The following are the scrimmage rosters for September 14-15, 2024:

14U
11:00 A.M., Northfield
Home Team - 51, 62, 65, 78, 99, 114, 116 (C), 124 (C), 125, 139
Road Team - 37, 56, 57, 70, 95 (C), 100, 102 (C), 112, 118, 126, 132

14U players denoted with a C should split the catching duties evenly with each other.    Further instructions on 14U pitching and positions will be provided by the coaches at the field.    This will be a controlled scrimmage, and we may manufacture specific matchups within it.

All other 14U players have the day off.    Final 14U rosters will be announced on Saturday, September 21, 2024 at approximately 8:00 P.M., and players will have until Monday, September 23, 2024 at 8:00 P.M. to register and pay in full to accept their spots.

13U
Saturday, September 14, 2024, 9:00 A.M., Northfield
Home Team - 6 (C), 12 (P), 13 (P), 14 (P), 16 (C), 23 (P), 41 (P), 63 (P), 64 (P), 94, 130 (C)
Road Team - 0 (P), 10 (P), 11 (P), 31 (C), 53 (P), 54 (P), 84 (P), 91, 101 (C), 103 (P), 105

About 1/2 of the players playing in the Saturday, September 14, 2024 at 9:00 A.M. are also playing on Sunday, September 15, 2024, so please check both rosters carefully.    If you are listed in the Sunday, September 15, 2024 scrimmage but not the Saturday, September 14, 2024 9:00 A.M. scrimmage, you have Saturday, September 14, 2024 off.

Saturday, September 14, 2024, 1:00 P.M., Northfield
Home Team - 1, 2 (C), 5 (P/C), 15 (P), 21 (P), 44 (P/C), 47 (P), 60 (C), 66 (C), 79 (P), 82, 86 (P)
Road Team - 8 (P), 18 (P), 28 (C), 30, 34 (out), 36 (P/C), 38 (P/C), 58 (P/C), 76 (P), 109 (P/C)

Saturday, September 14, 2024, 3:00 P.M., Northfield
Home Team - 7, 9 (out), 19 (out), 20, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 32
Road Team - 33, 43, 55, 71, 83, 85, 123, 127, 129, 136, 140

With respect to 13U games being played on Saturday, September 14, 2024, 13U players denoted with a P will pitch; players denoted with a C should split the catching duties evenly with each other; P/C means a player will pitch and should split the catching duties.  Further instructions on 13U positions for those games will be provided by the coaches at the field.

Sunday, September 15, 2024, 7:00 P.M., Northfield
3, 4, 6, 11, 12, 14, 16, 31, 40, 41, 45, 46, 54, 63, 90, 96, 130

Instructions on teams, pitchers and positions for the Sunday, September 15, 2024 scrimmage will be provided by coaches at the field.    All players in this scrimmage that self-identified as pitchers at registration should be prepared to pitch.

Introductory Thoughts

As we head into the final week or two of our Fall Tryout Program, we will run about 120 players through drills and games designed to highlight their athleticism, baseball IQ, and baseball skills  so that the final decision on the proper team placement for each player in 2024-2025 season can be determined. 
 
We understand that this can be a stressful time for players (and parents) alike.  And this year, in particular, is especially hard for everyone (including the coaches), as there are simply too many players trying out for not enough spots.  For example, we have 73 players trying out for four 13U teams, and roughly 45 trying out for three 14U teams.  Making any team this year should be considered a significant accomplishment for your player.

In addition, within the group of players ultimately selected for NTF, we expect that, as always, there has been intense competition throughout the fall for specific team placements.  So, to the players—please keep in mind that no matter what happens over the next week or so, team placement this fall not only doesn’t define this group of players as people, it certainly doesn’t reach any final conclusions on them as baseball players.  Players grow, both as baseball players and physically, at different paces. 

For 14U players—if you are unhappy with your final team placement, please know that many past NTF A2 and B players have gone on to successful high school and college baseball careers.  Indeed, in each of the past several years, the players on our 14A2 and 14B teams have had an amazing level of success in being placed on high schol teams—truly, it’s been an incredible showing that no one, anywhere, has duplicated.  In part, that is because our teams are just so strong, and players that might make a top team in a weaker program just slightly miss in our stronger program.  Mostly, though, it is because we care just as much about our A2 and B teams as we do our top teams—everyone, on every team, is given access to the same training, and it is those players that want to and choose to make the most of it that get the most successful high school placements, regardless of where they start this week.

