Welcome to Orange Little League
Follow OLL on Facebook and Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/orangelittleleague/
Amity Softball can be found on Facebook too!
by: OLL
This document can also be found under Documents Tab.
Orange Little League and Amity Softball
Rules for Participation and Acknowledgement thereof for 2020
COVID19 is a novel coronavirus. It is an extremely contagious disease that can lead to severe illness and death. These rules are designed in an effort to mitigate those risks. Humanities’ knowledge and understanding of COVID19 is constantly evolving. It is not possible to play baseball or softball and eliminate all known risks. Nor are all risks known. If you want your child to play baseball/softball this season, you have to be willing, able and comfortable taking on such risks. This is a voluntary activity. Participation by you and/or your child is an acknowledgement of and assumption of all risks related to exposure to COVID19 during all league related activities.
Orange Little League and Amity Softball will not accept risks beyond those permitted under these rules. Failure to adhere to any rule will be sufficient basis for the expulsion of you, your family and/or children from the facility and/or all league activities. Participation by you and/or your child is an acknowledgement that you have read and agreed to act in accordance with the rules contained herein and provide the information as required herein.
The safety of all of us depends on the responsibility of each of us.
BASIC PRINCIPLE
Act responsibly. Wear a mask. Maintain social distancing. Frequently wash your hands. Cover your mouth and nose. Cover coughs and sneezes. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
Anyone with a fever, significant or persistent cough, respiratory issues, exposure to a person with COVID-19 or COVID19 diagnosis cannot attend any activity. Individuals at risk for severe illness or serious underlying medical or respiratory conditions should only attend with permission from a medical professional. Anyone with a fever, significant or persistent cough, or respiratory issues cannot attend until symptoms have subsided, without medication, for at least 24 hours or have been given clearance from a medical professional. Anyone who is exposed to a person with COVID-19 cannot attend until they have quarantined for 14 days without symptoms or been cleared by a medical professional. Anyone who has been diagnosed with COVID19 cannot attend any activity until they have been given clearance from a medical professional. Orange Little League and Amity Softball reserve the right to require written clearance from a medical professional.
ADHERENCE TO LAWS AND GUIDANCE AND MODIFICATION
Orange Little League and Amity Softball will adhere to all Federal, State and Local laws. If we receive additional guidance, we will adjust the rules to reflect those.
Orange Little League and Amity Softball also reserves the right to modify these rules. This is an evolving situation. Some rules may be impractical. Some rules may not be sufficiently restrictive. You will be notified via email and/or internet posting of these changes. You are required to read and adhere to these rules and any modifications thereto.
FACILITIES
No snack stands will be open.
Bathroom usage will be severely restricted. Please use the bathroom before coming to the facilities and wait until you are home, if possible. Usage will be limited to one person at a time. It will be monitored. Before and after each league activity the restroom will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.
Frequently touched surfaces will be cleaned and disinfected between all facility uses, including, but not necessarily limited to the bleachers, dugouts, gates, and fencing along the first and third base line. The scorekeeper’s box will also be cleaned or disinfected if used during the activity. This maintenance, as well as post game field maintenance, will be done by a manager or coach involved in the preceding activity. Whatever equipment is used will be cleaned or disinfected by that manager or coach.
Where possible, based on availability, we will provide hand sanitizer for use in common areas at the facility.
PRACTICES AND GAMES
Players and families are not to show up to fields more than 40 minutes before practice or game times. If there is a prior event the arriving group must wait in their vehicle, or socially distant location, until they finish departing. Do not exit your vehicle or enter a field until after this process has been completed and all people from the prior activity have completely left the area.
No participant will be allowed to enter the field for practice or a game until their non-medicated temperature has been taken and confirmed by their parent/guardian, within two hours of the practice or game, to be below 100 degrees Fahrenheit. No participant will be allowed to enter the field for practice or a game until their parent/guardian confirms, within two hours of the practice or game, that they do not have a significant or persistent cough, respiratory issue, or exposure to someone with or a diagnosis of COVID19. Confirmation that the participant is without a fever, significant or persistent cough, respiratory issue, or exposure to someone with COVID19 or a diagnosis of COVID19 must be sent electronically to the manager of the team within two hours prior to the practice or game. The league’s practice and game notification system will be changed to require your explicit confirmation of the absence thereof. Managers are required to preserve this information for each practice and game, and to produce it to the league upon request.
Any participant in the game or practice who is observed by and in the best judgment of the manager, coach or umpire to have a fever, significant or persistent cough, or respiratory issue will be expelled from the practice or game. The participant will not be able to return that day, until symptoms have subsided without medication for at least 24 hours or have been given clearance from a medical professional.
