• 2023-2024 League Constitution
• FCKLL Standard Operating Policies and Procedures
• FCKLL Boundary Map
• For a detailed map of FCKLL's boundary, please visit the Little League's League Finder page.
• Players are eligible based either residency or school attended within the boundary. Eligible schools within FCKLL's boundaries include:

Fairfax County Public Schools: Graham Road ES, Lemon Road ES, Pine Spring ES, Shrevewood ES, Timber Lane ES, Westgate ES, Westlawn ES.  
Falls Church Public Schools: Oak Street ES (Parents of students at Mount Daniel ES, and Mary Ellen Henderson MS will need to verify residency through their home address).
Private Schools: Acton Academy of Falls Church, Trinity School at Meadow View, St. James Catholic School

• Little League Age is not necessarily your players birth age. Please reference the chart below for help in determining your player's League Age.
  
  

FCKLL takes great care to place players into the appropriate divisions to ensure player fun, appropriate challenge, and fairness.

Parents and caregivers will register players based on League Age during registration. Players will be placed into appropriate divisions per the below process.  

Please note: The Challenger adaptive program, for intellectually/physically challenged youth, is NOT subject to the following processes. All Challenger players are simply placed on a single Challenger team.

League structure and individual player placement is a product of several factors: player League Age, prior FCKLL spring season experience, player assessments (for League Age 8+ players), division size, and draft results (for Level AA through Majors). Generally speaking, divisions Single A through Majors rely on a cascading structure, where Majors are initially filled, AAA is then filled, AA is then filled, and so on until all players are placed. Managers will select from pre-determined slates of players based on the criteria above. FCKLL will prioritize healthy functioning and fairness across the full league, and does not make individual exceptions at the team- or manager-level.

Caregivers of players League Age 7 and under will have the option to register for Tee Rookies, Tee Sluggers, or Single A level based on the levels allowed for their league age (please refer to the "League-at-a-Glance" above). Please note, there may be situations where players are transferred to a more appropriate level or division than they were originally registered.

All players League Age 8+ will be assessed to ensure they're placed in the appropriate division. Please contact the Player Agent if you have any questions or need more guidance. 

During the ten years of FCKLL eligibility, players will have the opportunity to participate in as many as seven levels of play, from Tee Ball to Intermediate (50/70). Players should therefore anticipate repeating several levels. 


Please note the following stipulations:
There will be EXCEEDINGLY FEW, IF ANY League Age 10s in Majors. There must be space in Majors + exceedingly high assessment scores + player must have played a previous spring season with FCKLL + player must be drafted.

There will be EXCEEDINGLY FEW, IF ANY League Age 8s in AAA. There must be space in AAA + exceedingly high assessment scores + player must have played a previous spring season with FCKLL + player must be drafted.

There will be EXCEEDINGLY FEW, IF ANY League Age 7s in AA. 

There will be NO League Age 6s in AA (and only exceptional circumstances in A). 
There will be NO League Age 7s in AAA.
There will be NO League Age 9s in Majors.
There will be NO League Age 12s in AAA, unless there is exceptional cause for a waiver (i.e., player safety). 

League Structure and Levels of Play
The league is divided into levels of play commensurate with player age, maturity, and ability. Player development is the primary at all levels. To ensure a safe and positive experience, all league age 8 players and older (except returning Majors players) are required to participate in a skills assessment/tryout session. This session guides appropriate team formation.

Click here for guidance on Little League Age determination.

Tee-Ball Division: Rookies
Age Range: League age 4; any new League Age 5 and 6.
Schedule: One game/week (Saturdays), one practice/week (weekday evenings).
Team Formation: Teams are formed by neighborhood/school. Requests for coaches or teammates are accommodated, if possible.
Intent: Learning fundamental skills in a nurturing environment. Batter hits the ball from a batting tee. Fielders try to register outs, though base runners are not removed from the bases.

Tee-Ball Division: Sluggers
Age Range: Mostly League Age 6, some new 7.
Schedule: One game/week (Saturdays), one 60 min. practice/week (weekday evenings).
Team Formation: Formed by neighborhood/school. Requests for coaches or teammates are accommodated, if possible.
Intent: Geared toward older/returning players. Hybrid coach pitch and batting tee use. No strikeouts.  Outs are recorded, with emphasis on developing fielding and throwing skills.

