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15 Things We Need From Every Team....
15 Things We Need From Every Team....
NOTE: The new website does not run the Internet Explorer browser (MSFT). Instead, you MUST use the Mozilla Firefox browser. It's a free two minute download from Click here. Save to your hard disk then find the self-install file in your downloads folder, double click it and answer the easy prompts as it installs itself. You will love this browser. Make enytb.com your home page so when you launch it you are brought to our site.
During the pre-season in particular, members often ask themselves, what should I do next? To help in this regard, we have prepared a "what-to-do-next" list, shown below. This list covers all the main items throughout the pre-season and into the regular season. Each step requires minimal effort, often is done online via the league website, and in many cases, is fun to do. By meeting each of these "milestone" requirements, you can be assured that your club/team is up to date throughout the registration and scheduling process.
STEP 1: ACTIVATE your club/team(s).
For returning clubs, activation renews passwords for all club and team personnel from last year. For new clubs/teams, it creates your club home and team home space on the website and provides all club and team personnel with their personal passwords. It's free and all information can be changed up until scheduling begins.
Anyone who forgets their password can retrieve it by going to the log-in window, clicking [forgot my password] and entering their email address. If multiple passwords have been issued to that email address e.g., player, coach for team x, manager for team y, you will be asked to click which password you wish to retrieve. The password should appear in your email inbox within a minute or so. This retrieval process works for everyone: club or team, coach or player.
STEP 2: INITIALIZE your roster (returning teams).
Once activated, returning teams need to immediately INITIALIZE their returning roster. To do this, simply go to the Registration Menu, and click roster. You will see a list of your players from last year. If you know any are not coming back, uncheck their check-box. Then click INITIALIZE at the bottom of your player list. This sends all your players an email notifying them that they are on your team and provides them their password again.
For new teams, there is no returning roster to initialize. Instead, new teams should begin adding players to their roster as soon as possible. League player protection doesn't begin until the player appears on a team's online roster.
STEP 3: ADD/UPDATE your coaches and team contacts to your online TEAM DIRECTORY.
It is essential that everyone who will be acting as a coach or contact person on your team be fully identified on the website.
Sanctioning bodies and insurance carriers require that coaches be identified on the team's official roster. As you add your coaches to the website, they will be automatically added to all your rosters (each ENYTB team has multiple rosters, as explained below). ENYTB provides a copy of your official team roster to each sanctioning body that you have selected to register with (see ENYTB's ala carte team registration).
ENYTB also requires each team to fully identify its coaches. This is necessary for issuing website passwords as well as for communication purposes and liability purposes. Each team must supply complete contact info for each of its coaches. Missing even a street address will cause the system to block your team from having access to the contact info for the teams you are scheduled to play.
ENYTB also requires each team to designate a primary and secondary contact on the website. Managers and/or coaches usually serve as primary and secondary contacts although sometimes the club rep or other non-coach serves one of these roles as well. Without complete contact information on all persons linked to your team or w/o both a primary and secondary contact indicated, the website will block anyone from your team from accessing the contact info for the teams you are scheduled to play.
The coaching staff and contacts for all returning teams are saved and and appear on the Team Directory page, located on the Registration menu. Each year, the manager or club rep should check to see that all persons are correctly entered and their contact info correct and complete. Delete coaches who will not be returning (by clicking the X) and add any new coaches. Before entering info for a new person always check to see if that person already is in our database. We don't want multiple records in the data base for the same person.
If you don't know who your coaches are going to be yet, add them to the TEAM DIRECTORY when you do. Remember, this step not only provides your coaches with website access but it ensures that they will be covered by your team insurance.
STEP 4: IDENTIFY YOUR PLAYERS - add your players to your ENYTB online roster.
ENYTB roster protection begins when a player is added to a team's online roster. Therefore, it is to your advantage to put your players on the website as soon as they have agreed to play for you. This is done via the Roster page, located on the Registration menu. Use the ADD PLAYER menu command.
Later, once you have identified your sanctioning choices via Team Registration, you will be provided separate online rosters for each sanctioning body. You need to copy your players to each of these rosters. The website provides a simple system for doing so that does not require that you re-enter any information. By simply clicking the arrow next to each player's name from your league roster, the player will be added to that sanctioned roster, provided the player passes any additional roster restrictions maintained by that sanctioning body e.g., deadline for adding the player, roster size limits, age, etc.
