We have now posted all dates and times for our 15U, 14U, and 13U Offseason/Training and Hitting, all dates and times for our 14U and 13U spring practices, and all dates and times for the tournaments our teams (15U, 14U, and 13U) will be participating in.  You can go to the calendar on your team's page to see all of those for your team.  (If you cannot see them, please hit "Show Tag Menu" at the bottom of the calendar, and make sure your team is selected.  That's almost always the issue).

As you'll see, we are still filling in a few tournament slots (as registration is not even open yet for some of the tournaments we intend to play our teams in), but all of the dates and times are right.   And league schedules are not determined until late February/early March.  Keep checking back, we'll post as we finalize.  Or you can subscribe to your team's iCal feed on the team's calendar page, and updates will be pushed to you automatically.

We have two important announcements to make.

First, as some of you may be aware, the LSFBL, the league in which most of our teams play, has decided (for 14U and 13U) to move to a 20 game schedule and begin its season on April 15, 2020.  As a result, after careful consideration, New Trier Feeder Baseball (in consultation with WBA, KWBA, and GBA) has decided that Spring House League is no longer a viable option for our players, and we will not be running a house league in 2020 (or requiring our players to play in any other house league in 2020).  We know house league is a hot button issue, and it has obviously evoked a wide range of emotions over the years.  To be clear, we do not “take a side” in the debate on house league with our decision; rather, we simply recognize the obvious, which is there is no way our travel players can both start a travel season in April and play house league at the same time.

Second, as those of you that were in the program last year know, we survey our parents at the conclusion of each season to find out what we did well and, more importantly, how we can improve.  We pay careful attention to the results of those surveys, and it was clear from the results last year that what we did in connection with The Dome in 2019 did not work.  Indeed, over 1/2 of the respondents suggested that we find a different, closer venue from The Dome.  Almost everything we have done in the last 3 years has polled at 80%-90%+ favorable, so that response stuck out like a sore thumb.  We listened, and are taking action to fix the issue.

Thus, we are making the following changes to the 2020 travel program:

1.  We are moving the Offseason Training sessions that were at The Dome in 2018 and 2019 to IBJI on Route 41 in Highland Park.  We are also adding a strength and speed training component to our Offseason Training.  Each of the 8 IBJI sessions will run 90 minutes, with 45 minutes devoted to working with IBJI trainers on strength and speed, and 45 minutes working with NTF instructors on baseball skills.  Each of our teams will be grouped and assigned a specific session, which will in all cases be on either Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday night (from 8:00 P.M. - 9:30 P.M. each night)—the complete schedule, from January to March, will be posted on the web site in the next day or two.  The sessions at The Yard remain unchanged.  We are doing this not simply to make life easier (although that is certainly one of the reasons)—rather, we think strength/speed is something that needs more focus, and we also hope that by moving the sessions closer to home and scheduling them a bit later in the evening, it will allow our multi-sport athletes to participate in more sessions and be ready for the earlier season start.

2.  Our travel season will now commence on April 6, 2020.  Instead of having two practices per week in April and early May, we will now have three practices per week through May 17, 2020—one for each team on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Teams will be permitted to begin league play as early as April 15, 2020.  In addition, each team will play in an extra tournament in the spring.  Overall, then, teams will be playing roughly 8 games more than anticipated, and practicing at least 8 more times than anticipated.

Spring House League generally cost $400 or more in prior years—all of which was paid to your local community organizations, not to NTF (we got none of that money).  Obviously, our costs are increasing with the extra games and practices, but we have worked fiercely to keep those costs down, and our supplemental cost will only be $150 per player, which you can pay by check at the first Offseason Training session in January (no need to do anything now).  You will no longer be obligated to pay anything to your local community organization for house league.

To recap, big picture—we are moving Offseason Training closer to home and expanding it, we are replacing house league with 8 more games and 8 more practices, and we are still charging less than half of what you would have been paying your local community organizations with house league.  We hope you will understand and think that great for the kids and a really good deal, but if you’d like to discuss further please feel free to reach out to us anytime.  In the meantime, a complete practice and tournament schedule will be posted on the website in the next day or two—the league schedules will be posted when they are announced in the spring.

Finally, we are pleased to make available spiritwear from Wilson via the following link:

https://www.wilsonteamshop.com/en-us/join

You can use Access Code - F414EC for a discount on other items as well.

As previously indicated, this is a third party retailer—none of the proceeds of any purchase come to us, we are not involved in any way (other than providing you the link, of course), and you should not feel obligated to purchase anything.

Drew Cardonick, President
New Trier Feeder Baseball

Jack Zibell and Ryan King each knocked in 3 runs and Coach Tyler Kopp's 13B squad scored 7 runs in the 3rd and 10 runs in the 4th to cap a thrilling end of season run with an LSFBL Championship, 19-2 over Skokie.  Declan Spinner threw four strong innings for 13B to get the victory.  Once again, Coach Kopp's squad overcame a difficult road to the title, beating the #1, #3, and #4 seeds on its way to a 2nd title in 3 years.

Shortly thereafter, Coach Trey Frahler's 14A1 capped an outstanding season with an MSBL Championship in only its 2nd year in the league, beating the Glenview Blaze 5-4 in extra innings in a tense, thrilling game.  Jake Fiegen pitched 5 strong innings, leaving with a 3-0 lead.   The Blaze tied it up at 3-3 in the 6th, and the game went to extras.  C.J. Feldman and Austin Brown had run scoring hits in the top of the 8th, and 14A1 took a 5-3 lead.  The Blaze cut it to 5-4 in the bottom of the 8th, but Luke Richker, with the bases loaded, 2 outs, and a 3-2 count (and after a blown call on a pickoff play immediately before the pitch), got the Blaze to fly out to Christopher Tarzon in RF, setting off a raucous celebration for NTF's second championship of the day.

Finally, Mundelein scored 4 runs in the 6th inning to break open a 3-3 game and defeat Coach Matt Lafontaine's 13A1 squad, 7-3.  While not the end they hoped for, Lafo's team grew and developed so much this year, and losing one game at the end does not negate that, and all of the players on that team have bright futures at 14U.

While we celebrate our champions today, to us success is about more than wins and losses, and so we would be remiss at not pointing out the successes of our other teams.  In addition to 13A1's second place finish, 13A2 and 14A2 battled hard all season against the top A teams of other organizations,  in some cases against tremendous adversity, and we are proud of the players' continuing efforts all season long.  Finally, while 14B unexpectedly lost in the first round of the playoffs, everyone on that team worked hard and developed considerably  in Coach Pokrovac's first season in the program, and we look forward to watching those players progress as they move on to high school/15U baseball next season.

As is always the case, the most indelible memories of the week for those of us that run the program, however, are off the field. The sheer number of kids who turned up for their friends' games was astonishing to us. In particular, the number of 13U kids that showed up to root for each other yesterday (13B and 13A1 played on the same field) was amazing.  When we said at the start of the year that this was a community, one in which all 100 of our players was equally important to us, we meant it--and all of us who run this program are so happy to see the kids, over and over again, support each other, both on and off the field.  To us, that's what community baseball is all about.

Once again, thanks for the honor of entrusting the development of your kids to us this season. We hope you are as proud of them as we are.

Drew Cardonick, President
New Trier Feeder Baseball