Adults involved in the practices and games are required to wear masks as much as possible. The managers, coaches and umpires will wear masks as much as possible during all practices and games. Managers, coaches and umpires observed removing their masks excessively and/or unnecessarily will be expelled.
Players may wear masks at all times. Players are strongly encouraged to wear a mask while not on the field. If players do not social distance while waiting for their at-bat they will be required to wear a mask.
No adult other than a manager, coach, umpire and a league official are permitted to participate in a practice or a game. If a scorekeeper is assigned to a game only the one scorekeeper will be permitted inside of the scorekeeper’s box. No one else may enter the scorekeeper’s box.
No siblings are permitted to participate in a practice or a game.
Players and managers/coaches will be assigned designated areas to sit and keep their equipment while they are not in the field. These areas will be socially distant from each other. The areas will be behind the baseline fencing and on the bleachers. It is expected that these areas will only be used by the designated players. When necessary, a member of the same household may interact with a player in that area.
Each player is expected to bring their own equipment, specifically including, but not limited to, gloves, hats, helmets, bats, and catcher’s equipment. Any shared equipment must be cleaned and/or disinfected between each usage.
All equipment must be laid out pre-game for an umpire’s inspection in a manner that eliminates the need to touch or interact with the equipment. If contact is necessary then the contactor and equipment must be sanitized before use.
Each player, coach, manager and/or umpire is responsible for bringing their own drinks and snacks. Food cannot be shared.
Spitting is not allowed. Gum is not allowed. Sunflower seeds are not allowed. Similar items are not allowed. Chewing tobacco was never allowed.
On field warm-ups are limited to no more than 30 minutes.
Pregame plate meetings, if necessary, will be limited to one manager or coach from each team and the umpire. All participants will maintain social distancing.
There will only be one umpire per game. The umpire will call the game from behind the mound.
Balls will be changed and/or disinfected at least once every two innings.
Balls that go out of play should be retrieved by a participant in the game. Where possible a player should get the ball. No one other than a player, manager, coach or umpire should touch the ball. Balls touched by non-participants will be disinfected before being used again.
Handshakes and unnecessary contact are prohibited during the game.
There will be no post-game handshake. A cap tip or other non-contact acknowledgement will be used to display good sportsmanship.
Spectators must stay in their vehicles or otherwise socially distant during practices. Spectators cannot observe practices from anywhere behind the plate or along the first or third base fence. Spectators are expected to wait inside of their vehicles at the end of practices for their participant to go to them.
Spectators must observe the game from their vehicles, along the outside of the outfield fence between the foul poles, or in socially distant locations at each field as determined by the league. Absent an emergency situation or some necessity with a member of your household, non-participants will remain socially distant from all players, managers, coaches and umpires. Spectators are expected to wait inside of their vehicles at the end of games for their participants to go to them.
SPECIAL TEE BALL RULES
Where it can be done safely, each player and their parent/guardian will be designated a socially distant location in the outfield to sit and keep their equipment. Each player will wait with their parent/guardian in the designated location while waiting to bat. If a parent/guardian is unable to safely stay in the outfield they must notify the manager and an alternative location outside the fence will be designated.
SEPARATE BASES
Separate bases will be used for defensive plays for Tee Ball, Coach Pitch and Rookies when possible to reduce collisions and contact with the batters and base runners.
POSITIVE TESTS
In the event that a participant or a member of their household contracts COVID19 and tests positive that family must notify their team’s manager and Orange Little League or Amity Softball. The identity of the individual and/or household that tested positive will be kept confidential. Each participant who was in contact with that individual within the preceding 5 days will be notified. This will include everyone on their team and everyone on any opposing teams. Everyone who came into contact during that time will be required to quarantine for 14 days or obtain medical clearance before they will be permitted to return to play.
Failure to timely notify the manager and Orange Little League or Amity Softball will be the sufficient basis for permanent expulsion of all members of the household.
Participation in the season is an acknowledgement of this requirement to disclose a positive COVID19 test or contact with someone who has tested positive and a waiver of any privacy right related to this otherwise protected health information.
UNEXPECTED END / REFUNDS
It must also be noted that we may not be able to complete our season for a variety of reasons. For example, the State, Town, or Little League International may order us to close at any time. Once uniforms have been ordered it will not be possible to provide a refund.
by: OLL
by: Jennifer Schempp
by: Jennifer Schempp
2020 Softball Age Chart
by: Jennifer Schempp
by: Jennifer Schempp