For 13U players—if you are unhappy with your final team placement, work hard over the next year and show the coaches you deserve to be on a higher team.  If you do, you will have a chance to move up next season, as in some years there is considerable movement between 13U and 14U—at that age players are growing and developing rapidly and the field size increases considerably.  The converse of that is also true, and there have been years were numerous players were moved down from 13U to 14U, or not selected for any team (since we reduce from four teams to three at 14U).  So, 13U players, if you do make the team you want, please don’t get complacent. 

These tryouts, then, are merely a snapshot in time, no more and no less.

With that, some thoughts on the process:

Final Evaluations

14U

For 14U players, the final skills evaluations of the Fall Tryout Program will take place on Monday, September 9, 2024, Tuesday, September 10, 2024, and Thursday, September 12, 2024, all at the regular times.    As in other weeks, players should attend just one.    Then on Saturday, September 14, 2024, we will have one final scrimmage to which roughly ½ of the 14U players will be invited.  We will announce the group of players invited back to that final scrimmage on the website after the conclusion of the Tuesday, September 10, 2024 skills evaluation.

Since, regardless of what we have said in past years about the final scrimmage rosters, players will leap to conclusions about what they mean anyway, we will come right out and explain what they mean this year at 14U.  If a 14U player is NOT invited back for a Saturday, September 14, 2024 scrimmage this year, it means the player HAS made a team.  But it does not tell a 14U player WHAT team the player has made, and we strongly caution players against presuming an answer to that question.  In addition, being invited back does not mean a player has failed to make a team—indeed, about ½ of the 14U players that ARE invited back WILL make a team, and the players invited back will likely include one or more players from each of the three 2024-2025 14U teams.  To be completely transparent, 14U players are being invited back this year for one of three reasons: (1) they have already made a team, but are still competing for a spot on a specific team, (2) they are needed to play against others competing for a spot on a particular team so that the latter players can be properly evaluated, or (3) they have missed multiple scrimmages due to conflicts. 

Players not invited back can also skip the Thursday, September 12, 2024 skills evaluation.   

13U

For 13U players, the final two weeks of skills evaluations of the Fall Tryout Program will take place on Wednesday, September 11, 2024, Thursday, September 12, 2024, Wednesday, September 18, 2024, and Thursday, September 19, 2024, all at the regularly scheduled times.    As in other weeks, players should attend just one per week.

As many of the 13U players and parents are aware, we have had a myriad of in-season sports conflicts at 13U this year, and it is going to necessitate moving one of the Saturday scrimmages to Sunday this upcoming weekend.    Here is the full schedule:

Saturday, September 14, 2024 – most 13U players will be invited back for scrimmages.  (There will be only three, not four, 13U scrimmages on Saturday, September 14, 2024).    Rosters for the September 14, 2024 scrimmages, along with fields and times, will be announced on the website on Tuesday night, September 10, 2024.

Sunday, September 15, 2024 – a small group of players will be invited back for a 13U scrimmage at 7:00 P.M..  Some of those players will be players that will also be playing Saturday; some will have Saturday off and only play on Sunday.  Initial rosters for the September 15, 2024 scrimmage, along with the field, will also be announced on the website on Tuesday night, September 10, 2024.

Saturday, September 21, 2024 – we will have a final set of 13U scrimmages between 9:00 A.M. – 5:00 P.M..  We have not made a decision yet as to whether to invite all or only some 13U players back for the September 21, 2024 scrimmages.  We will make and announce that decision after the final skills session on Thursday night, September 19, 2024, and announce the rosters at the same time.

For all scrimmages at both ages, to the extent other conflicts allow, players should arrive at the field no later than 30 minutes before the start of their session.  The sessions will start promptly at their appointed times, and there will be no additional time for warming up.  If a player knows that they have to miss one of the remaining events, the player should notify us at info@newtrierfeederbaseball.com.  For many players at both 14U and 13U, the final week can be determinative, so we strongly suggest players attend all sessions they are invited to. 

Since we strongly believe in transparency, the entire week’s sessions are open to the public, and parents are welcome to stay and watch--we just ask that parents please not coach or talk to any of the kids, or talk to the coaches, during the tryouts.  (Yes, that really has happened).  

Number of Teams

As is almost always the case given demand, we have decided to again take four teams at 13U and three teams at 14U.  We will be fielding 13A1 and 13A2 teams, as well as 2 13B teams.  Our 13A1 and 13A2 teams will be stack-ranked; our 13B teams will be split evenly on a “depth chart” basis.  Our 14U teams (14A1, 14A2, and 14B) will, as usual, be stack-ranked.  In most years, our A1 teams have 11-12 players each, our A2 teams have 12 players each, and our B teams have 12-13 players each, with decisions on team size made in conjunction with the final roster determinations.

