On Wednesday night, September 26, 2012, the Forney Youth Baseball Association's (FYBA) President, Bobby Bridges, presented to the Parks and Recreation Board the league's affiliation switch from Little League to the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA).
On Wednesday night, September 26, 2012, the Forney Youth Baseball Association's (FYBA) President, Bobby Bridges, presented to the Parks and Recreation Board the league's affiliation switch from Little League to the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA).
The FYBA has already made the league change to USSSA for the current Fall Ball season. The league hopes to drive more players from Forney and surrounding areas to play in the FYBA League and to provide two levels of experience. Approximately 16 teams have left the FYBA over the past couple of years to find more competitive leagues; the switch should draw those teams back to play in Forney.
New players registering to play in the FYBA that are not already on a team will be registered as free agents and placed in a draft. Current teams will have the option to choose players from the draft or outside of the draft. Current teams will also be able to keep their teams they had while under Little League. Teams that are currently playing in other leagues can bring their teams to Forney and can choose to utilize the draft to fill any available positions. Bridges also reiterated that any child that wishes to play in FYBA will be given the opportunity to play, nobody will be turned away.
Before the beginning of the spring season the FYBA will hold a placement tournament. The teams that finish highest in the tournament will play in the American League and the teams finishing at the bottom will play in the National League. The FYBA will also take into consideration any current USSSA rank a team has accumulated when determining which league to place the team in.
Under Little League affiliation the league was constrained to Forney ISD boundaries. Since the switch to USSSA the FYBA has already attracted several teams from Canton, Crandall, Kaufman, Rockwall, and other surrounding cities. Dodie Witt, Executive Administrative Assistant for Forney's Parks and Recreation Department, stated, "The FYBA has a total of 486 kids registered for Fall 2012. 332 are non-residents and 154 are residents. 121 are non-FISD and 365 are inside FISD." For comparison to the Metro East Softball Association (MESA), Dodie stated, "MESA has a total of 512 kids registered for Fall 2012. 417 are non-resident and 95 are residents. 313 are non-FISD and 199 are inside FISD."
Over the past couple of years the FYBA has been preparing the fields at Mulberry Park to accommodate tournament play. Under USSSA they hope to host three tournaments during the spring season, not including the pre-season tournament. The FYBA is also projecting to have over 1,000 kids registered to play in spring of 2013. Jody Eastop, Chairman of the Parks and Recreation Board, acknowledged the move to USSSA would be a great decision for the future of the FYBA.
The FYBA also introduced a new logo this season, the logo is the picture used in this article.