STEP 5: PURCHASE team insurance.
Evey ENYTB team must provide the league with proof of insurance when it registers with the league each year. Team insurance covers your team on a calendar year basis. It is wise to have it in place before you conduct practices, tryouts. etc.
The website provides direct access to the application forms of the official carriers for each of the various sanctioning bodies the league affiliates with. You can purchase your insurance from any of these carriers provided you intend to register to be sanctioned by them. For example, if you choose not to register AABC, don't buy AABC insurance. It will not cover you unless your team is AABc registered.
You can also buy your insurance from any other carrier you wish i.e., ones not affiliated with these sanctioning bodies. However, if you wish to participate in sanctioned tournaments, your policy must meet the minimum requirements set by the sanctioning body sponsoring that tournament. Moreover, to participate in an AABC tournament w/o AABC insurance (K&K), teams must file a waiver request with AABC prior to June 1st. That form is available on the website too.
The insurance page also is located on the Registration menu. To access the Registration menu, you must be logged-in as a member. To be logged-in, you must have been issued a password by the system. To be issued a password, your team must be activated and you must be linked to your team as a manager, coach or contact person. If there is a break in this chain, contact your club rep who has the authority and access privileges to set up access privileges for his club and teams, following the directions provided above.
STEP 6: League Meetings - Go to them!
We are not a meeting oriented league i.e., we don't require you to come to monthly meetings. However, because we are not a one-size-fits-all league, our teams must make various choices re: level of competition, sanctioned or other tournament eligibility etc., it is advisable that all team managers and coaches come to the age division meeting for its team. This meeting is held once a year (February or March) and covers everything you need to know, especially the registration and tournament options available to your team. There is nothing else you can as important to ensuring your team has the best possible season in the league than attending your age division meeting.
Beginning this year, we also have one meeting for all club owners and club reps. This is our first league meeting each year, held in late January on the weekend before the Super Bowl.
Finally, if you are new to the league or have not previously attended any league meetings and wish to better understand the opportunities the league affords its members as well as the league's annual cycle of operations, come to our Orientation Meeting, held the week after the Super Bowl.
That's a maximum of three meetings for a new member who also is a club owner/rep, two meetings for a returning member who is both a club owner and team manager/coach and only one meeting for a returning member who is a team manager or coach but but not a club owner or club rep.
None of these meetings are mandatory per se but w/o the information made available at these meetings you are operating at a distinct disadvantage in terms of designing your club or team's league program. At these meetings you also will learn how the website works and that it is a direct reflection of the ENYTB program i.e., everything that the league is or offers, is represented on teh website. And you will have the opportunity to ask questions and hear our answers to other's questions. You also will get to meet the managers of the other teams in your age division. Lastly, you may get to vote on rules or program changes at these meetings.
STEP 7: FILL OUT YOUR TEAM REGISTRATION PAGE
This is not a one-size-fits-all league. We offer ala carte registration to every team where they must tell us what they want and don't want. By virtue of ala carte registration, teams only pay for what they want. All teams pay a base registration fee but even that often various by age and competition level. The league does not what to charge you until you have filled out the registration form.
The registration form consists of a long list of choices. If you don't choose anything, you are eligible for regular season play only. If you want to be eligible for sanctioned or other tournament play after the season ends, tell us so on your team registration page by making the selections you wish.
Once your age division meeting concludes, you have all the information required to make your post-season eligibility choices. These choices must be entered online. This is done via the Registration Options/Fee page, located on, you guessed it, the Registration menu.
To fill out your team's customized registration page, simply place a check in the box next to the item you wish to purchase i.e., for each item, there is a price $x, if you want to register for that item, click in its box. If you skip this step, as many teams do, we have no idea of what you want to sign up for i.e., "ordering". Boxes that are permanently checked are mandatory items e.g., base fee.
Once your registration choices are made, click SAVE at the bottom of the page. This will return your itemized invoice for what you just purchased. At the top of this page is a button - Click here to CONFIRM as FINAL. Once you are sure your order is correct, please click that button so we know you have finalized your order.
STEP 8: Send in the registration fee for your team.
Registration is NOT complete until the league is in receipt of payment. Any team that has not paid its registration fee will be included in the league scheduling process. Get your money in as early as possible but certainly no later than March 15 for ages 12U and under and April 1 for all older age divisions.
