FALLS CHURCH KIWANIS LITTLE LEAGUE

Player Safety While Coaching

Emergency Contact Information

Have the following emergency contact info with you at all league events:

Kirsten Fatzinger, President: 703-232-5121 or [email protected]
Jeff Walker, Safety Officer: 703-412-7418 or [email protected]
Ellen Witherow, District Administrator: 703-356-9691

Child Protection

Ensuring the safety of our players is paramount. Please follow these rules to help protect our players:

Managers, coaches, umpires, and volunteers who interact with players must complete a volunteer form and pass a background check. Refer any coaches or volunteers who have not done so to the Volunteer Coordinator immediately and have them register as a volunteer on this website, where they can be verified.
Walk-on volunteers or helpers not related to a player on the team or to the coach/manager are not allowed.
Try to always have at least one other adult present if a volunteer is with a player.
Managers and coaches must ensure that each player is picked up before leaving a game or practice venue.

Environmental Factors
Stop play if:

It gets too dark
You see lightning or hear thunder.
If you can see lightning at all, clear the field immediately.
Do not return to the field until you have not seen any lightning for 30 minutes.

Use smart phone apps to help you determine how far off lightning strikes may be, but always err on the side of caution. Remember that umpires have the final word on stopping or resuming a game due to lightning. Because lower levels typically have no umpire, managers and coaches must be responsible for the safety of player.

Field Conditions
Prior to practices or games, inspect the field you will be using. If the field is so wet that using it will risk injury to players or damage to the field, move to grassy sections (if they are playable) or cancel the practice or game.

Technology Overview for Managers

Manager technology training and overview can be found here.

Team Pages
Team Pages serve as the communication hub for Team Staff, Parents, and Participants within your portal. These pages are automatically created after the administrator posts a team's roster and will populate with various important team information. Coaches and team staff can access their Team Pages via the Volunteer tab within their account. Parents and participants will see a Visit Team Page link after logging in.

For more support, please refer to Sports Connect's website.

Inputting Scores, Pitch Counts and Other Stats
The Home Team Manager is required to input the game scores. Both coaches are required to input pitch counts for AA and above levels. To input your score, navigate to your Team Page, within the Team Central section of the website, and click the Calendar tab, then Results. Once the score has been input, both coaches can then input player stats -- including pitch counts (mandatory) and RBIs (optional) for their team.

Pitch Count Reports
Team Personnel have the ability to view the Little League Pitch Count Report from their Team Page. The report can be run for their team or any other team within the same Division. In order to access this report, navigate to the Team Page, Calendar tab, and you will see a button for Pitch Count.

Game Changer Team Manager App
FCKLL's website now integrates with Gamechanger Team Manager. This allows coaches a new tool for scoring games, team communications, photo sharing, and more. The app dynamically updates your schedule and roster as changes are made through the season. For coaches in more competitive divisions, the app also allows (for a modest fee) stat keeping, which you have the option to use. It is your choice as to whether you elect to use the Gamechanger app. The FCKLL website has all the functionality required to manage your team -- the app gives you more options and most competitive divisions will find the added options create a richer team experience. To import your team, please make sure to login to your Gamechanger account with the same email as your FCKLL registration and find your team. It’s that easy. Learn more about how to integrate the app with your FCKLL account here. Available for iOS and Android.

Field Maintenance

Maintaining our fields is crucial to providing a safe and enjoyable experience for our players, coaches and officials. This also reduces maintenance costs. Please follow these simple guidelines.

Before Games and Practices with recent rain, plan to arrive early to prepare the field. If possible, try to work on fields a few hours ahead of game/practice. For games, both team's coaches should be involved.

Remove standing water first. Use the field sponge to soak up all standing water, prior to addressing the field further. Please hang the field sponge on a dugout, preferably in the sun, to help it dry faster.
Aerate flooded areas. Once standing water is removed, use field rakes to simply turn over the infield material. If possible, do this a couple hours before gameplay or practice.
Use QuikDry product sparingly; as needed. Prioritize "high traffic" areas for QuikDry product, given high costs. This includes near bases, home plate, and pitching mounds.
Avoid removing field dirt. Use caution dragging water away with rakes, as you will leave low spots, exacerbating poor field conditions.
Drag, rake, and remove large rocks. Use caution dragging a wet field, however, as you may make conditions worse.

Always report safety concerns immediately to your level coordinator or the FCKLL's safety officer. You can find these individuals here.

After Games and Practices

Fields should always be dressed after your team has finished practicing or playing a game.

How to Properly Rake and Drag Infield

Proper raking and dragging techniques help to reduce the formation of a grass lip on the infield edge:

Always rake with a grass edge not into it, and avoid pulling infield material into the grass edge
When dragging the infield stay at least six inches away from the grass edge
Hand screen drag on the infield skin and warning track, and a hand rake on baselines, infield cutouts, pitching mound, and home plate
Do not allow players or other kids to use drags

Detailed field maintenance procedures

Coaching Resources and PCA Materials

FCKLL Coaches Handbook
Random Line-Up Generator
Tips for Drills
Little League season resources
Special Rules for FCKLL are found within the Rules & Overview page

Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA)

FCKLL strongly advocates the PCA approach to coaching. This approach centers on teaching youth athletes to balance both the spirit of competition, through an effort-based approach, with continuous learning of life lessons, through embracing mistakes. This method is a proven approach, and created in conjunction with leading youth and sports psychologist, and professional coaches, based out of Stanford University. While coaches are not required to obtain PCA-certification, FCKLL advocates certification. The following resources have been provided to FCKLL by PCA, and are free for our coaches to use. Resources for parents are similarly posted on the Parent's Resource webpage.

Field Permits

If another party is using a field which FCKLL has a scheduled event, please reference the Field Permit. Additionally, you can contact Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services at 703.609.8870. Fairfax County NEVER permits soccer on baseball fields, and FCKLL NEVER schedules practices or games outside of permit windows or on non-permitted fields.