What equipment does the player need?

Softball Mitt, Cleats, Batting Helmet with FaceMask (required), Fielding Face Mask, Bat is optional.

Baseball Pants and Sock Color will be determined by Team.

 

What are the age brackets and how are teams formed?

Children are divided into divisions based on their ages.  Roughly 2 year groupings other than the 12U/14U is combined into one bracket and 16U/18U as a bracket.

6U and 8U can ask to be paired with a buddy.   Teams for those ages are formed by the coordinators.

10U, 12U/14U and 16U/18U are formed via dealing out the kids based on experience and positions.

In previous years there had been a "ratings" day where the players are then scored and rated, and then coaches "draft" based off those ratings. For 2025 that will not exist.  This is in part due to issues with turnout, weather, and general scheduling.

Please see the Operating Rules on the Resources page for more details.

 

What if not enough teams?

If there's not enough teams for a given age bracket, CVGSL may opt to "interleague" with other Bay Area leagues.   Past years have included any of Pleasanton, Livermore, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Newark.  The different age brackets may have different interleague cohorts.

 

What's the general timeline?

Registration starts in October and runs through mid January.  Early bird specials usually run until December.  There are sibling discounts.

Teams are formed and practices begin in February.

Games begin in March and go through May.  Opening Day is set for March 8, 2025

 

Where are games and practices?

Games and Practices are typically held at schools and fields in Castro Valley with the "home base" being Castro Valley High School.

If having to interleague, then may have to go outside of Castro Valley.

See the Fields page for maps

 

How many practices a week?

For the recreational and Comp/Select B teams, there's two practices a week provided.

 

What the heck are permits?

Organizations must get approval, schedule, and pay for the use of School Fields.  This is called a 'permit'.  Part of league fees goes towards paying for these.

If the league does not have a permit for a specific time and location, you are liable, as well as other organizations that do have permits can kick you off.

By having permits, we must abide by any rules those locations have.  As most of ours are at schools, the School District rules kick in, like No Dogs, No Smoking, No Drinking just to name a few.  The District can remove permits if these rules are not followed, which would then mean nowhere to play.

At any time the District can choose to take back a permit for their own reasons.  Common examples are CVHS playoff softball, or CVHS tournaments.  While the league works around those they know, the spontaneous ones can still occur.

 

What is a Comp Team in 2025?

A single 10U and a single 12U team formed from tryouts in December that will play against neighboring cities.  May play mini round-robins, and multiple games on the weekends, usually Sundays.

The team's administration can choose to also go to official Tournaments during the Spring with the cost coming from the team, not the league.

During the Spring, the team is not considered a travel team, but tends to morph into Synergy travel teams.

One jersey is provided from the league for the players.

 

How many games a week?

For recreational, the planned schedule is 1 or 2 games a week for up to 10-12 games.  If needing to make-up or reschedule games, there could be more in a given week.

There can be double-headers.   There may be weekday games after Daylight Savings.

For 10U, 12U/14U, 16U/18U, there's a Tournament of Champions as well for the top seeded teams.

 

Rainouts

There will most likely be some games rained out.  This can even occur if it is not raining on gameday, as the fields may still be too wet from previous rains.  The scheduler puts in max effort to try to get all games made up.  This means that games may be at different times and locations.  It gets very complicated to try to fit in every game depending on how bad the weather has been.

 

Can a team request games be rescheduled?

Teams can attempt to have a game be rescheduled pre-emptively.  However, there's not a lot of flexibility because of the rest of the schedule that already exists, as well as the need to have secured permits.  Managers or coaches of teams should first reach out to their Division Coordinator who will reach out to scheduler.

Please note that rescheduling with other leagues is very complicated, with usually no one wanting to "travel" mid week.

Due to Holidays, there's already a couple of weekends where games will not be played.

If rescheduling because you will be short on players, INSTEAD you could ask a lower division player to play.  They cannot pitch. You may only backfill your roster this way up to the 9 or 10 allowed on the field (depending on age bracket).  It is suggested that they bat last in the order as they are a visitor.  Reach out to the lower division coordinator to get those teams'/coaches' information.

 

Are there weekends with no scheduled games?

Yes.  Easter weekend, and one of the weekends of Castro Valley School District's Spring Break.  Often Easter is during Spring Break, so that becomes the same weekend.  In 2025, it is not the same week.

If the schedule persists long enough, there will not be games Memorial Day weekend either.