HVABSA PREMIER LEAGUE BASICS

HVABSA Premier Director -  Jeff Halstead 

HVABSA Premier League’s mission is to provide volunteer coaches who work with players of all ability levels, provide opportunities to learn the aspects of teamwork, character, courage, loyalty, respect for authority, and self-discipline; to understand and embrace the principle that the development of exceptional athletic skills and winning games is secondary to the development of young citizens. Our organization is made up entirely of volunteers, many of whom work year-round to make sure our mission is carried out.

The Premier Baseball Program provides a higher level of play for recreational baseball players. The Premier program is a recreational baseball program and the Premier season begins and ends with the recreational baseball season. Premier teams play interlock baseball with other Premier teams from surrounding organizations in DFW Interlock. Playing on a Premier team may incur additional charges to cover the cost of uniform items, indoor practices, etc.

Premier Baseball teams are eligible to play in any “Recreational” tournament throughout the year.  Most Premier teams take part in the All-Star tournaments in May/June each year after the regular season ends. Joining a Premier level team is a bigger time commitment each week for practices. Interlock/Premier regular season games are double headers on Saturdays with an average of 10-12 games per season. The exception to this rule is for rainout make-up games and the occasional schedule conflict where both coaches can agree on a week night.

Prior to each season, all registered players who wish to try out for a Premier team in their age group are required to undergo a skills evaluation. Players interested in playing on a Premier team must try out each season; there are no protected rosters for Premier teams, except for the head coach and one assistant coach’s sons. Players who try out for a Premier team may also be on a recreational team's protected roster and in the event the player does not make a Premier team, they can revert to that team's protected roster. Tryouts must be held well in advance of the formation of regular recreation teams so that any players that go Premier can be replaced through a draft. Families interested in having their son try out for a Premier team must look for the appropriate age group try out posted to the HVABSA Facebook page.  Tryouts for the spring season will begin at the conclusion of the fall season in October and run through November with practices beginning in January.  Fall tryouts are held after the spring tournament season in late June, early July with practices beginning in August.

Anyone interested in coaching a Premier team must be an experienced coach and must apply for each season in which they would like to coach. The Premier Director and VP of Recreational Baseball will select the coach for each Premier team. The Premier coach must have a child with the appropriate skill level to play on the coach's team.

The Premier team will be chosen based on the individual player's ranking from the skills evaluation, but drafting for the team must be done by position. For example, the team should carry true infield and outfield players, true catchers, and pitchers, much the same way we have begun drafting our All-Star Teams. An experienced Storm coach will assess skills with no interest in the outcome of the evaluation (a Storm coach in a different age group). The top 10 players from the skills assessment will form the first Premier team for each age group.

While players for a Premier team may have a specific position they like to play, each player should be ready to play at any position the coach puts them in. The only exception to this rule may be catcher. A Premier player should be able to play any of the other positions on the field. Premier is a development league to get players ready for the next level.

Any players who do not make a Premier team and are not on a protected roster will go into a player draft to be drafted to a team in a coach's draft to be held shortly after the skills evaluation. No players will be allowed to play on a Premier team without participating in the skills evaluation. There will be no exceptions. All players participating in the skills evaluation must be registered with HVABSA as a recreational baseball player in the current season, however, exceptions may be made by the Premier Director. The Premier season will end with the recreational baseball season. It is at the Premier coach’s discretion which tournaments will be played for the All-Star Tournament Season.