Dear BCLL Families

I hope this finds you well. As I am sure you were expecting this news, the Board has decided to cancel the BCLL 2020 Spring season. 

I want everyone to know that there was much deliberation on how to get the players back on the field with the current regulations and restrictions that are in place. We were hoping the Governor was going to provide more guidance on youth sports during last Thursday’s press conference; however, with today’s headlines they weren’t addressed as originally announced.  If you didn’t have time to review the guidelines for outdoor sports, they increased the distance to 10 feet, not six feet. With that new distance, we don’t know how we could make games work (example – first baseman covering the runner on first or the batter and the catcher). After the survey that we conducted a month or so ago, we didn’t feel that we would have enough players and/or coaches to fulfill a season with tournaments being cancelled, the season being played later than normal, and mixed feelings returning to play with the restrictions in place. In addition to our survey, Bridgewater, Harrisonburg and a few others have cancelled their seasons which makes it difficult for the older leagues to have games. A few leagues are meeting later this week to make their decisions as well. We are hopeful that restrictions will be lifted so that we can have a 2020 Fall Ball Season.

The board feels strongly about offering something to the players since many spring activities have been cancelled. We will be striving to begin practice clinics the week of June 15, 2020 for all levels. Clinics would allow for a more controlled safe environment and allow for players to get out on the field. Please let me know if you would like to assist with clinics as more information will follow.

BCLL is a nonprofit organization focuses on enriching our children and bringing our community together. Each season we charge a registration fee and seek sponsorships to assist in covering the cost incurred for that particular season. We depend on fundraisers to assist covering bigger capital improvement projects as well as maintaining and improving our fields/equipment. We are lucky to have a supportive town and community, but it is up to BCLL to maintain the fields and cover any costs of repairs. Looking at this season specifically, we still have an open fundraiser that we hope will cover costs of some of the smaller outstanding projects but we are not anticipating a substantial profit from that. We also weren’t able to make additional funds from hosting tournaments and/or opening the concession stand as normal. While the season came to a halt rather soon we had already purchased part of the uniforms, which are non-refundable/exchangeable, based on each teams sizing/player count. We hope to make use of them somehow during a future season but may incur a loss due to team numbers changing/size differences.  There are various other yearly operating expenses we have to take into account and leave in the budget for next year. The board did shut down its spending once the season was halted but will need to purchase extra cleaning supplies such as hand sanitizer, etc. so we can host clinics and such in the coming weeks.

Having said this, we hope that you consider allowing the league to keep your registration as a donation. We can produce a receipt for you that could be used as a write off as a donation to a nonprofit organization. We realize that each family’s situation is different, so we have created a form that we ask every family to complete so we have a clear records of funds. BCLL has used a bookkeeping company for many years and every transaction costs the organization money. That is why we have asked those whom have already reached out to wait until a decision was made so we could submit these requests in bulk. 

You can complete the request form here. The deadline for this online form is Friday, June 19, 2020 at 11:59PM EST. If we don’t receive a form by the deadline we will assume that you want to leave it as a donation to the organization. There will be no exceptions for late submissions. Refunds will be processed after Friday, June 19, 2020. Please allow 10 business days for processing.

Options are as follows:

Full Refund (TBall Only – didn’t start season)

Refund all other league ages(Registration fee paid minus $8)

Late Fee Refund (add $20.00 late fee – only those who paid it)

Send donation receipt

Send donation receipt for a Portion of my Registration Fee

The board is saddened for all the players, but especially for the older players that are aging out of Little League. We hope your love for the game will bring you back to Little League in the future.

A separate email will be coming out later this week regarding the Annual Meeting and how we will be accepting nominations.

Please know that we are here if you have concerns, question or remarks. We can’t thank enough those families and volunteers who have sent us encouraging messages, trusting us, and supporting us during this crazy time. We want to thank all those BCLL members who are continuing to keep this community safe – THANK YOU - doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, EMT and all those that continue to work daily to continue to make the world go function.

This form and information will be sent by email to all participants. An announcement will also be made on Facebook

Sincerely,

BCLL Board Members