BECOMING A CASCADE LITTLE LEAGUE VOLUNTEER
Why Should I Become a Volunteer?
Cascade Little League Baseball and Softball is an organization designed to build good citizens. It is a program of leadership, preparing today's youth to be tomorrow's leaders. At the local level, Little League relies on a devoted legion of adult volunteers to help ensure that the organization remains structured and runs smoothly. Your local Little League program is always looking for responsible and enthusiastic individuals to support and coordinate Little League events and activities. As a volunteer, you should have a keen interest in the safety, well-being, and overall development of children. By reading further, you will discover that the benefits of volunteering are endless. You will also gain a better understanding of why you should become involved, who volunteers are, what you can do, and how you can sign up.
Who Can Volunteer?
Anyone can apply to become a volunteer. Whatever talents or skills you have, we can use them! Across the country, volunteers are grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, retirees, community leaders, former Little Leaguers, friends, neighbors, and more. Any community member who wishes to become a volunteer may apply.
All parents of children involved in Cascade Little League Baseball and Softball are strongly encouraged to volunteer. As a parent, volunteer, you have the opportunity to spend quality time with your child in a safe, fun-filled environment. Oftentimes, parent and child social lives parallel each other. Volunteering allows your life and your child's life to intersect on common ground, with shared interests and goals.
On rare occasions, Little League, through District Administrators and your local Board of Directors, may deny individuals the privilege of volunteering for reasons, past or present, that may be detrimental to the positive development of young people, other volunteers, and/or Little League International. When you apply to become a volunteer, you give the local Little League organization the right to conduct necessary background checks.
How Do I Become A Volunteer?
Parents, take a minute to fill out the volunteer form while registering your child. If you are not a parent and would like to volunteer, take a minute to fill out the form while visiting your local registration location.
What Can I Volunteer To Do?
No experience is required to become a volunteer. Most of the volunteer opportunities require little or no training. Cascade Little League will provide you with any necessary training (as well as support and encouragement), as they deem necessary. The best volunteers are those who are able to bring added enjoyment to the game simply be being themselves. What you see during Little League games is a mere fraction of what you can do as a volunteer. You can volunteer to help in virtually any aspect of Little League Baseball or Softball.
Board of Director's Position Explanation
COACH'S / MANAGER'S ROLE
Cascade Little League manager and coach must be leaders. All must recognize that they hold a position of trust and responsibility in a program that deals with a sensitive and formative period of a child’s development.
It is required that the manager and coach have understanding, patience and the capacity to work with children. The manager and coach should be able to inspire respect. Above all else, managers and coaches must realize that they are helping to shape the physical, mental and emotional development of young people.
The Little League manager must be something more than just a teacher. Knowledge of the game is essential but it is not the only badge of a Little League coach or manager.
While an adult with training and background in the game is a desirable candidate for manager or coach, league screening committees should look for other important qualities. Screening of managers, coaches and others at the local league level who have contact with children is also important in attempting to discover those with a history of child abuse.
The heart of Little League is what happens between the adult manager/coach and player. It is the manager more than any other individual who controls the situation in which the players may be benefited. Improving the level of leadership in this vital area must be a continuing effort.
Children of Little League age are strongly influenced by adults whose ideals and aspirations are similar to their own. The manager/coach and player share a common interest in the game, a desire to excel, and determination to win. Children often idolize their managers and coaches, not because the adult is the most successful coach or mentor, but because the manager and coach are sources of inspiration.
Managers and coaches must be adults who are sensitive to the mental and physical limitations of children of Little League age and who recognize that the game is a vehicle of training and enjoyment, not an end in itself. It has been stated many times that the program of Little League can only be as good as the quality of leadership in the managing and coaching personnel. New leagues particularly, should make a determined effort to enlist the best adults in the community to serve as managers and coaches.
Anyone interested in being a Cascade Little League manager or coach should contact their local league Executive Vice President of Baseball/Softball at [email protected], and be willing to undergo a screening process that may include a background check, as well as interviews of those with personal knowledge of your qualifications.