SPRING 2025: Scheduling Information

UPDATED: 11/11/2024

Coaches, we decided to share this information with you so everyone can be on the same page with why the schedule looks the way it does and why we can't move games after the fact.  Please feel free to share this information with your parents. 

Please read over this entire document and email me any questions or ask me at the upcoming coaches meeting. I will be in attendance at both meetings. 
 

• February 5. 2025 - MANDATORY Coaches’ Meeting – Blastball to 7/8 divisions
• February 6. 2025- MANDATORY Coaches’ Meeting- 9/10 to 13/14 divisions

Starting Fall 2023, each team will have up to 20 blackouts. We are no longer able to accommodate unlimited blackouts.  

A blackout is when a team requests to not play on a certain day or time.

• Many teams won't get their minimum number of games in.  Adding game after the schedule is created is difficult for opponents & the reasons listed under the “game changes” section.
• Teams with a high number of blackouts run a high chance they will have the same opponent multiple times, as well as have teams they may never play. 
• Teams with many blackouts frequently cannot make up rained out games, which causes missed games for opponents that have availability.  
• When rain is causing day after day of canceled games. CFBBA needs to focus on getting the games rescheduled using the existing blackout schedule. So teams can see quickly when the new game will be played.  CFBBA reaching out to teams asking them to remove blackouts takes up valuable time. - this is the #1 reason why teams will run short on games at the end of the season, and the parents get upset.  It's hard to tell them “sorry, your coach was not responsive with emails and therefore you didn't get all your games scheduled”.
• All of these issues affect standings and postseason results. 

The league has a Google form that will be emailed to all coaches on Friday 8/9/2024.  Coaches have until Friday 8/16/2024 @ 11:59PM to submit it.  The league will not honor late blackouts.

The league needs every available day to get the schedule submitted to the cities and umpires for approval before it is published for parents and coaches.  

Once the blackout form deadline has passed, the league will begin constructing the schedule. 

CFBBA builds the game schedule by hand.  The league is not able to use scheduling software like other leagues due to our blackout policy. 

Games will NOT be played on the following dates (blacked out for the entire league):

• All other days will be considered game days. 
• If your team is unavailable, please be sure to blackout the holiday and / or the days surrounding it. 

Moving games after the fact is harder than it sounds.  Please know CFBBA would move games if it were a feasible option.  But it's just not as simple as it sounds.  Here are some reasons why moving games is almost impossible. 

• Umpires:  The umpire association needs our master game schedule before the season starts.  Then the schedule has to be sent to them every Sunday for the next 2 weeks of play to confirm any changes (added rain outs etc).  So they can be sure games are covered. 

  • Umpires have daily minimums when working games.  Weekday is 2 games & weekend is 3 games.  Example: Monday has a 6pm & a 7:30PM game scheduled and the 6PM team asks that we reschedule this game.  CFBBA would be billed for both games as the umpires expected to work both games. Then when the 6PM game is rescheduled, CFBBA will be billed again for umpire coverage. 

  • Outside of player insurance, umpire cost is one of our biggest expenses.  Moving games would drive our cost up and untimely drive up registration cost. 

  • Umpire coverage: 

    • Blastball: no umpire

    • T-Ball, Modified & 7/8: 1 umpire

    • 9/10, 11/12 & 13/14: 2 umpires

      • The above umpire coverage will cause what looks like a gap in the schedule.  Example: we could have two, 6PM games on Pepper North & Pepper South for the 5/6 division (using 1 umpire each).  Then across the street we will have one late slot game at 7:40PM for the 11/12 division (the 2 umpires will walk from the 6PM Pepper games to the late slot Oran game). The schedule would look like there are 2 vacant slots after the 6PM games and one vacant slot before the 7:40PM game.  But in reality there are zero slots available, since the umpires have maxed out on games on those fields. 

      • When the above situation happens (which is often), a team from the later / older game will reach out and ask that the game be moved to the early slot, since only one game is scheduled on that field for the day.  But we can't, or they won't have any umpire coverage, since their umpires already have games at 6PM. 

      • Same method of sharing umpires applies at McInnish fields (between fields 12-15 & 6-9)

      • If you are in the late slot and your umpires have not shown up, they are most likely coming from an adjacent field. 

• Both cities: They also require the master schedule weeks before the season starts and require it 7 days in advance, to game play.  CFBBA sends the updated schedule to each city once a week on Sunday. 

  • Carrollton: Once we give them our master game schedule for the entire season, they will start to rent out vacant fields to other leagues for games, practices and tournament games.  They do not want to pull a field from non-CFBBA teams with less than a 7 days notice, so we can move a game (not weather related). 

  • Being that CFBBA has precedence on these game fields, we try to respect their 7-14 day rule when moving games. 

• Lights: 

  • Carrollton: CFBBA sets the lights schedule once a week, when the game schedule is submitted to the city. 

