Conshohocken Little League has Made Some Changes (for the good)

A Conversation with Scott English about Conshy Little League

1/4/2021

by Brian Coll

So Scott, how many years have you been President and before that what was your involvement in the league?

This is my third year as President, and I’ve been involved with the league for 12 years now.  At this point I’ve held a number of different board positions and coached teams from T-Ball to Softball to 18U.  It’s been a great experience.  

I’ve had a person or two ask if something changed at Conshohocken Little League, can you tell us what that is, or those things are?

Well, the league is now known as the Conshohocken Baseball & Softball League, or CBSL for short.  We officially changed our affiliation and became a Babe Ruth / Cal Ripken league at the end of 2020.  Under our old affiliation our boundaries were restrictive.  While families in the Borough of Conshohocken could play for CLL or a neighboring league due to the school rule; families outside of our boundaries could not play for CLL because the only school in our boundaries was Conshohocken Elementary.  Under our new Babe Ruth / Cal Ripken boundaries, anyone attending a school within the Colonial School District can now come play for our league.  

Overall, we expect the experience for the players to improve with increased registration and some format changes.  Quick Ball will now be offered instead of T-Ball for younger players (https://usaquickball.com) and the 11/12 year old majors division will be played on a 50/70 field.  For those unfamiliar, a typical youth field is 46/60 (46ft from the mound to home plate and 60ft between bases).  A full-size field’s dimensions are 60/90.  So, the 50/70 format allows for a better progression from a youth sized field to the full-size field.  In order to accommodate this change, our majors field will be undergoing an extensive renovation project in the next couple months to improve the field’s condition and convert it for 50/70 play.

I personally loved coaching last season, even with the unique situation that Covid presented. You, the board and fellow parents did a good job of keeping the children healthy. Anything else in place this coming season?

Thank you for the compliment.  We’re lucky to have a good relationship with a number of local leagues and as a group we were able to put together a strong, comprehensive plan for everyone to be able to play ball and be safe doing it last summer.  We’ll continue to wear masks, limit equipment sharing as much as possible, space out games & practices more than we normally would and sanitize any commonly shared items.  The only potential changes for this season are that we’d like to hold a more traditional opening day and we may open our snack stand on a limited basis.  Both will depend on how the Covid situation progresses over the next couple months.

Last year the season was put on hold, when is the projected start date this year?

We are planning as if the 2021 spring season will start at the same time a normal spring season would.  Practices beginning in March with opening day set for April 17^th.  

Registration is OPEN NOW, and we will continue to register players until 4/1/21.  However, the earlier you register, the better as we need to determine how many teams we’ll have in each division by March.  We welcome anyone who wants to play, so if money is an issue due to Covid situations, please contact us.  Our mission statement is to provide a positive baseball experience for any youths who are interested in the game.  

Scott, if there are families who can’t afford to play baseball/softball with the league, I’m sure we can figure it out if the league doesn’t have the means to take care of it.

Tell us about this season, what ages for the players? What divisions are available. Are coaches needed?

We offer the following divisions of play:

Baseball is available for the following age groups:

Quick Ball (4/5 year olds)

Coach Pitch (5/6 year olds)

Pitching Machine (7/8 year olds)

Minors (46/60) (9/10/11 year olds)

Majors (50/70) (11/12 year olds)

Juniors (13/14 year olds)

Seniors (15-18 year olds)  

And, in case you hadn’t heard, softball is back in Conshy!  I have two daughters ages 7 and 8 so I’m personally invested in helping rebuild the program.

This year, Softball is available for the following age groups:

Rookies (7/8 year olds)

Minors (9/10 year olds)

To register, visit our new URL – conshybaseballsoftballleague.com.  Our old website can still be entered and will automatically forward you to the new one.

Coach wise, we are always looking for as many good hands on deck as possible.  Experience coaching or a strong knowledge of the game aren’t as important as a good, positive attitude in working with the players.  

If you want to get involved but can’t coach, we’re always looking for more people to get involved at the board or committee level and doing things behind the scenes to help the league run.  It takes a lot of work to run a youth sports league, we have volunteers in many positions such as Player Agent, Grounds Maintenance, Finance and Sponsorship, Safety, etc, and various committees such as Snackstand, Opening Day and Fundraising.  The more help we have, the more we can accomplish.  

What else can you tell us? I know I’m personally looking forward to the upcoming season.

Three more items I’d love to bring up.

1. We’ve been working with a local instructor named Phil Kelly who’s truly been terrific.  Right now he’s leading our winter workout sessions at Steelyard Sports and he’s put together some great, easy to follow training materials to help us with player development.  The players are loving it.  It’ll be great to eventually get outdoors and have more players be able to participate; the indoor sessions are limited due to Covid.  Phil grew up in Conshohocken and played for CLL and PW High School.  He’s been a coach and baseball instructor for years and wanted to get involved with helping his hometown league.  In addition to Phil, we’ve been working hard to make relationships with upper-level baseball coaches and people in the industry in order to remain cutting edge with our programs.  We want players to learn the right skills both on the field and as a teammate to prepare them for life after CBSL; whether that’s continuing to play during middle school and thereafter or not.  

2. Since our affiliation is now different from the two other leagues in the school district, players are able to sign-up for both CBSL and another league.  If players in the area are looking for more baseball to play, CBSL is now an option.  

3. With our affiliation change we’re in the need of a new logo.  Our plan is to hold a contest where people from the community can submit their ideas which will then be voted on.  More details to come on this in the next month.

Scott, thank you for taking the time to chat with me. My little guy loved it last year and we’ll be signing him up for this upcoming season. It’s always great talking about Conshy Little League or should I say Conshohocken Baseball and Softball League.

www.conshybaseballsoftballleague.com