6/26/2020

Joe Schwartz Little League is pleased to announce that the City of Worcester has approved our "Return to Practice Guidelines" and authorized us to resume organized practices! For divisions and players resuming practice, schedules will follow soon from your team’s head coach.

It is critical that all families, coaches, officials and volunteers who are resuming organized JSLL activity review and understand the “Return to Practice Guidelines” expectations and process. Contained in the guidelines document is our:

• Full safety and “Return to Practice Guidelines” plan
• Waiver of Liability, Release, Assumption of Risk & Indemnity Agreement
• Joe Schwartz "Return to Practice" Health Attestation Form

PLEASE NOTE: All participants (players, coaches, officials, volunteers) must sign and submit the "Waiver of Liability, Release, Assumption of Risk & Indemnity Agreement" to your team's head coach. This only needs to be done one time. 

Additionally, all participants resuming any organized JSLL activity (players, coaches, officials, volunteers) must complete and submit the "Joe Schwartz Return to Practice Health Attestation Form each and every time they participate in a JSLL activity. This form should be submitted to your teams head coach at the beginning of every practice.

Please contact your team’s head coach or a member of the JSLL Board of Directors if you have any questions.

Thank you!

Documents to review / download
JSLL Return to Practice Guidelines (full)
Waiver of Liability Release, Assumption of Risk and Indemnity Agreement
Joe Schwartz Return to Practice Health Attestation Form
 

6/19/2020

The Board of Directors of Joe Schwartz Little League has been working hard to take the necessary steps toward resuming our activities.  As the situation remains fluid, our current goal is to allow our teams to begin official practices on our JSLL fields, which is the type of activity allowable in “Phase 2” of the governor’s plan to reopen Massachusetts. We hope to eventually have gameplay in “Phase 3”, but we are most immediately focused on resuming practices at this time.

“Return to Practice” Guidelines:

We submitted our “Return to Practice” Guidelines and permit application to the City of Worcester this week in order to be granted field permits for official league practices.  We hope to get an answer shortly.  The league and/or your teams’ coaches will be in touch with you once we receive word.

If and when our “Return to Practice” Guidelines are approved and the permit is issued, all JSLL families will be provided access to the guidelines prior to the start of practices, both by email and through our website.  These guidelines were drafted heeding direction and guidance from the CDC, local and state officials, Little League International, and the Massachusetts Outdoor Recreational Advisory Task Force.

The safety of all participants (players, coached, league officials, parents/guardians, and spectators) is of utmost importance to us. Our practice guidelines are designed to keep all involved as safe as possible during our resumption of practices in Phase 2.   For us to successfully move forward with practices in Phase 2, we need and expect every participant to understand and adhere to the JSLL Return to Practice guidelines.

What This Means for You:

While we are pleased that we will be able to provide a means for some of our teams to return to the field, we unfortunately had to make some hard decisions regarding some of our younger divisions.  As a result of what our league’s guidelines will entail, we are unable to have all JSLL divisions resume play this season. Our youngest divisions present some of the most challenging aspects associated with social distancing and other relevant guidelines.  Unfortunately, we are only able to resume practices with the following divisions:

• D1 Baseball
  
• Major League Softball
• AAA Baseball
• Minor League Softball
  

We are very sorry to inform our Instructional and AA baseball families that your divisions will not be able to move forward for this season.  We share in your disappointment with this news. Please rest assured, the JSLL Board of Directors did not arrive at this decision lightly. It was only after evaluating all feasible options that it became apparent that we couldn’t proceed with all ages/divisions at this time under current guidance.  We will continue to brainstorm ways in which we can provide some sort of baseball experience for them.  We are open to ideas/suggestions that any of you may have.  Our sincere hope is that each of our Instructional and AA players will continue to be a part of JSLL in future years.

Moreover, while we are excited at the prospect of eventually hosting games, please note that it is not a certainty that we will be able to host competitive games for all divisions that are allowed to start practicing under our current guidelines.  We will continue to monitor the guidance and make the decision once we are able to evaluate the most appropriate path forward for those divisions that return to the field.

Next Steps:

We will keep the JSLL community informed as we hear more from the City of Worcester.  In the meantime, for families with players eligible to resume play under our new guidelines, please remember the decision to join us this season is ultimately yours. We can all agree this year has been anything but normal and we firmly believe each family should decide for themselves what is best for their unique situation. You should feel no pressure to have your player resume play, simply because they can.

For those families who decide they are not able to play this season or whose divisions are not going forward at this time, please know that we will continue to process refunds as they are requested. You may also request to rollover your fee to cover any registration fees you might incur next year.  That said, we would be remiss not to ask those families to consider donating part (or all) of their 2020 registration fee to the league. This will help ensure our successful operations for this and future seasons as there are unavoidable fixed costs we face annually, such as maintenance, insurance and utilities.  However you decide to proceed, whether it be a refund, rollover or donation, we understand everyone’s situation is different and respect any decisions made.  Please contact [email protected] to request a refund or rollover or effectuate a donation.

We will post additional updates and information to both our COVID-19 page on our website and our Facebook page.   On behalf of the JSLL Board of Directors we thank you for your continued support and patience during these unprecedented times.

Thank you,

Joe Schwartz Little League, Board of Directors