IMPORTANT

Just in case you don't bother reading to the bottom, let's start with the most important thing first. The first step on the journey to the National Baseball Festival is the selection of team Managers (Head Coaches) and their assistant coaches. 

Please reach out to all of the coaches within your club and encourage them to put their name forward to be a part of the ABA Little League coaching team. You do not have to be coaching within the Little League grades to be eligible to coach one of the Auckland teams.

All they need to do is send an email to secretary@aucklandbaseball.co.nz in which they can give a brief summary of their coaching experience. 

There are also three questions we need answers to in the email:

1. Which age grade do you want to be involved with. This can be "no preference".
2. Do you want to be involved with the All-Star team or the Development team. This can be "either".
3. Which role do you want. Manager (Head Coach), Assistant Coach, or Specialist Coach (please note your specialty i.e. pitching coach).
4. Can all interested coaches please contact us by Friday, December 2^nd at the latest.

General Update

This year Baseball New Zealand has made a change to all National Championships for the Little League age grades being played by regional teams. 

There will not be a club nationals for 13U and 16U like in previous years.

Baseball New Zealand has implemented boundary changes to create the opportunities for the National Championships to include teams from:

Auckland (2x teams per grade)

Waikato/BOP

Wellington

Nelson/Marlborough

Canterbury

The ABA will be selecting All-Star and Development teams to compete at the National Baseball Festival which will take place April 13^th to 16^th. 

One significant change for the ABA is that while Hamilton Raiders will continue playing in the ABA competition, their players will not be eligible to play for the Auckland representative teams.

We will be selecting teams for the following grades:

12U Major League

13U Intermediate League

14U Junior League

16U Senior League

In each of these grades the winners will earn the right to represent New Zealand at the Asia Pacific Little League Qualifiers which will be held in mid-2023 (dates and location TBC).

Please be aware that the ABA is following the guidelines that have been outlined by Baseball New Zealand

Article added: Tuesday 29 November 2022