Any player registered for one of our spring draft levels (Majors/3A/2A), except for returning Majors players, must attend one of our upcoming skills evaluations (a/k/a "tryouts") to be eligible for team placement.
SIGN UP FOR A TIME SLOT:
Please sign up ASAP for a time slot for player evaluations on either:
Sunday, February 1 (Feb 1 Signup), 12:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Sunday, February 8 (Feb 8 Signup), 11:30 pm - 5:30 pm
We prefer League Age 8's and 9's to take slots shaded in Yellow and League Age 10's, 11's, and 12's take slots shaded in Green.
Let me first say: rest assured, every child will "make a team". In fact, the purpose of the tryouts are 1) to ensure that kids play in the appropriate division based on their current level of experience and skill, and 2) to allow for us to try to create fair and balanced teams at every level. Both of these goals, when achieved, allow for a better experience for the kids and more exciting baseball in the Spring.
Failure to attend the evaluations may result in your player becoming ineligible to be drafted. We also welcome any League Age 9's who are currently registered for 1A to tryout. Conversely, League Age 8's who are registered for 1A should NOT try out unless family requests an exception.
Signups for Sunday, February 1 will close on Saturday, January 31 at 4 pm. Signups for Sunday, February 8 will close on Saturday, February 7 at 4pm.
IMPORTANT: Players should plan to attend an evaluation even if they are injured and unable to perform all tasks during tryouts. Accommodations will be made for injury, including allowing a "walkthrough."
TRYOUT LOCATION, ARRIVAL & DURATION
Tryouts will be held at HammerZone Sports in the Fairfax Circle Shopping Center, 9709 Fairfax Blvd, Fairfax, VA 22030. (HammerZone is in the adjacent shopping center to Artie's restaurant.)
Kids will have an opportunity to warm up and then will go through pitching, fielding, and hitting stations. Please have your child bring their baseball glove, a batting helmet, and a bat (must be a USA Bat approved for Little League play). Cleats are optional but not necessary, but kids must wear athletic shoes (no sandals, Crocs, or boots). If you do not have baseball equipment, we will ensure that we have equipment on hand for them to use.
Please plan to arrive 10 minutes early for your evaluation slot. No player will be admitted into the building earlier than 10 minutes prior to minimize the congestion in the facility. This arrival time is critical as it will assist us in keeping the evaluation running smoothly and ensure players have enough time to register and warm up before their evaluation.
We kindly ask that once you've signed your child in at the front desk that all parents leave the building and wait for their child to come out of the designated door after the tryout. This will help us ensure that kids are moving smoothly through the process and reduce pressure on these kids as they go through the tryout :) . The entire process will take ~15-20 minutes. Of course, if you REALLY want to be able to view the tryout, please volunteer for the shift that aligns with your kid's time slot! Volunteer sign-up roles are available on each of the tryout sheets.
Hammerzone is a water only facility so please no other food or drink in the building.
WAIVER & FACILITY RULES
Parents/guardians must sign in or create a Hammerzone account at hammerzonesports.com . You will be prompted to complete a waiver for each player (unless you already did last year) - this waiver needs to be signed before or at the time of your child's arrival.
IMPORTANT: There will NOT be paper copies of this waiver at the registration table. All waivers must be completed electronically.
Stations
Warm-up
2-5 minute warm-up- ~10 Warmup throws with an on-hand volunteer
Fielding
6 groundballs that are fielded and thrown to Volunteer 1st Baseman
2-3 liners thrown by adult station runner and then thrown to 1st baseman
Pitching
6-9 Pitches thrown from mound to volunteer catcher (radar gun setup outside
cage to record speed)
Hitting
3-4 Soft Toss (front toss) to begin session in cage (Might switch to tee for younger age group); 5-6 Balls to be hit from pitching machine immediately after in same cage.
VOLUNTEERS
Again, we need and welcome parent volunteers for a variety of roles to successfully run tryouts. Volunteer opportunities are available in the signup sheets linked above. Thank you for considering lending your assistance.
COACHES
2A / 3A: Please limit attendance to 1 evaluator per team if possible. Majors: You can bring 1 additional evaluator beyond the lead Manager. Weill have a designated lane set up for you to observe the evaluations; that said, we are tight on space at the facility so I ask that you honor these requests. However, there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer, and I encourage you and your assistants to sign-up as a way to get additional evaluators from your team in attendance. Like last year, we will also have video of the tryouts for you to review with your other Coaches after the evaluations are conducted - you will be provided access to our Hudl video app to be able to view tryout videos for each kid coming through the evaluation. No child data or video will be released outside of the Hudl app nor will it be used for any other purpose.
For any questions regarding tryouts, please contact the VLL Player Agent, Jonny Alcabes, at [email protected].