Minors Division: A Level
Age Range: Mostly League Age 7-9.
Schedule: Two games/week (weekday evening, Saturday), one 90 min. practice/week (weekday evening).
Team Formation: Formed by neighborhood/school. Requests for coaches or teammates are accommodated, if possible, though age and experience are considered in assigning teams.
Intent: Slightly competitive, with focus on player development to progress to “kid pitch” with confidence.  Wins and losses are recorded, outs are registered, and batters can strike out. Coaches pitch to batters and are positioned on the field during play.  Continuous batting order and time at all positions ensures positive experience for all.

Minors Division: AA Level
Age Range: Mostly League Age 8-10; with exceedingly few, if any advanced League Age 7.
Team Formation: League age 8 and older must participate in a skills assessment to determine eligibility for AA. Teams formed by a player draft. Not all eligible players may be drafted, and will then play Single A (with a call-up option).
Intent: Increased team competitiveness introduced. Players pitch, base stealing is allowed.  Continuous batting order, playing time distributed evenly,  all play infield positions in every game. Increased playing time at key positions may occur. 

Minors Division: AAA Level
Age Range: Mostly League Age 9-11, with exceedingly few, if any advanced League Age 8 (with qualified assessment scores; must be drafted). 
Team Formation: League age 8 and older must participate in a skills assessment to determine eligibility for AAA. Teams formed by player draft. Not all eligible players may be drafted, and will then play AA (with a call-up option). 
Intent: AAA is a completely competitive level. AAA is very similar to Majors, aside from minimum play requirements. Continuous batting order, no player may sit out for 2+ consecutive innings. Position specialization begins to take place.

Majors Division
Age Range: Mostly league age 11-12, with exceedingly few, if any advanced age 10 (with qualified assessment scores; must be drafted). No League Age 9s.
Team Formation: All newly-eligible Majors players (previously unassigned to a spring season Majors team)  are required to attend the skills assessment.  All returning Majors players (previously assigned to a spring season Majors team) are NOT required to attend the skills assessment. Teams formed by player draft. League Age 12 players will play Majors unless a special waiver is obtained. 
Intent: Majors is highly competitive, and follows Little League rules and regulations. FCKLL uses a continuous batting order for Majors games. Position specialization will occur and playing time will vary. Little League minimum play requirements are in place. 

Intermediate Division
Age Range: Primarily for recently "aged out" players who are League Age 13.  
Intent:  A transitional division with adjusted field dimensions to help players move from Little League to the "Big Field." Players pitch from 50' and the bases are 70' apart.  Play includes leads and steals.  Other Little League teams are played against. Focus is to help prepare players for high school baseball.  

Challenger Division
Age Range: League age 5 to 18, for individuals with physical or intellectual challenges.
Intent: The Challenger program is Little League's adaptive program for those with physical or intellectual challenges, allowing participation in a baseball program with the assistance of Majors teams. The season lasts approximately 6 games, weather depending.
Please note: Challenger is exempt from league boundary and assessments requirements. All Challenger players are simply assigned to a single Challenger team.

Tee Ball and Single A

For Single A, T-Ball Sluggers, and T-Ball Rookies teams, a player’s parents may request the team for which he/she plays. If no request is made, players are assigned by home/school area. Every attempt is made for each team to have a similar number of each age group to balance the competitiveness of teams. Teams are formed by the Player Agent. Once teams have been assigned in late February/early March, the Manager will contact each player’s family with the practice schedule.  

Please keep in mind we can't accommodate any team, manager, or carpool requests at AA, AAA, and Majors.  If you have requests for teammates/coaches at Single A and Tee Ball please include that information in registration form or via email to the Player Agent.   

AA, AAA, and Majors - Balancing the League

Everyone involved in Little League wants what is in each child’s best interest:

• Each child wants to have fun playing baseball.
• Parents want their children to have a positive experience.
• FCKLL wants the teams to be selected so that each child has a fair opportunity to participate and contribute. The skills assessment/tryout and draft is the Little League-approved method for achieving these goals.

