CYBSA 2019 SEASON

Hello Cloquet Youth Baseball and Softball families,
My name is Jason Eckenberg and I am the new president for the Cloquet Youth Baseball and Softball Association (CYBSA). I wanted to reach out to you to introduce myself and let you know that we have had a lot of turnover this year on the CYBSA Board. I was involved in coaching in CYBSA for five years on the softball side of things up until two years ago. After my daughter stopped playing, I decided to get on the CYBSA Board to help out and grow the programs that we offer in Cloquet. Since then my youngest son has started playing and he’ll be in Instructional League this coming season, which I will be coaching.
Enough about me, the reason that I am reaching out to you is to introduce you to the board and also inform you of a lot of changes that have happened in the off season.
Softball: Last season we started the U8 program and feel from the feedback that we received that it went very well. We will continue with this level and working with Arrowhead Fastpitch for all of our league games. Braun Park will host the Ashley tournament and also the USSSA state tournament again this season.
Baseball: There have been a few changes over the off season involving our baseball program. First of all we will be leaving Little League and moving to Gopher State. What this mean for us, we will no longer have district teams, but will have travel teams. These travel teams will be open for anyone interested in playing more baseball then just our league, our plan is to have at least one AA team and possible a single A team also, depending on interest. We will continue with Quad City as our league, so nothing changes there. 
TRAVEL TEAMS: U14, U13, U12, U11, U10 AND U9 at registration there will be a drop down box asking if you are interested in participating. If you chose to, your child will be evaluated during assessments for league teams and travel teams. The association will supply insurance for the travel team, but all other expenses will be split amongst the team for jersey’s and tournament fees. The travel teams will involve overnight stays.
LEAGUE PLAY: One big change with league play this year will be the age level that our kids will participate at. The 12 year olds will move up to the intermediate field and we will go by grade that your child is currently in at the time of registration. The birthday cut off for Gopher State in now May 1st so if you have a child that is young for his grade you can choose to have them play down. The reason for going back to the grade level is to keep kids with their friends and because high school play is based on grade. So this will make a smoother transition down the road and keep kids together.
Juniors- 8th Grade
Intermediates- 6th & 7th Grade
Majors- 4th & 5th Grade
Rookies- 3rd Grade (previously known as Minors)
Instructional League- 1st & 2nd Grade
T-ball- Pre K & Kindergarten

Board Members:
President- Jason Eckenberg 
Vice President- Joel Anderson-Softball Director
Treasurer- Jess Collins-Fundraising Coordinator
Secretary- Chassidy Dushkin-Registration Coordinator 
Matt Collins- Baseball Coordinator U9-U11
Ryan Paulson- Umpire and Baseball U12-U14 Coordinator
Rick Kesty- Instructional League and Equipment
Rick Norrgard- High School Coach
Paul Morton- T-ball Coordinator
Shelly Diver- Board Member
Adam Maslowski- Board Member
Gene Fulton- Board Member
Mike Foley- Website Manager

If you have any questions or are interested in helping in away please feel free to contact us.
Thank you,
Jason Eckenberg
218-348-5192 or cloquetbsa@gmail.com