Make checks payable to ENYTB and mail to ENYTB c/o Ed Frye, 5227 Bridle Pathway, Schenectady, NY 12303.
When your payment is received, it will be entered at the bottom of your itemized invoice. That serves as your receipt. When your team is paid in full, its name will turn green (the color of money) on the team activation board located here http://www.enytb.com/teams.php
STEP 9: Submit your scheduling inputs to the league.
One of the most valuable services provided to each team is customized scheduling. The league will build your schedule according to your needs. To do this, we need you to provide us with certain inputs:
- dates/times when your team is available;
- dates/times when your home field(s)is available;
- your competitive preferences for regular season opponents; and,
- other preferences re: doubleheader play etc.
Teams can enter their own team or field availability data to the website if they wish. This is done via the Team Availability page, located on the Registration menu. Alternatively, they will be contacted by Ed Frye or Sharon Montagne to supply the information via personal interview over the phone.
IMPORTANT: Block out ONLY those dates/times that you have to because the more dates you block out, the less likely it will be that we will be able to meet all your scheduling criteria. This could mean fewer games than you wish. When you have entered, checked and finalized your team availability info, it is important that you let us know by clicking the button at the top of your calendar page, if you have completed your Team Availability Schedule, please CONFIRM BY CLICKING HERE.
The preferred method for collecting these data is for you to call a league admin when you are ready to enter the info and we will guide you through the process. At some point, if we don't hear from you, we will contact you to obtain the info. This year, our new admin assistant, Sharon, will be collecting all team and field availability info. After providing that info, it is each member's responsibility to check the info online to check to see if it has been entered correctly. If not, you need to notify the league ASAP. DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LEAGUE SCHEDULE IS CONSTRUCTED TO NOTICE THAT YOUR SCHEDULING INPUTS WERE NOT ENTERED CORRECTLY. Obviously it is too late at that point for us to fix it.
In terms of having a great league experience, the three most important things are as follows:
- classify your team correctly in terms of its competitiveness;
- give careful thought to identifying in advance all the various dates and/or times during the season that your team absolutely can't play e.g., you are getting married that day. Yes, we have had a manager who forgot that little item. If you don't do this, you may get locked into playing the game or forfeiting with significant penalty, so it is to your advantage to give thought in advance to when you can't play;
- make good choices about which sanctioned tournaments you would like to be eligible for. More than one team has selected nothing only to be upset at the end of the season to learn his team wasn't eligible for tournament play.
If you are part of a club with more than one team, your club owner or a representative he designates, needs to provide the league with field availability info unless each team is on their own for obtaining their home field time. If the latter situation is applicable, team managers would operate the same as described above for one team organizations.
All field availability should be entered to the website by the club rep or other designated person or emailed to Sharon and she will enter it to the website. Normally, clubs pool their field availability and leave it to me to parcel it out to their individual teams in order to make the scheduling process work best for each of their teams. This is the preferred method i.e., it will yield best overall results for all of your teams combined. However, if you have a special complication such as wanting to give certain teams preference to certain field time, that can be done as well but you will need to call me to set it up. If you rent field time and have to early-commit to times on a "use-or-lose" basis, we can accommodate that too. Simply let me know and I will see to it that those field times are filled first in the scheduling process.
STEP 10: ENYTB needs a copy of your team insurance and each player's birth certificate by the close of registration.
All copies should be sent to Sharon Montagne, not Ed Frye.
The preferred collection method is for you to scan and email these documents to Sharon @ Sharon@enytb.com. If this is not possible, you can mail her hardcopy. Her address is available on the website.
NOTE: If a player's birth certificate was previously provided AND confirmed by League ADMIN, you don't need to send another copy. Returning teams can check their online roster to see which players need to submit a copy of their birth certificate.
STEP 11:Deadline For Having At least 10 Players Listed On Your Online Roster
By close of registration or your team will NOT be scheduled by teh league.
A roster defines a team. No roster, no team.
STEP 12: If you signed up for AABC sanctioning you must send a signed AABC roster to the League
This is applicable to AABC registered teams only. All AABC registered teams must send us a signed copy of their AABC roster, printed from the website, no later than June 1. Amended rosters can be sent as late as June 5 if your team is 14U or younger and July 1 if your team is older. Roster must be signed by player and parent as well manager. Failure to do so will disqualify your team and players from AABC tournament eligibility.
