There are many pages on our site which will answer detailed questions, hopefully this brief introduction will answer your basic question about our youth baseball league. Check the FAQ page for more commonly asked questions.
What is NOLL/SOLL?
NOLL/SOLL offers a Spring Little League baseball program to players age 5-16 in Oakland, Piedmont, Emeryville and South Berkeley. Our league focuses on player development and on providing youth with a fun baseball experience. We expect all players to learn, grow and have a great time in our league. NOLL/SOLL serves over 1200 youth players phrase and we often have 100 teams across 9 divisions, including our Challenger division to serve special needs youth.
How do families sign up and join the league?
We have registration that runs from October through mid-December for older players and through mid-January for the younger players, scholarships are available. Players age 9 and older have player tryouts in early January. League age is calculated by the age of the player on August 31st of the upcoming year (so many league age 9 players will be 8 during their season). No players in NOLL/SOLL get cut from the league, every player is drafted or placed on a team. TBall and Farm Divisions are Tee or coach pitch, our Competitive divisions are kid pitch. If you are new to the league the best way to figure out what division to register for is to review our Division page on the website.
How long is the season, when can I find out when everything happens?
Teams are formed by mid-February, practices and game start by the 1st weekend of March, sometimes earlier if the weather is cooperating. Games run through the end of May, we have local playoffs and All-Stars in June for the old (older) divisions. We are not able tell you up front when or where you kids will practice until we have all of that sorted out in February. TBall/Farm teams practice for 1.5 hours, once per week until a player reaches the level of our competitive divisions, when teams practice twice per week. Most teams have one game per weekend and as they get older they’ll occasionally have 2 games in a weekend and maybe a weeknight game, expect games to last about 2-3 hours each, a little shorter when they are younger and longer once they are older and need to come for a pre-game warm up hour.
Where does all of this take place?
We play baseball all over Oakland and some in Berkeley and Piedmont. We use 21 different baseball diamonds. Unfortunately we can’t tell you where you’ll play until teams are formed and practices set by coaches. We do our best for the TBall/Farm teams, which are often formed around schools, to get those practices somewhere near the school, but that isn’t always practical with available fields and field sizes. Once players are in our competitive divisions, they’ll be drafted onto teams and practices and game locations will vary widely.
How are parents involved?
Our league is volunteer driven across all roles – parents must pitch in for coaching, umpiring, field prep and more – parents are the life force of our league. The league is a great way to be involved in your child’s extracurricular activities. We find that the community we build is amazing and helps kids and families make friends all across Oakland. Kids in our league get to middle school and high school and have friends they know and have played together with for years. Parents build strong bonds and friendships that last beyond their baseball years and through life.
Welcome to NOLL/SOLL we would love to have you join our league!
