CoulOak is affiliated with Little League International and offers baseball for youth in the northwest area of Charlotte, NC around the Coulwood and Oakdale areas.  We are a non-profit organization who believes in the ideals of Little League.  In the spring of 2009, we had eight T-Ball teams, 10 machine pitch teams, 9 minor league teams, 4 major league teams, and three Babe Ruth team.

Ages for play
We offer baseball for players age 5-15. Player ages for the spring season are based on their age on May 1st of that year.  We offer T-ball for 5-6 yr olds, Machine/Coach Pitch for 7-8 yr olds, Minor League for 9-11 yr olds, Major League for 9-12 yr olds, and Babe Ruth teams for 13-18 yr olds.

Signups
We hold signups the weekends prior to tryouts at the Coulwood Middle School Gym.  Come prepared with fees, birth certificate, and proof of residence.  Proof of residence is three or more types of information including driver's license, voter's registration, school records, utility bills, cable/satellite bills, etc.

Player Equipment Needed
The league provides a game uniform for each player including a hat, jersey, pants, and socks (belts for older players).  All teams are provided with safety equipment (batting helmets, catcher's gear).  Players are expected to provide their own glove and safety equipment (cup).  Cleats are recommended, but not required.  Bats are not provided by the league, but are often shared amongst players.

Player Costs
Spring 2009 costs are $120 for t-ball and coach pitch, $160 for minor and major league, & $185 for Babe Ruth.  Player costs are used by the league to pay for field rentals, field maintenance, uniforms, team equipment, umpires, etc.  CharMeck Parks & Rec is now charging us for Coulwood field usage and we have had to increase our rates.  We do offer partial scholarships- see the form on the home page.

Tryouts
We have tryouts before each season to balance teams.  Tryouts are simple skill assessments like throwing, catching, fielding, and hitting.  T-ball teams are based upon a random draw and do not tryout.  9-11 yr old players may tryout for the Major League, but are not guaranteed a spot.  Players are guaranteed spots in other leagues as long as there are spots available.  Sign-ups are first come- first served. After tryouts, traditional style drafts take place by the coaches.  Coaches should have their rosters and notify players during the week after tryouts.

Practices
During the preseason, teams practice a total of three days a week for 1-2 hours each time (two on weekdays and once on Saturday).  Once the season begins the week of March 23rd, teams typically practice one weekday, have a game on another weekday and a game on Saturday.  Due to field availability and fairness, practices are balanced across weekdays and typically change from week to week.

Volunteers
Our organization is run entirely by volunteers.  We greatly appreciate all that they do so that we can offer a great opportunity like Little League to the youth of our community.  Little League requires background checks on all volunteers (coaches and assistant coaches).  The volunteer form is available at sign-ups and from our home page.  We also require a copy of each volunteers drivers license.

Coaches
Coaches are selected by the board from interested volunteers at a formal meeting the week before try-outs.  Assistant coaches are NOT prearranged and are selected as their child is drafted. We have an annual coaches meeting prior to first practice to cover our expectations of coaches, how our league operates, our rules, as well as good practices.  Coaches are encouraged to seek out the wealth of books available for coaching guidance as well as utilize www.littleleaguecoach.org.  

Concession
At the Oakdale fields we have a small concession stand.  It is staffed by a parent from each coach pitch team playing at that time.  Working in the concession stand or finding a substitute is mandatory.  Coaches will distribute schedules prior to the season.

Machine Pitch
For years we offered coach pitch, but as of spring 2008 we moved to machine pitch for our 7-8 yr old division.  We have found the machines are much more consistent than coaches as well as assuring that players are seeing a pitch at the proper speed to prepare them for the next level.

All-Stars
At the end of the regular season we have an All-Star day where we field two teams from each league for fun games.  Selection to these teams is done by the coaches.  We also field four Tournament of Champions teams (9,10,11,12 yr olds) and three District Teams (9-10, 10-11, 11-12) for Little League Tournaments.  Selection to these teams is based on Minor and Major league coach votes.

Special Team Requests
If two players live together and have the same transportation we do our best to place them on the same team.  These requests need to be noted on both player's registration forms.

Umpires
One of the primary goals of Little League is to teach players sportsmanship.  At the t-ball level, the coaches act as umpires in the interest of teaching the players the basic rules.  At the coach/machine pitch level we use player parents to umpire (one from each team).  At the minor league level we have one paid umpire and at the major league level we have two paid umpires.  All coaches, parents, and players are expected to behave in a proper manner with umpires.

Rules
We use the formal Little League rules, but have supplemental rules/information for all divisions.  Rules can be downloaded from the Handouts tab on the website.

Fields
We use a variety of fields in our community.  T-Ball and Machine Pitch primarily use the Oakdale fields and the field at Paw Creek Elementary.  Minor and Major teams primarily use the Coulwood fields.  Field addresses and maps are available on the field location tab on the website.