Season Schedule And League Placement

In addition to our open hitting program beginning on November 1, 2024 and the offseason winter workouts program beginning in early January 2025 and running through March (absences from which will be excused for in-season sports conflicts), and our new spring training program in April, each of our seven teams will be scheduled for up to 45-50 games from April through late July.

In terms of league play for next year:  (1) given their performance on the field last year/what we have seen this fall, we do not intend to play our 14A1 and 13A1 in the LSFBL, but rather intend to play them in the Arlington Heights league that begun recently, the MSBL, or a new and similarly challenging league to be formed this fall, supplemented by exhibition games against other top programs; (2) we intend to play our 14A2 and 13A2 teams as our top LSFBL teams, as we are excited about the talent level at both teams and believe each team can compete well in and win that league (as 13A2 did a couple of years ago), and (3) we intend to play our 14B and 13B in the LSFBL’s B leagues, where we again expect to challenge for the titles.    We also intend to have each of our teams play a rigorous 7 tournament schedule in which we will ask our teams to play “up” often—for example, by pitting our A1 teams against AAA competition, by placing our A2 teams in some of the same tournaments as our A1 teams against that type of competition, and by placing our B teams in some A tournaments.

All three of our 14U teams will go to Omaha.  We will reserve blocks of rooms for the tournament, but payment for those rooms (and all other personal/family expenses) will be a player’s individual responsibility.  The other costs of the trip (tournament fee, coaching expenses) are already included in our all-inclusive dues.

Team Selection

Each level (13U and 14U) is assigned a dedicated team of NTF coaches and senior IBA evaluators that have spent, in the aggregate, hundreds of hours evaluating the players at each level all fall in the Fall Tryout Program (and, with respect to the 14U players, throughout the last year) and will be determining team placement for each player.  All placement decisions are made by those independent coaches and evaluators—while NTF Board members without players in the program may be present at the evaluations and during the team selection process, even they will serve only as proctors to ensure the integrity of the evaluation and selection process and not have any substantive input in the team placement decisions.

Given the length of the Fall Tryout Program, 13U players (and any 14U players new to NTF) will be evaluated exclusively based on their performance in it, and not based on their performance in or coach evaluations from other programs or in any private lessons or other non-NTF programs they may have participated in.  That is because, as we have repeatedly said previously, our belief is that everyone should get a fresh start upon entry into NTF and while in our program.

Returning 14U players have an extensive, year-long body of work in front of our coaches.  They will be evaluated primarily based on that body of work—that is, based on their overall performance at the 13U level for NTF in the prior year, and the evaluation of their NTF coach.  That said, in close cases, their performance in the Fall Tryout Program, and in the upcoming final week of evaluations, is often a significant and potentially decisive factor—and that will definitely be applicable in some cases this year.  This year, the Fall Tryout Program will be determinative in several instances.  In particular, the move from a 54/80 to a 60/90 field changes the game in material ways, and some players are showing to simply have been more successful earlier on at making that move.

Since the focus of our program is development, we do not use any official or unofficial statistics in the evaluation and team selection process.  We know many don't believe us—we have even had instances, including this fall, of parents trying to send our coaches their player’s 13U batting statistics from GameChanger—but it really is true.  In the event that one of our 13U players is competing for a spot against a player new to the program, the tie goes to our returning player.  Please keep in mind, though, that it has to be a tie—as NTF is a meritocracy, a 14U player new to the program who is clearly better than a returning player will be placed higher.

Teams will be posted on the website following the conclusion of the final scrimmages.  As has traditionally been the case, final rosters are published by fall jersey numbers, so please make sure you know your player knows his or her fall jersey number.

After Team Selection

As team selection is in some sense inherently subjective, and no more than 12 players can make our top teams at each level, we know that there will be many players who are disappointed with their placement.  We can tell you that our coaches and evaluators try extremely hard to get it right, and spend hours and hours looking at and discussing the players and determining proper team placement.  In most cases, the coach of each team next year is the one making the final decision on team selection, and they have every incentive to pick the players they think will perform and develop best for them.    They (and our Director of Baseball Operations, Trey Frahler, who has the final decision on all team placement and selection) really sweat it and care a tremendous amount—and for what it is worth, while no one is infallible, in answer to an anonymous survey we have conducted from time to time, the parents of less than 5% of the players believed, in hindsight (i.e.  having seen the year play out), that their player had been incorrectly placed.  In light of that, we always ask that parents abide by the “24 hour” rule, and not contact any of the coaches, evaluators or NTF Board members until 24 hours following the team postings.    If you want to contact someone after that, please reach out to info@newtrierfeederbaseball.com only and we will put you in touch with the appropriate person—please do not reach out directly to individual coaches, evaluators or Board members.  Just please understand that, once posted, absent some clerical error, the team placements are not going to be changed, and so all questions should be directed towards making your son or daughter a better player.

