HIGHLANDS LITTLE LEAGUE

Highlands Little League (“Highlands”) is based in North Vancouver, offering league play and post season high performance opportunities for 4-16 year olds. Highlands currently plays out of Delbrook Park, a unique complex that maintains four separate diamonds (located at the corner of Queens Ave and Delbrook Ave). The park, which is continually active throughout the baseball season,  is the proud home of the North Shore Challengers Division, a division of Baseball BC that provides an opportunity for children with cognitive or physical disabilities to enjoy the full benefits of participation in baseball at a level structured to their abilities.  Our community prides itself on having a long history of being the most inclusive baseball district in Canada.

FOREST HILLS AND NORTH VAN CENTRAL LEAVE LITTLE LEAGUE

Many of you will already be aware of some of the changes that are going on surrounding baseball on the North Shore. We wanted to take this opportunity to clarify what these are and how Highlands will be impacted.

Over the last several weeks, Forest Hills and North Van Central have voted to disband their  Little League organizations. In both cases the majority of their leadership felt that a move to the BC Minor Baseball Association would be advantageous to them and they will now form the core of a new North Shore organization within BCMBA and no longer participate in Little League.

This will therefore offer players from those areas the choice of moving into the BCMBA or remaining in Little League. If those players decide to remain in Little League, they would play for one of the Highlands or Lynn Valley,  depending on geography. The new boundary guidelines will be Lonsdale west being Highlands and Lonsdale east being Lynn Valley **Important Note- all players who played in Highlands in 2016 may continue playing here for the rest of their playing years.. 

A growing league is nothing new for us at Highlands as we have continued to grow year by year for the last decade. This success shows, as many of you will have witnessed, as Sunday’s at Delbrook are community events in themselves, with kids of all ages, friends and siblings, parents and grandparents all taking in the excitement and spirit that the game of baseball brings. 

We look forward to welcoming any players from these two neighbouring communities into our uniquely Highlands experience.

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN - EARLY BIRD DISCOUNTS

With these changes, we do anticipate a bit more work around registration than we would have in other years and are therefore opening registration for the 2017 season immediately. 

http://www.highlandsbaseball.com/view/highlandsbaseball/registration

We know that baseball is likely not on your mind at the moment, but we would very much appreciate families registering quickly for the 2017 season. Having a strong sense of the numbers of players within Highlands allows leadership to put plans in place for a rewarding and well executed season. This includes coaches, equipment, fields and umpires among many other logistical challenges. 

To encourage this registration, we are offering discount rates until December 15th, after after which, full 2017 rates will apply.

Please remember, Highlands is 100% volunteer run and the more help we can give to our leadership team, the better it will be for everyone.

WELCOME OUR NEW 2017 BOARD

This year, Highlands welcomes a number of fresh faces to the Board and welcomes back a few veterans to show them the ropes.

President - Dean Shillington

Vice-President - David McAdam

Secretary - Jayne Craig

Treasurer - Stephen Murphy

Challengers - Anna Donnelly

Past President - Kelly Aslanowicz

Director - Bob Richardson

Director - Steven Cox

Director - Simon James

Director - Jeff Erdman

Director - Ben Holt

2017 PRIORITIES

Coaching Development

With a growing league comes an increase in need for coaches. We recognize that not every parent feels like they have the knowledge to take responsibility out there on the diamond. For this reason, we are working on a coaching initiative to take all our Highland’s coaches to the next level. Whether it is your first season in T-Ball or you have been coaching post-season teams for years, we will have the additional help you are looking for. 

Fields

Delbrook will always be our home but even last year we outgrew this field and needed to take advantage of Braemar Elementary for practices in some divisions. With the anticipated increase in membership and the loss of Forest Hills (Eldon Park) and North Van Central (Zuelke) from Little League, we are actively engaged in a conversation about additional field space being provided to Highlands. We will keep you informed of any changes. 

Post Season

Our post season teams continue to be a force to be reckoned with. The 9 Select team won their Districts, the 9/10 All Star team went to the semi’s of theirs, the 10/11 All Star’s won their Districts and went to the semi’s of the Provincials. 2017 is shaping up to be another banner year for Highlands.

Sponsorships

Supporting your local little league is an incredible opportunity for organizations to connect with their greater community. This year at Highlands we are focused on strengthening our existing relationships and building new ones. We have big plans for our majors diamond outfield fence and having the names of our community business leaders show up prominently would be a good start. 

Community Development 

Last year we witnessed the highest attendance at our opening and closing day ceremonies ever. Even the weather complied and the opening day AAA game was marked by an epic walk-off home. It seemed that this celebration set the tone for the season as each weekend drew massive crowds of all ages. We look forward to building on this momentum and developing more opportunities for families to come together, not just as spectators, but also as participants.