Hello WFBLL Community,

In line with our mission to build community, develop lifelong skills, teach strong character, and foster lasting memories through providing opportunities for children to play baseball and softball, we have included a question in each of our last three annual parent surveys asking for your ideas on how to best grow female participation in Whitefish Bay Little League. We are fortunate to have such a collection of engaged and considerate parents and, as expected, you provided us with a great deal of helpful feedback. In particular, two key themes emerged:

• Many girls would like to have more female teammates than they would typically find on a WFBLL baseball team.
• Many girls get involved in other activities at an earlier age, thus limiting their long-term interest and participation in baseball or softball.

Currently, if a girl in Whitefish Bay wants to play softball, there is not a locally-based opportunity for them to begin playing in K5, which is the age most players begin Pee Wees Baseball in WFBLL. Taking this, as well as the two themes mentioned above, into consideration, the WFBLL Board is pleased to announce that we will be launching a  WFBLL Pee Wees Softball Pilot Program for the 2026 season, with registration opening on December 3 at www.wfbll.com.

Pee Wees Softball will operate in the same manner as Pee Wees Baseball, with parent volunteer coaches, players in K5 through 2nd grade, a regular season followed by a playoff tournament, evaluations & draft process to maximize competitive balance, and a pitching machine to ensure consistent strikes and keep the games moving at a fun and exciting pace. That said, the Board will also kindly ask for everybody’s patience as we pilot this concept, as in some ways we will “learn as we go.”  For example, the number of teams and total games will be finalized once we know how many girls register.

Given that this will be a pilot program, and our primary goal is to determine the viability of running a long-term Pee Wees Softball program, our plan is to charge only $100 per player this season; by comparison, Pee Wees, Minors, and Majors Baseball will be $250 per player ($300 for those who sign-up after the early-registration cut-off). We are not yet sure what we will charge for Pee Wees Softball in future seasons.

We want to be clear that this new program is not intended to discourage girls from playing Pee Wees Baseball. Girls are welcome and encouraged to play either sport! Our goal is simply to support greater participation among girls at an earlier age. Based on parent feedback, we are excited about the potential of Pee Wees Softball to help achieve that goal. In addition, WFBLL will once again offer Minors Softball this season for girls in 3rd and 4th grade.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to Mike Schwartz at [email protected]. Thank you in advance for your support!

Sincerely, 
The WFBLL Board