    • If you have a lighting issue during a game (i.e. lights are not coming on on-time or shut off too early), please reach out to me ASAP.  I can get it corrected for you.  

    • The above only applies to games.  If you have a practice at McInnish that you reserved and paid for through the city of Carrollton, you'll have to contact them for light issues.  CFBBA is not allowed to flip the lights on for practices. 

  • Farmers Branch: They have a designated city employee that sets the lights schedule once the game schedule is submitted weekly. 

    • If you have lighting issues, please reach out to Rodney Johnson (see contact tab).  He will notify the FB employee on-call to see if it can be corrected. 

  • Depending when (at what point during the game) the lights did not come on or shut off too early, dictates if the game will be resumed at a later date or if the score will remain as is.  Please reach out to your age group VP for a decision. 

  • Also, if you are in the late slot game please let me know if your game started late due to the first game.  So I can log in and extend the lights for you.  

• Fields: CFBBA has dedicated individuals that open and close ALL fields every day.  They rely on the game schedule that's sent out to them weekly, to know when to open and close each field. 

  • If one game is moved at a coaches request, all the above bullet points have to be addressed, so everyone is on the same page. Plus the opponent will need to be notified.  With the number of games we have on the schedule, it's impossible to continuously move games.  Something will slip through the crack such as gates won't be unlocked, lights won't be scheduled to turn on, the city will schedule a non-CFBBA game at the same time I scheduled a CFBBA game (4 teams will try to use the same field), etc. . 

When the above is void: 

• Weather related canceled games

• Wet fields - when the city deem them not safe to play on 

• Extenuating circumstances - with the age group VP & The Board of Directors approval

These are guidelines we use when creating the schedule.  Please note in some cases we have to schedule outside of these guidelines, but we really try not to. 

Blastball and T-Ball: games usually on Friday evening & Saturday morning

• Blastball & T-Ball: Thursday evening if absolutely needed. 

5/6 Modified Coach Pitch & up: 

• These teams will be scheduled Thursday-Sunday.  All 4 days are considered normal game days. 
• If you have days you are not available, please use the Google blackout form. 
• Monday-Wednesday are not game days but could become game days at the end of the season to get all the games played. 
• Monday-Wednesday games will only be scheduled should we experience too many rainouts throughout the season. We will send communication before scheduling on Monday-Wednesday.

CFBBA typically schedules 2 games (max 3) per week.  This also depends on your blackout list.  Too many blackouts could cause 3-5 games per week or back to back to back games (3 days in a row), or double headers. 

Towards the end of the season, if there are more rained out games to be rescheduled than we have normal game slots available.  

• We will start to plug in games on non-typical dates and time.  We might also have to put some younger teams in the late slot or early slot during Mon-Fri.  

• We will try everything in our power before we start scheduling non-typical games. 

• This is usually due to umpire coverage.  

  • Example: If we put a 5/6 - Mod game in the early slot on all possible fields.  We would be faced with putting another 5/6 T-Ball game in the late slot (where they don't belong) as both games only need one umpire.  If we select an older division to go in the late slot, they would only have one umpire yet they require two umpires.  

  • During the normal season we will create the schedule to avoid the above situations. However, we can not guarantee that at the end of the season when we are trying to get all the rained out games played to complete standings. 

• Double headers will be scheduled to get games played, so standings can finalize and teams can see where they are seeded on the post season tournament.

• We will try our hardest to not let your games overlap (same date & time).  And we will try to keep your games at the same complex, played one after another.  Please know this isn't always possible once you consider all the moving parts that go into making a schedule (lights, opening and closing the fields, team blackouts, city blackouts & umpires).
• Coaches with multiple teams will be scheduled to avoid conflicts to the best of our ability on the initial game schedule.   We usually can guarantee there will be no schedule conflicts for these coaches.  Typically depends on how many we have.  Some season we have 30+ coaches with more that one team and other seasons we can have as low as 10.  That number dictates if we are able to accommodate coaches with multiple teams. 
• This does not apply to rescheduled games.  Rescheduled games are put in gaps on the existing schedule. 
  

Spring Season ONLY:

Regular season ends June 1st and the tournament is from May 27-June 1. Depending on the weather between now and then, we may need to use Sunday 6/2 to get games completed.

We do not offer blackouts during this week.  As we have 6 days to get all games for this tournament played, for 90+ teams.  

• Please let your team know to remain available during this week. 

• NO pool players will be allowed; you must play with your current public CFBBA roster.

  • Failure to do so will result in a forfeit. 

• Depending on the number of teams in your division, your brackets could last all week or start and end in one day.  Just depends on how many teams opt in for the tournament.  

• We will not schedule before 6:00PM during the week.

• Standard start times: Mon.-Fri. 6PM, Sat & Sun: 9AM

• There will be NO scheduling exceptions or black-outs considered

• It will be single elimination, and seeded on regular season standings. 

• Champions & Finalists of each bracket take home rings.