at Kelly and Wall fields on Washington Street, behind the Norwood Junior High School.  District play normally lasts for two weeks or so, and is double elimination, meaning that after two losses, the team is eliminated from the tournament and play ends. If the team wins the District 11 tournament, the next round of play is in the South sectional. South District champions play to determine the Sectional champion over about seven days. If the South Sectional tournament is won, the team advances to the Mass state tournament, then the New England regional and, finally, to Williamsport. If the team continues to win all the way to Williamsport, play could continue through mid-August.  Although it is unlikely a team will progress to Williamsport, the 2002 Wellesley North team advanced through the District and Sectional tournaments, and became one of four teams in the Mass State Tournament in North Adams, before losing in the state tournament.


Williamsport Team Selection Process - 2010

Wellesley Little League has adopted the following process for selecting its Williamsport teams for the 2010 season:
 

• The Williamsport Commissioner and WLL President will serve as the Team Selection Committee for 2010 (the “Committee”). 

• The Committee will review the candidates for each of the two Williamsport Head Coach positions, and have informal discussions with the candidates about the positions and, among other things, will confirm whether the interests of any candidate are dependent upon their son or daughter being voted onto the team.  The Committee will determine the coaches and recommend those candidates to the WLL Board for approval immediately following the voting by coaches (described below).  Following selection of the Head Coaches, the Committee will work with the Head Coaches to agree upon the named Assistant Coaches for each team.

• Towards the completion of the AL regular season, the Committee will request the head coach of each AL team to submit the names of up to four players from his team (each of whom the AL Coach will have confirmed are available and committed), and those players will be the candidates for the Williamsport team.  Each AL coach will also be requested to indicate which of the nominees is the team’s best (i) pitcher, (ii) hitter, (iii) infielder, (iv) outfielder, (v) bunter, (vi) pressure player and (vii) team player.  This information will be made available to the Head Coach of the Division’s team to assist his player selections.

• The Committee will prepare and distribute the ballot documents (one each for the North Division and the South Division) that provide the name of all player nominees in the respective Divisions, in a format that will enable the AL coaches from each Division to insert their rankings of the candidates from their Divisions, on a 1-8 scale (the “Voting Documents”).  The coach shall not vote for any player on his own team.

• The Voting Documents will be distributed to all AL Head Coaches for voting (each Division votes separately) at the conclusion of the regular season with instructions to complete the Voting Document by ranking the top 8 players.  The Voting Document must be returned to the Committee within two days after the completion of the final regular season game.

• The Committee shall each review the Voting Documents to ensure that the voting was completed properly, review any questions that arise and separately tabulate the votes before comparing their results to ensure that the tabulations are consistent. 

• In the event of any tie among the players to be selected by the coaches’ vote, the following tie breakers will be applied:

• the number of coaches who vote on a player (e.g., how many coaches think he's one of top 8); and

• the mean average of the votes the player receives.

If one player scores highest on both of the above, that player is selected.  If the players are tied after application of the above, the Head Coach will determine which player is included among the group of players designated by coaches' votes.

• The names of the 8 players who obtain the highest rankings will be provided to each Division’s Williamsport Head Coach and the Williamsport Head Coach will then select a number of additional players to complete his team’s Williamsport roster (a roster of 12 means four additional players).  The Head Coach may elect to run a “workout” that would include all nominated players, if the Coach feels that will better enable him to make his selections.  If the Head Coach has a son or daughter who is eligible for the team and that player was not voted onto the team by the coaches, the Head Coach is not permitted to name his son or daughter as a coach selection without the approval of the Committee.  In no event will there be any announcement indicating which of the players attending the workout have already been elected by the coaches.

• The Committee will meet with the two Williamsport coaches and agree upon the timing and method for informing (i) the players who have been selected for the Williamsport teams and (ii) the AL coaches will then inform the players on their AL team of the selections.  The identities of the players who were voted onto the team or selected by the Coach will not be disclosed.

• One or more members of the Committee and the two Williamsport coaches will meet to review the Williamsport Tournament rules, important dates and process for proceeding with the pre-Tournament practices and Tournament games, practices and other activities, and will cooperate with one another to promote Wellesley baseball and work to ensure the best experience for the participating coaches, players and families.  This group will attend the Williamsport coaches meeting, likely held in Norwood in mid-late June for the briefing and to submit the team rosters.

• The participants on the Williamsport teams will be asked to provide feedback to the Committee immediately following the completion of their tournament play so that the Committee can obtain feedback on the program, the coaches and ensure that any need for improvements are identified and implemented for the following season.  The Committee will report on the Williamsport tournament, including any important findings from the participants’ feedback, to the WLL Board.

This process was selected after evaluating selection processes from other communities, WLL’s prior experience and valuable input from members of the WLL Board and past participants in the Williamsport tournament.  This process enables the individuals with the best opportunity to evaluate the players to select most of the team, with the Williamsport Coach adding additional players to fill particular roster needs.  The evaluation of the players occurs over the course of an entire season, rather than an extremely limited evaluation resulting from a tryout, and the weighted scoring system balances evaluations that may be unusually high or low, resulting in the selection of players who obtained the highest scores from the coaches in their Division.

For additional information, please contact the League Administrator or the President of the American League.

To view or download the Williamsport Parent Affidavit please click here.