Juniors General Information | Forest Baseball Club

Forest Baseball Club welcomes anyone aged 4 years old and above to join the club and play.

As a general guideline children fall into the following age groups:

Age 4-7: Forest Futures (8 week skills and T-ball program)
Age 7-8: T-ball
Age 9: Zooka ball (machine-pitched)
Age 10-16: Baseball (player pitched)

To align with the Little League age brackets globally, Baseball NSW player ‘league ages’ will be determined by date-of-birth between 1st September to 31 August.

BNSW competitions are therefore based around a child’s ‘League Age’. To assist determine your child’s League Age, BNSW has issued an age matrix. We stress that club competitions, such as the Manly-Warringah Junior Baseball League ultimately retain a level of flexibility around which age division is most appropriate.

Information Brochure

General Information and Fees 2024-2025

Forest Futures skills and T-ball (4-7 years)

Forest Futures is a fun intra-club skills and T-ball program run for younger and/or first time players. It generally runs for 8 weeks during Term 4 (from early October – December).

During the program the players will start by learning the basic skills of throwing, catching and hitting off a baseball tee. As the program progresses the players move on to playing mini-games. The games are designed so that everyone gets an opportunity to bat and field in every innings and the focus is purely on having fun and ensuring the children develop a love of the game.

The Forest program has been designed and refined by Brian Murphy (Sydney Blue Sox coach and Forest life member) and Beth Murphy (former President and Forest life member) and successfully run for many years by our enthusiastic coaches. It is the perfect introduction to a summer sport for children where they will learn the fundamental skills of throwing and catching that they will retain for the rest of their lives.

Thanks to our generous sponsors, all new Forest Futures players receive a free glove and playing uniform consisting of a t-shirt, training shorts and cap.

Under-5/6/7 Forest Futures Program Information

Game times: Saturday 8am-9am and 9.15am-10.15am

T-ball (7-8 years)

Beyond Forest Futures , players move onto other intra and inter-club competition.

U8 T-Ball is an inclusive modified version of T-ball that allows all players to bat in every inning. Outs are not enforced, allowing the children to learn the fundamentals in a low pressure environment and run the bases and score every inning. No scores are recorded and the competition has no competition ladder or finals.

U9 T-Ball progresses from U8 with outs enforced, with teams swapping between batting and fielding after three outs per side, or after 6 runs are scored. No scores are recorded and there is no competition table or finals.

Games times:

U8 – Saturday 8.30am

U9 – Saturday 10.30am

Zooka machine-pitch (8-10 years)

After players have experienced and learned the basics of the game in T-Ball they progress to hitting a moving ball. In order to keep the speed of play and allow for everyone to have a chance we use Reduced Injury Baseballs (RIBs) thrown by a Zooka machine.

Game times: Saturday 8.15am

Little League Minor (LLmi) (9-11 years)

Little League Minor (LLmi) represents the players’ first introduction to real live pitched baseball. Players are introduced to pitching and playing with balls and equipment similar to what they will encounter in their adult baseball careers. Beyond LLmi the player progresses to larger fields and slightly modified rules, with each step becoming closer to playing to adult rules of baseball.

Games times: Saturday 10.30am

Little League Major (LLM) (10-12 years)

Game times: Saturday 8.15am

Intermediate League (11-13 years)

Games times: Wednesday evening (5.15pm). Intermediate League has no training (just games) however if only registering in the Intermediate League competition and you do want to train, the Club can accommodate players participating in training with other Little League Major (U12) or Junior League (U14) teams. Further information on IL can be found here.

Junior League (12-14 years)

Games times: Saturday 10.30am

Senior League (14-16 years)

Games times: Friday evening (5pm)

Uniforms and protective equipment

Club uniform consists of Forest playing jersey, white belt looped pants, Forest cap, green socks and a green belt. All uniform requirements can be purchased at Try Baseball or registration or uniform fitting days.

A baseball glove is required (Forest Futures players receive their first glove free!)

We note that our Forest Futures T-Ballers are also provided with playing uniform consisting of a t-shirt, elasticized pants and cap.

No special shoes are required for Forest Futures through to U10 (Zooka) however we do recommend shoes with molded plastic (not metal) studs or cleats. From Little League Minor (U11) to Junior League players require shoes with only molded plastic (not metal) studs or cleats. Senior League players can wear metal cleats.

Protective cups are required for all age divisions. Mouth guards are recommended for all age divisions.

Season

The summer season runs from early September to mid-December with a holiday break and resumption of play in late January or early February through to March (including playoffs).

Forest Futures (U7) for younger and/or first time players will run for 8 weeks from October – December.

Grounds

For information on ground locations please click here.

Training

Training days and times for U9 and older grades is subject to availability. Once the teams are formed your coach or manager will contact you with training option(s) and based on the majority of the team, a day/time will be determined.

We do note that the club does its best to ensure that every team has a coach with some background in the game of baseball, however this cannot always be guaranteed. The Manly-Warringah District Baseball Association runs ‘Coach the Coaches’ courses at the start of every season and Baseball NSW offers a range of coaching courses (Level 1/2/3/4) to assist parents develop their knowledge of the game and coaching abilities.

Teams

Generally Forest Baseball Club has fielded multiple teams in every age group, however this depends on the number of children registered for each division. Some age groups may be amalgamated to form teams.