Team Assignment and Formation Information

2025 Team Formations Expected Dates

Team Formation and Assignments

Practice Begins

Games Begin

Why we draft for AAA/Majors

Team formation is always an important and robust discussion topic amongst our Board, coaches, and families. For 2024, we made the decision to form AAA teams via a draft. We wanted to inform our parents how we made that decision, why it was made, and the benefits we believe will make NCLL even stronger.

First, we looked at our own history. Prior to COVID, AAA formed teams via draft just like we do in Majors. However, our re-emergence into social situations brought with it many challenges for us to think over. We also wanted to be close to those we hadn't seen in a while. Team formation reflected those priorities.

Second, we talked with other leagues in the area. We found we were the lone league not forming AAA teams via a draft. Some leagues even use a draft for AA, with admittedly more social engineering built in. Next we looked at the benefits of a draft:

1. Greater team parity

A team that shows up and wins with little effort is not learning crucial skills that Little League teaches. Likewise, when a team struggles, they fail to learn skills and we also know that leads to a quick exit from the sport.

2. Different experiences

Kids get to experience the different styles of different coaching staffs. We have many different coaches who all have different styles, ways of communicating, and philosophies. The kids will get to experience these differences and better understand the best environment for them in the future.

3. Kids get to know other kids

We are a community driven league, so we think the community benefits from getting to know one another -- not remaining in our school, work, or neighborhood silos.

4. Transparency

Finally, a draft provides transparency for coaches to feel a sense of fairness and and most importantly, parents are able to see our process and better understand the outcomes.

Following these evaluations, we voted to move forward with a draft for AAA, adopting many of the same rules from Majors:

• Draft order drawn from hat at the beginning of the draft.
• All returning majors players, and 12-year-olds new to majors, are picked in the first stage of the draft.
• Players under 12 who are new to majors are picked next, this stage starts after all players required to play majors are selected.
• We do allow coaching pairings, but the number per team is capped. 
• Returning Players that come with coaches are automatically selected in the first round(s).
• New players that come with coaches are automatically selected in the beginning of the second stage of the draft.
• Following the draft, coaches are empowered to complete trades to better align kids socially, where possible, without materially affecting either team.

We see it as a success and are happy with how the teams turned out, believing we found a sweet spot between competitiveness and social, and we will be a better division and league because of it. Check out the the following pictures from the actual draft!