Again, the preferred collection method is for you to scan and email but when that is not possible, US mail is acceptable.
Again, these signed rosters are sent to Sharon Montagne, not Ed Frye.
STEP 13: ENYTB teams can have as many as six different regular season rosters online i.e., one for each sanctioning body it has selected as well as an ENYTB roster. Each roster has its own eligibility rules, size limits and player add deadlines.
It is each team's responsibility to ensure that ALL of its ONLINE rosters are up to date at all times. Your tournament rosters are limited to the players you have entered to your regular season roster by a certain date.
Also, no player is eligible to play in a game unless and until he is on your team's ENYTB online roster.
The ENYTB online roster allows you to add players to your ENYTB regular season roster at any time. However, the online rosters for the sanctioning bodies do not. They each have deadlines, requiring that all players be added before a certain date in order to be eligible for sanctioned tournament play under that sanctioning body. They also have different limits on roster size.
The website provides each team an easy interface for controlling who is and is not on each of its sanctioned rosters. To remove a player you click the "x" next to his name. Note that when you remove a player from one sanctioned roster he stays on all other rosters. To add a player from your league roster ("eligibility list") to any sanctioned roster simply go to that sanctioned roster and click the arrow next to the player's name.
Although this interface is simple and easy to use, it requires somebody from each team to actually look at it and make sure it is right. Every year we have numerous teams that don't do this and suffer the consequences.
Thus, unless you stay on top of ALL your online rosters (you have one for each sanctioning body you registered with as well as the league), players that are eligible for regular season league play may not be eligible for post-season sanctioned tournament play. All roster deadlines are listed on the calendar of events on the homepage.
STEP 14: EACH TEAM IS REQUIRED TO KEEP ITS ONLINE SCHEDULE UP-TO-DATE AT ALL TIMES
Once your season is underway, be sure to keep your ONLINE schedule updated for EVERYTHING. If a game is played as scheduled, make sure it is scored (winner, loser, home or away team, doesn't matter, every team has access to entering scores of their own games - get your scores in!).
If a game is not played as scheduled, UPDATE ITS STATUS i.e., why wasn't it played as scheduled. You do this by clicking UPDATE STATUS on your schedule for that game listing.
You have 7 days after the date on which the game was scheduled to be played, to score it or otherwise update it. If you postpone the game for weather, it must be rescheduled within 7 days or both teams could be assigned a forfeit loss. Even if the game was played, failure to enter a score to the website in that time window will result in permanent loss of ability to do so.
All cancellations, including both forfeits and no harm/no foul cancellations, must be submitted prior to the date the game is scheduled for.
STEP 15: THE WEBSITE IS GREAT, USE IT!
The website offers users a great many utility packages, including: posting your organizational logos on the website and linking them to your team's own website if you have one; online lineup cards for every game, with your logos printed on them, a comprehensive player stat package, a game report that is automatically emailed to all your local newspapers that includes the two teams that played, where and when they played and a final score, as well as an inning-by-inning scoring summary (optional) and a box score (if player stats entered).
The website also can help teams who looking to play more games - Pick-up Games in the Tools menu allows you: to advertise to other league teams that you are looking for games; to search ads posted by other league teams who are looking for games; and to conduct searches of the team database to determine what teams are available to play on any given date based on their scheduling inputs.
The website also provides teams with the ability to place their own ads on the league website for players or public tryout announcements, again, with your logo stamp. The public is able to view these ads. The league also maintains an online player database that can be used by teams to search for free agents by age, place of residence, positions played, etc. These free agents are players who are no longer in the league and may or may not be interested in placement. The league also maintains a separate list of free agent players who are known to be actively seeking placement (Free Agents Seek Team is located on the Players/Free Agents menu).
Plus, there is much more.
This league and website is here to help everyone participate in youth baseball to the fullest and for the non-stop enjoyment of the game of baseball. The league is virtually paperless and even meeting-less if you don't like meetings (they are highly recommended but optional). But, life is a two way street, to participate in the league and to enjoy it to its fullest, you must at least meet the bare essentials outlined above.
No matter how competitive you are, always keep it fun for yourself and for your players!!!