About Grand River Little League

Grand River Little League has a mission, to provide the youth of the Waterloo Region with opportunites to develop a sense of community, teamwork, good health and a love of the game of baseball.

Our guiding principles are based on two very distinct ideaologies:

1. The Game.  It was here before we arrived, and will be here after we leave, did we leave it in better shape than we found it.  Our decisions and principles are guided by the question, Is it good for the game?
2. The Players.  For the Players are the game.  Are we developing them, respecting them, treating them fairly and with dignity?

Our executive board recites the Little League pledge before meetings.  All decisions made in the board room must meet the criteria of the two idealogies or the motion is not entertained.  We completely understand this is about kids, for kids and revolves around kids.  

Yogi Berra once said, and it is so true, "this game is simple, it just ain't easy".  Our volunteers and members will aspire to keep it simple, try to make it look easy and always give our best effort.

Baseball is a terrific game. It can teach youth so much about developing life skills and handling challenges.  The game and its organization and development in the region has dramtically changed in the past 10 years.  So much emphasis has been placed on the travel programs, the all-star teams and the so called "elite" teams, which are more pay-to-play programs than true scout teams.

Baseball is a grass roots game.  The fertilization of skills development, and baseball IQ needs to begin with our youngest players.  The cultivation of fair play, striving to win and teamwork need to be instilled with a structured, reliable and trusted method.  Little League is the most respected youth sports organization in the world.  The mission and principles of Little League are the cornerstone of their long and respected tenure as the benchmark for youth baseball across 75 countries and over 3,000,000 participants - 200,000 alone in Canada.

Continuity is the key to a successful baseball program.  People will come and go, but the mission and vision need to be the pillars of a strong, viable and lasting youth program.  So the people may change but the ideals and reasons why we exist and what we do are always there as the guiding light to assure the continuity of purpose.

Grand River Little League President, now in its fourth season, I am honoured and humbled to help lead this executive board and represent our founding members towards the realization of building one of the best youth baseball programs in Waterloo Region.  Our short term goals are:

• Have four divisions playing up to 13U
• To have a competitive houseleague program, with skills development for players and coaches alike
• Achieve a balanced budget in year one with a possible small surplus
• Partner with community based sponsors and leaders that wish to help build better young citizens
• Have a competitive travel team (The Toros) that can compete at the District level

Some of our bigger more audacious long term goals:

• To be recognized as the benchmark for local baseball development
• Have our coaches be the most skilled
• Have a Grand River Little League umpire be selected to umpire at the LLWS
• Host a District tournament
• Host a National tournament
• Have the Toros compete in the National Tournament, becoming National Champions
• Have the Toros compete in the Little League World Series

Ok, so we are allowed to dream.  But I will assure you, our executive and our members will all share the same vision which will be like a train gathering steam, churning into a blazing locomotive towards realizing these goals.  We are so grateful to Little League Canada and Little League International for being the supporting foundation for this charter and its goals.

Regards,

JP Soucie

President - Grand River Little League