Mt. Vernon Optimist Club provides Spring and Fall softball programs.  Spring season is competitive with games and a tournament, while Fall season is for skills development, practice and games.  If your child is age 3-4 y/o, they should sign up for T-Ball under our Baseball Spring season. We are always looking for ways to improve after each season and have taken your feedback into consideration. To revive competition and provide the best experience for all players, we have advocated for some changes. This year we are excited to announce that we have formed an alliance with other leagues and will be combining game schedules with Greenfield, Eastern Hancock, Fall Creek and Irvington.

The below information is for the Spring 2023 season:

SOFTBALL COMMISSIONER: Marcus Marvin - [email protected]

Feel free to contact me with any questions you may have at email listed above or on my cell phone.  317.493.9635

REGISTRATION:
Registration IS OPEN NOW!!  Registration ends March 12. To reopen registration after March 12th will result in a $25 late registration fee (see below).  We will generally not guarantee/honor coach and teammate assignment requests, except where a coach has their child on the team.

RATES:   

Early Bird Price (Now-Feb 20): $125

Registration Feb 21-Mar 12: $140

Late Registration (Mar 13-19): $165

$10 discount for second child and additional.

AGE DIVISIONS: 
Please register your daughter for the appropriate age division for Spring of 2023. The softball divisions are listed below with ages by December 31: 
***Note:  I have been made aware of a birthdate glitch in our system that we are working to fix.  If age division is incorrect, simply sign up for the available division.  I will populate players by date of birth after registrations are complete!

NOTES: 

If your child is just beginning with softball/baseball, has never played nor had skills/game instruction previously, and is of appropriate age (3-4 y/o) then sign up for T-Ball under the Baseball Fall sport rather than Softball 6u division.  

If your child desires to play in a division other than designated by the age chart, then enter a special request notation during the mvoptimist.com player registration process.

LOCATIONS:
Practices and games are at the Mt. Comfort Elementary School fields. In addition, games will also be played at Greenfield, Fall Creek and Eastern Hancock, and Irvington. 

PLAYER SKILLS EVALUATION: 

This evaluation is the most important part of the season. In the past only a few players would show up to be evaluated. This makes teams very lopsided. The only way to make the competition level equal is to show up for evaluations. We're offering 3 opportunities to be evaluated (Mar 26, 27 & 28). Please come and have your player evaluated!!!

6U players do not need to be evaluated.

EVALUATION DATES AND TIMES:

Mar 26: 5pm-7pm

Mar 27: 6pm-8pm

Mar 28: 6pm-8pm
Evaluations will take place at the Fortville Community Center at Fortville Memorial Park

HEAD COACHES AND TEAM SELECTION MEETING: 

March 30 @ 6:30p @ Fortville Community Center.

Any coach, head or assistant, MUST be present to draft players. Children are not allowed at coaches' meeting. 

We will have a joint coach's meeting with ALL coaches and commissioners from each league to discuss rules and expectations for the season, so everyone is on the same page. In the coach's meeting we will provide materials, practice plan ideas and drills if coaches would like some extra support or need guidance.


UNIFORMS:

EQUIPMENT:
Your player will need their own:
(To see examples click on the links below)
Cleats - NO METAL SPIKES. High top baseball cleats are best.  Soccer cleats will not work for softball.
Batting helmet - MUST HAVE AN ATTACHED FACE MASK. Snug fit. Make sure the helmet doesn't move while your player runs with it on.
Fielding Glove - Size to hand. Don't go crazy on a glove for younger players. They will grow out of it. 11.5 inch kids glove is a great starter for 6U & smaller 8U players. Nothing smaller than that!! Tee ball gloves will be no help to your player!! It may be hard to use at first. Glove oil will soften it up. Even the smallest hands can use a well broken glove.  I recommend 12.5 inch kids glove for bigger 8U players & 10U players.  I recommend stepping up to a 12.5 inch LADY'S glove for 12U players.  Just a heads up, first base gloves and catchers gloves can only be used in that position. Avoid those.
Defensive Protective Face Mask - THIS ITEM IS MANDATORY, no exceptions. If your player doesn't have one, she can't step on the field.

Bat - A bat IS NOT required. Coaches will have a team bat to use. It's recommended your player have their own only because it's hard for coaches to fit every player with a team bat. If you decide to purchase a bat and have questions about how to fit them to your player, do not hesitate to reach out to me!

PRACTICES:
Practice begins the week of April 3rd.  You should receive an email from your team coaching staff regarding the practice schedule.  Practice schedules are not posted on the MVOC website. Practices before the game schedule begins are at least once, maybe twice per week at coach's discretion and once a week practices will continue through the season at Mt. Comfort Elementary. 

TEAM PHOTOGRAPHS:
Your Head Coach will notify you of spring pictures as soon as the date is set.

GAME SCHEDULE:
Opening Day is April 22nd.  Final regular season game is June 3rd.  Game schedules will be provided to the coaches to distribute to their teams. Games will be played at Mt. Comfort Elementary, Greenfield, Eastern Hancock, Irvington and Fall Creek. 

Saturday double header schedule for 10U & 12U. 10U & 12U may have a few games scheduled for our ''Friday Night Under the Lights'' games in Greenfield. Only one game will be played Saturday for teams that play the previous Friday night. 

6u will not play double headers. Will play one game in week & one game on Saturday.

8u will not play double headers every Saturday, but will play some double headers.

No games Memorial Day Weekend.

10-12 game schedule. 

Make up games will be scheduled throughout the week.

IN SEASON PREGAME FIELD PREP:  
The designated home team is responsible for lining the fields before the game, away team for raking after the game.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE:
Tournament will be played the week of June 5th.


MT. VERNON ELITE (Summer Rec All-Star Program):

All-Star Evaluations will start the week of April 24th. This evaluation will be a 3 week evaluation. More information will come out after season is under way.
The purpose of this Elite program is to provide an opportunity for ALL PLAYERS to receive a more competitive experience to help develop their talents and gain a higher level knowledge in the game of softball.  This incredible, fun, summer season is a bit like travel ball, but all tournaments are played locally.  I encourage all players to come try out, regardless of experience level.  

Mt. Vernon Optimist Club seeks new members to administer and operate our baseball, softball, and basketball programs as well as academic programs such as written essay/Oratorical contests and administrative positions.  If Optimist membership is not possible, your assistance with operations such as field preparation and concessions is appreciated.  Volunteering can occur during player website registration on mvoptimist.com if the person is a member of the parent/guardian's website account.  Special website procedures for a volunteer to sign up after the player's registration is completed, or if the volunteer has a separate website user account than that used to register a player.  Please contact us at [email protected] for special volunteer sign-up.

WEATHER LINE:  Softball Weather Line is 317-335-4441

The softball weather line is used to communicate the cancellation of practice or games in the event of bad weather.  We encourage every parent to use this weather line rather than texting, calling or emailing the head coach of your team.  Coaches will struggle to commun

HOLIDAYS:

Spring season:  No activities Memorial Day weekend.

Fall season: No activities Labor Day weekend.

Coaches Code of Conduct.docx
Parent Code of Conduct.docx

Questions or concerns? Please send an email to us at [email protected]!