Who Are We
Our success is not based on trophies, it is based upon how many of our players will play high school baseball!!
Our success is not based on trophies, it is based upon how many of our players will play high school baseball!!
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Our Mission:
We are a non-for profit club whose goal is to allow as many kids as possible the opportunity to play travel baseball and softball no matter what their family situation may be. The entire mission of our Mavericks program is to give an opportunity to people that do not have the means to play competitive baseball and to teach the great game of baseball to as many players as we can. As a program we are not concerned about winning a $3 trophy, we are more focused on making sure the kids understand the game and improve on their mistakes. We focus on respecting the game of baseball, softball and the organization they each represent (always have their shirts tucked in, wearing the proper uniform, not talking back to umpires, coaches, respect their opponents, etc). Baseball and softball are excellent avenues to teach kids on how to become a better citizen in society and that is the mission of our program. In order to achieve our mission we are very fortunate in the fact that none of our kids have had to pay a dime to play in our organization. The kids all receive 2 jerseys, 2 pairs of pants, a helmet, a fitted hat (custom head band), 2 pairs of socks and a belt, a bat bag, and around 35 games a piece when it is all said in done. All of our teams are funded through very generous donations from local businesses, private fundraisers by the parents, and a small family fee. By the hard work of everyone involved we are able to give kids the opportunity to play competitive baseball without paying the high cost that other programs are charging.
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How Do Players Join the Mavericks Family?
We do not have tryouts and have never turned anyone down due to their baseball and softball skills. We are all word of mouth through people that have heard about us or are friends with others who are involved with the program already. All people do is call and after we receive our 12 players per team we tell people that we will add them for the following year. It does not matter a player's background, it is our mission to make them better when they leave for the year versus when they arrived. Our program is designed to make as many kids as we can baseball and softball players by learning the game and preparing them for their high school careers. At this age we are not concerned about winning a $3 dollar trophy at the expense of a kid's arm or safety. We concentrate on learning the game of baseball and how to respect the game at the same time.
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Program from 6u to 18u
The teaching of the game is very important to our program and due to that we follow the following format from 8u to 14u to ensure the players are taught all of the faucets of the game prior to their high school careers beginning. Baseball and softball is a very confusing game at times with a lot of different elements that can overwhelm kids very quickly. In order to prevent this our program have tried to minimize the different elements and add them as each player progresses through the program to ensure the players have the opportunity to be successful at this great game. Here is a break down of the different age groups and the elements we add as we go throughout the program:
6u: Tee Ball and Coach Pitch
The focus at this age is to work on the 3 main elements of the game: Throwing, catching, and hitting. It is at this age we are going to try to teach the proper mechanics and get a lot of reps concentrating on the 3 principles listed above. This age will mainly practice and will have some inter squad games in house with themselves with maybe the option of setting up some games with other communities or clubs.
7u and 8u: Coach Pitch or Machine Pitch
The focus for our program at this age is to teach the players the logic of the game. We spend a lot of time teaching all of the players the situations that arise throughout a game. For instance: if there is a man on first the infield will go to second and then we concentrate on where our outfielders need to be in each situation. By no means do we play player pitch at this age, this is a very important developmental age for kids to learn the game of baseball.
9u: Player Pitch (no leadoffs)
We continue to focus on the same teachings of developmental baseball but we start to incorporate cutoffs to third base to go along with second base cut offs. Since most of the kids are very familiar with the game of baseball and softball from their 8u season we start to focus a lot more on the fundamentals of ground balls and fly balls. This is also the age in which we go to player pitch so we focus a lot of attention on the fundamentals of pitching and teach the kids on how to be a hitter when a player is pitching against them. By no means do we teach are kids to lead off merely because we are just beginning to teach are players how to pitch from the proper distance (35 ft for softball and 46 ft for baseball) properly let alone how to hold a guy on and not balk.
10u: Player Pitch (no leadoffs)
This age we perfect everything from the previous two age groups when it comes to situational baseball and softball, pitching, and hitting. For cutoffs we initiate the cutoff to home so that way they now know all 3 cutoffs (2nd, 3rd, and home). This age group is designed to really excel at all aspects of the game of baseball and softball, but in particular the pitching game from their proper distance (35 ft for softball and 46 ft for baseball) again and the hitting against other players.
11u: Player Pitch (no leadoffs but start to institute for baseball)
For baseball at this age we start to institute leading off for pitchers, teach them what bulks are, and throw from 50 ft. For softball at this age the mound moves back to 40 ft. In addition to the previous years we start to institute 1st and 3rd defensive plays and also start to initiate bunting to the players. Bunting is not easy to do for kids and is a lost art in baseball and for softball will start to work on slapping. At 11u most of the players have been hitting long enough to be comfortable in the box, making it the reason we start this at this age.
12u: Player Pitch (continue to institute leadoffs for baseball)
12u is very similar to 11u except they should be conditioned to leading off so they will do that a lot more at this age group for baseball. This age is similar to 10u where they know everything to this point and only have to concentrate on perfecting the aspects of the game at this age except the big difference is the pitchers will throw 50 ft for baseball and 40 ft for softball.
13u: Player Pitch ("Real" Baseball and Softball Begins)
13u is where we will begin "real" baseball and softball. The players will continue to review the fundamentals and basic knowledge of the game throughout the season. In addition to this the players will gain knowledge of first and third situations, catcher pickoffs, pitcher pickoffs, and different bunt defenses. During this age group there are a lot of mental things that the players will learn that will give them a solid foundation for all of their high school careers. The other additional cutoff that is added at this point of the players careers is the 2 sure concept. The last change comes with pitchers, the distance at this age for baseball increases to 54 ft instead of 50 ft and for softball increases to 43 ft instead of the 40 ft.
14u: Player Pitch ("Real" Baseball Continues)
14u is where kids will perfect all of the new things they learned in 13u with the biggest difference in baseball being the pitchers will throw from 60'6" ft instead of 54 ft while in softball the mound will stay at 43 ft. For baseball this will make their transition into high school baseball a lot easier since they throw from 60'6".
15u-18u: Player Pitch ("Real" Baseball Continues)
15u is where kids will continue to perfect all of the skills of the game they learned in high school and use them on a daily basis to continue to improve their baseball and softball skills. The main objective is to keep all of the players loving the game of baseball and to stay healthy.
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