New England Firebirds Baseball & Softball Club: About AAU/ASA

The national AAU baseball program began in 1983 to promote youth baseball at its highest level of play and to organize district, regional, and national tournament programs. Teams in each district play a regular season as their schedules are established by a cooperative effort among the managers across each district. District tournaments are played to determine eligible district teams to advance to regional and national championship competition. Additionally, there are Division 1 and Division 2 tournaments organized throughout the United States open and available to all AAU baseball programs. These tournaments permit all teams to participate in post-season tournament play. All of the tournament play is well played and affords an opportunity for sportsmanship and competition at the highest levels for youth baseball programs.

Goals, Values, and Objectives
Baseball is considered the greatest game invented by Americans. It may be played at all age levels and can be enjoyed by the novice player as well as the most experienced veteran. The Firebirds Baseball program intends to teach the game of baseball to each player to reach his highest ability level and encourage growth and improvement in baseball skills and strategy and impart an appreciation for the game. We also demand that each player should be a sportsman, who will play hard, but treat each opposing player with appreciation, respect, and dignity. We will stress the importance of academic achievement to every player in our program and send a clear message to our participants for success on the athletic field.

The Amateur Softball Association (ASA), a volunteer driven, not-for-profit organization based in Oklahoma City, OK, was founded in 1933 and has evolved into the strongest softball organization in the country. The growth and development of the association led the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to name the ASA the National Governing Body of Softball, pursuant to the Amateur Sports Act of 1978.

From this beginning, the ASA has become one of the nation's largest and fastest growing sports organizations and now sanctions competition in every state through a network of 83 local associations. The ASA has grown from a few hundred teams in the early days to over 250,000 teams today, representing a membership of more than four million.