Dear CSYAA members and families,

After careful consideration, the CSYAA Board of Directors has decided that it is in the best interest of the Association to move the Girls Softball and Girls Tee-Ball programs from Little League International (LL) to the Texas Teenage Association (TTA). The following is a brief overview of the effort spent to reach this decision and its impact on other programs.

During the past two years, participation in the CSYAA Girls Softball program has declined to a point where  it was forced interleague in almost every age division. This has resulted in many frustrating experiences such as frequent no-shows by opponents as well as other scheduling and game-related issues. This year’s CSYAA member survey results clearly showed things were getting worse, not better. During this same time, many young ladies were leaving CSYAA to play with a local TTA member organization to avoid many of the issues listed above.

We began exploring ways to revive the softball program and, over the past few months, have done the following:

1. Visited with senior leadership and colleagues from both TTA and LL;

2. Facilitated a discussion on this topic at August’s CSYAA All-Member meeting open to every parent/guardian, coach and volunteer of CSYAA;

3. Consulted the findings from our CSYAA survey;

4. Discussed the matter at multiple CSYAA Board meetings;

5. Invited Kevin Hill, President - Bosqueville Baseball Association, to attend a recent CSYAA Board meeting to share his support for a China Spring and Bosqueville Softball partnership;

6. Talked with parents/guardians and players in our community about what needs to be improved;

7. Insisted the vote on this motion included its entire CSYAA Board membership, calling a special meeting so all 23 voting members could vote yes or no on the proposed change.

In short, this decision has been a process, not just a reaction to isolated or cyclical events. We believe this move will help save our once strong CSYAA Softball program and better serve our community in the long run.

As a natural result of this move, the CSYAA Tee-Ball program will return to being divided into separate boy’s baseball teams and girl’s softball teams as it was two years ago.  Also, the Tee-Ball programs will move from being solely focused on building fundamentals to more competitive (e.g. keeping score, outs, standings, etc.).

This move will not impact the Boy’s Baseball program, which will remain with Little League International. Our registered numbers for Baseball and the recent strong showing from our All-Star teams in postseason tournaments confirm that we have a program that can compete with, and defeat, Little League District 9 powerhouses such as Midway, Lake Air and others. Therefore, no changes for Baseball.

We will have more information as the Spring season draws closer, but did not want to wait to share the exciting news. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact our Vice President of Softball, Robert Starnes, or the President, Trey Oakley. 

China Spring Youth Athletic Association Board of Directors