Commencing with the 2024 season, all individuals who complete the volunteer application for little league (BNLL) must also annually complete Abuse Awareness Training. This includes anyone who wishes to be a manager, coach, member of the Board of Directors, volunteer, and any other person who provides regular services to the league and/or has repetitive access to or contact with players or teams. Each local league is permitted to determine which specific abuse awareness training program should be completed by the volunteers in their league. Your league will provide you with information regarding the training program you must complete and how to provide verification of completion. As a volunteer, you should review and understand the Little League Child Protection Program. If you have any questions, please contact Little League International, at: 570-326-1921; or e-mail: [email protected].

Boone National Little League (BNLL) has chosen the USA Baseball program to meet the requirement and be in compliance with the Little League Child Protection Program.

We hope the start to your 2024 Little League® season is going well!! As part of the continued evolution of the Little League Child Protection Program and our new requirement for all volunteers to complete Abuse Awareness training on an annual basis, we wanted to provide an important update to those leagues that are requiring their volunteers to complete their training through USA Baseball’s BASE program.  

Directions for Abuse Awareness for Adults Course Completion--LITTLE LEAGUE:
1. Create an Account or Sign in to USABDevelops.com
- Go to USABDevelops.com or download the USA Baseball app in the Apple App Store or Google Play.
- Click “Sign in/Register”
- Enter all required informationSelect “Little League – (generic)  and click “+Join”
- If you have an existing account, click your name in the top right corner, select MY ACCOUNT, and then UPDATE MY PROFILE to link your account with your local Little League.

2. Complete Abuse Awareness for Adults course*
- Click EDUCATION
- Select COURSES
- Click “Abuse Awareness for Adults” → “+Enroll” → “Go to Course”
- Complete the course (This will take approximately 30 minutes and there will be a 10 question quiz at the end with an 80% passing rate.*)

3. If you have completed the Abuse Awareness for Adults course in the past and need an updated certificate, please select the Restart Course button.
- Click your name in the top right corner and select MY ACCOUNT
- Select COURSES
- Scroll to the Abuse Awareness for Adults course and click RESTART COURSE

4. Download Certificate
-Click your name in the top right corner and select MY ACCOUNT
- Select COURSES
- Scroll to the Abuse Awareness for Adults course and click DOWNLOAD CERTIFICATE
- Then email to [email protected] 

Thank you for your support as we work together to provide a safe, welcoming environment for all our participants.

IMPORTANT PRACTICE INFORMATION FOR COACHES

Practice Locations
There are several practice locations available in our community. Some are first come first serve, and others are owned and/or maintained by BNLL and are therefore reserved. 
Reserved Locations
 - Casey's Fields (located behind the West side Casey's) - 4 backstops
 - Grace Community Church - 1 backstop
 - Batting Cages - 3 net enclosed cages / Tee Ball field 6
 - BNLL Fields 1, 2, 3, 4,  5, 7 (pre-season)
First Come First Serve Locations
 - Playground at any public school
 - Boone City parks - slow-pitch softball teams have priority on McHose Park fields 
 - Under the water tower at 1st St and Clinton St
Other Private Property
 - You must obtain permission before practicing on private property.

Sharing practice sites is your responsibility. Consider this rule of thumb: younger teams practice early and older teams practice later. 
The batting cage and scrimmages are recognized as good forms of practice and their use is encouraged.
Practices and/or scrimmages shall not be conducted with other youth baseball/softball programs. 

Batting Cage Rules
1. Only adults may run the pitching machine.
2. Only two ball players allowed in the fenced area at a time. 
3. All ball players must have a helmet on at all times in the fenced area.
4. Each team is only allowed to sign up for one time per week prior to the week of. You may sign up for up to three slots per week if signing up for current week. 
Please reach out to [email protected] if you need the lock code to access the pitching machine. 

Practice Restrictions
You MAY NOT practice before 4:00 PM on days when school is in session, or before 9:00 AM on days when school is not in session. 
You MAY NOT practice on Memorial Day, during our Candy Sale, or on days on which you  have a game. 
You MAY NOT have more than three 90 minute practices or two 2 hour practices per week prior to Opening Day. 
You MAY NOT have more than two 90 minute practices or one 2 hour practice per week after Opening Day.
You MUST schedule at least two 90 minute practices or one 2 hour practice per week prior to Opening Day.
You MUST schedule at least one 90 minute practice per week after Opening Day.

Head First Sliding
Head first sliding is not allowed while advancing a base, and is only allowed when going back to a previously occupied base.
Example: ball is hit to outfield, runner started at 1st base, touched 2nd and advanced three steps and decided to go back to 2nd base; that runner could slide back into 2nd base head first. 

MINOR AND MAJOR BASEBALL SPECIFIC RULES

Pitch Counts and Calendar Rest Days

11 and 12 year olds (85 pitch max)

Number of Pitches	Calendar Rest Days
0-20	No rest days
21-35	1 day rest
36-50	2 days rest
51-65	3 days rest
66-85	4 days rest

9 and 10 year olds (75 pitch max)

Number of Pitches	Calendar Rest Days
0-20	No rest days
21-35	1 day rest
36-50	2 days rest
51-65	3 days rest
66-75	4 days rest

7 and 8 year olds (50 pitch max)

Number of Pitches	Calendar Rest Days
0-20	No rest days
21-35	1 day rest
36-50	2 days rest

Pitch Count and Current At-Bat
If a player reaches a number of pitches milestone during an at bat he may finish the at-bat and consider ending his pitch count at that milestone without the extra pitches attributed to the rest days. Example - little Johnny reaches pitch #50 on the 2nd pitch of an at-bat; he may finish the current batter until that batter is retired or become a runner and be removed with a pitch count of 50, yielding day days rest.

Pitcher-Catcher Specific Rules
 - Any player who has played the position of catcher in four or more innings is not eligible to pitch on that calendar day. 
 - A pitcher that delivers 21 or more pitches in a game cannot play the position of catcher for the remainder of the day. 
 - A player that catches for 3 or less innings, moves to pitcher and delivers 21 pitches in the same day, may not return to the catcher's position on that same day. 
 - Good rule of thumb: if you have a player that pitches and catches, swap him after 3 caught innings and then have him pitch. If he starts pitching you are responsible for pulling him at or under 20 pitches if you intend to have him catch again. 
 - Catchers must use a catcher's mitt; a standard fielding glove is not allowed.