Although FCKLL is sensitive to the wishes of parents regarding the level into which their child is drafted, it is Little League’s policy that a child will play at the level at which he/she is drafted. This rule means that by registering to play baseball, a child (and his/her parents) agree to play at whatever level the Managers determine is best, based on the child’s ability. If you wish an exemption, you may discuss your situation with the player agent; however, all exemptions, detailing the reasons for the exemption, must be submitted in writing to the player agent. Exemptions may be granted to have siblings playing together on a team. FCKLL’s job to ensure that each player is playing at an appropriate level. The assessment and draft are the method which most successfully:

• Distributes talent into the appropriate level of play (i.e., Majors, AAA, AA), keeping the League strong and growing.
• Distributes talent evenly throughout each level, making the games more competitive and fun.
• Promotes the safety of the players (if a player is playing above his/her skill level, he/she could be hurt. If a player is playing below his/her skill level, he/she could hurt others).

The list of Major-eligible players (i.e. they earned the minimum required rating which indicates that they have the skills necessary to play in the Majors) is presented to the Board of Directors at a special meeting. Once the Board approves that list, only the players on it are eligible to be drafted into the Majors. Typically, there are more players on the Majors-eligible players list than there are available positions on Majors teams. Not every child on the list will be drafted to the Majors. The remaining players are included in the AAA draft and are available to be called up to the Majors to fill vacancies that may occur during the season. Once the Majors teams have completed their draft, a list of AAA-eligible players is prepared for that level’s draft. A similar process is used to prepare for the AA draft. Not every child who attends tryouts will be drafted onto a Majors, AAA, or AA team. Those not selected in the AA draft will be placed on A teams.

Skills Assessments
As per Little League's rules, FCKLL conducts skills assessments (aka evaluations) to determine the skill level of players and ensure that players are drafted at the most appropriate level and that teams are competitively balanced. At the skills assessment, the managers and coaches rate each player’s ability to hit, throw, run, field fly balls, and field ground balls.

Skill assessments only take place in the Spring season. Fall season relies upon coach and group practice sessions to help structure teams.

Timing and Dates
Plan for the skill assessment to last approximately 90-120 minutes from player drop-off. Only players, coaches and League officials are allowed at the assessment (we encourage parents to either remain in their vehicles or nearby - having dozens of parents watching kids assessing can create nervousness and we want this to be a fun activity).

Typically assessments happen in middle February up to early March (see FCKLL's Calendar for details). Each age group has specific dates. Players only need to attend one of these assessments (not both dates), and we strongly urge you to attend the date for your player’s age group. If you have circumstances that won't allow your player to attend the assessment for their age group or you have siblings in multiple divisions, please coordinate the date with our Player Agent. 

FCKLL will communicate precise timing and other details approximately two weeks prior to the assessments.

What to Bring
Residency/DOB documentation -- FCKLL asks you to submit all proof-of-residency documents, including three documents proving residency (i.e., property tax bill, rental agreement, utility bill, driver's license, etc.) and one document proving age (birth certificate or passport). This can be done electronically during registration, or documentation can be brought to the assessments.
Bat, Glove, Helmet, Water -- Players should come equipped to play ball.  Each player should bring his/her glove. Bats and helmets are normally provided, but feel free to bring your own bat/helmet, or contact the Player Agent to arrange for an un-shared bat/helmet.
Warm Clothing -- League assessments may be held outdoors. There may be lengthy periods where players are waiting in a line, so please dress appropriately.

Activities
Players will have a brief warm-up, conduct throwing, fielding, hitting, and running exercises. There will be instructors at each station, and a group of coaches observing and taking notes. Most players attending will be picking up a baseball for the first time in several months. There is no need to prep for assessments. 

Draft Eligibility
When the skills assessments are over and the scores are compiled, the Player Agent creates a list of players eligible for draft selection at each level by tabulating the scores each child receives for hitting, fielding, running and throwing.

Finally, and most importantly, please encourage your child to relax and enjoy the assessments. We promise to make it a fun experience!