Shortly after the Fall Tryout Program ends, all players that make one of our teams will be given the opportunity to sit down with their new coach to talk about their performance in the Fall Tryout Program, what they did well, and what they should be working on during the offseason to continue to develop.    This is a different model than we have used to provide feedback in the past, but we feel this is a more constructive approach in providing the feedback players really need—namely, what they should be working on to continue to develop.

Players who did not make a team will, upon request, be provided with written evaluations.

Registration And Payment

All team placements at both 14U and 13U will be announced following the completion of the final 13U scrimmages on September 21, 2024.  Each player will have until Monday, September 23, 2024 at 8:00 P.M. to pay in full on the website to hold his or her spot.  Accepting a spot means agreeing to comply with NTF’s commitment policy, which is available on the website now and will be available for further review as part of the website registration process.  For the entire 2023-2024 season, dues will $3,995 for all players.  That amount is a small increase from last year, and reflects a much more extensive winter workouts program and an additional tournament for each team.    That amount is all-inclusive—unlike some of the pay-for-play organizations, we will never ask you to pay anything further, so the only additional item you will have to pay for is your own hotel room for your out-of-town-tournaments.    (And we apologize in advance for the credit card fee, which there is no way around at this time—it is the fee we pay to SportsEngine for hosting the website and processing all of the back room data, and we keep literally none of it).

In fairness to players who we have cut, and particularly this year given the sheer volume of those cuts, we will enforce the registration deadline strictly and offer uncommitted spots to players who were not originally offered team placements. 

Good luck to all of the players trying out!!!!

Drew Cardonick, on behalf of
New Trier Feeder Baseball

Congratulations to our 13A1 team, which won the LSFBL Championship by beating last year's champions, the Glenview Patriots, 11-7, in the title game.    Trailing 7-6, 13A1 scored 5 runs in the bottom of the 5th and then shut Glenview down to win the title.    With the victory, 13A1 brings home its 5th LSFBL championship in the last 8 years, and NTF's 16th overall league championship in that same time frame.

As we head into the final week before the playoffs, we wanted to congratulate our 2024 tournament winners.    14B started us off early, winning the Lake Forest Bash on Mothers' Day by beating RBC and Mundelein on Saturday and smashing Lake Villa on Sunday.  13A2 was next, going 4-0 to win the Bulldog Classic's A Division on Memorial Day Weekend for the 2nd time in the last few years.    13A1 notched NTF's 3rd tournament win of the season in late June, winning the Experience The Turf tournament in Carol Stream, pounding two teams from ESP Select, Rake City, and Elite Baseball in the process.    And finally, 14A1 won the Black And Gold World Series on July 4th Weekend, going 5-0 against tough competition in the process.

Congrats to all our teams, and pictures below.    We'll be back early next week with the playoff update and schedule.

Congrats to the SIXTY EIGHT (!!!!) New Trier Feeder alumni who were selected for their high school baseball teams this season.    We are so thrilled for and proud of each and every one of you, and we look forward to watching you continue to do great things!!!!

Owen Adrianopoli
Trevor Bacik
Nicholas Bailey
Charles Baldridge
James Berman
Nathaniel Blazo
William Blomeier
Kincaid Buck
Mason Bloom
Gregory Campitelli
Caiden Carpenter
Chase Catanese
Peter Cusick
Edwin Donaldson
Charles Donlan
Christopher Donnelly
Joe Drehkoff
Quinn Drehkoff
Rockwell Eisen
Grant Ettelson
Alec Flood
John Flood
Quinn Goldman
Camden Hon
Rowan Hester
Mason Jurewicz
Ryan King
Peter LaFontaine
Austin LeBoyer
Emmett Levoy
Miles Lehmer
Ryan Lorge
Liam Madden
Richard Miller
David Meyers
Charlie Minahan
Tommy Mitchell
Charles Murphy
Mikas Nicklan
Samuel Nigro
Aidan Nolan
James O'Brien
Evan Olesker
Zachary Perchik
Harry Resis
Samuel Rivera
Andrew Rover
John Ryder
Neil Sanderson
Spencer Schmalz
Noah Shapo
Ethan Sheridan
Isaac Solomon
Mick Soucheray
Daniel Spilotro
Declan Spinner
Harrison Stracks
Benjamin Toft
Sebastian Urbanowski
Wesley Urbanowski
Jack Vergamini
Chase Vukovich
John Walther
Charles Wanzenberg
Russell Wanzenberg
Jack Wilson
Jacob Wineman
Justin Wood

If you have any questions or comments, please contact: