South City youth baseball finding it's groove

"At the time it was one league, and it was a 7-to-10-year-old league," said League Coordinator (AKA League Mom) Catherine Burton-Meza. "And Mr. Elder left that league and felt that he really needed to start something to get kids interested a little earlier."

Now South City youth baseball offers one of the biggest Shetland (or tee-ball) leagues in the county, receiving players from South City, San Bruno, Brisbane, Daly City and San Francisco. It's a league for 5-6 year olds who are just discovering the game of baseball. From there two other divisions were formed: The Pinto (for 7-8 years) and Mustang (9-10 year olds). The Mustang division is the last step before the kids can enter in the Pony realm of South San Francisco youth baseball -- they are two separate entities that work together to develop and maintain an interest in the game. In all, it is a league 33-teams strong. "Every year we seem to be gaining teams in the upper division, which is great, but we're keeping pretty consistent at the 5-6 level," Burton-Meza said.

The rules (including coach pitch or machine pitch) have changed over the years so as to encourage more participation from the players.

"The whole intent is that each year we're getting them ready for the next year," Burton-Meza said. "So by the time they get to an 11-12-year-old level, they at least have much more experience and have gradually received that experience as opposed to all at the same time."

It's a unique approach in more than just one way for South City. For example, parents who pay for their child to play ball also have the ability to choose what team their kid gets to play on.

"We do that at all three levels, but you see it most at the 5-6 level," Burton-Meza said. "And we allow that to the ability that we can. Kids that don't request it, we do have a workout, we evaluate the kids and put them on a team that we feel they're going to improve at and to assure that the playing field is consistent."

With over 500 players, the five-member board, along with its 60-plus coaches, do their best to ensure that kids can learn the game at a level at which they're most comfortable. It's this attention to the players that has garnered the league recent tournament success.

South San Francisco fielded five tournament teams in 2011, with play starting back during Memorial Day weekend. South City hosted the Bob Munoz tournament for 8-and-under teams and, according to Burton-Meza, they received their biggest turnouts -- 12 teams from across the Bay Area (as far away as Vacaville) participated in the tournament.

The South City under-8 Blue team won the championship.

Their under-10 Blue, under-10 Red and Under-9 White teams played in the Sutter tournament held in South San Francisco also over Memorial Day. The under-10 Blue came out on top.

The tournament teams have continued to do well through the summer. The under-8 Blue, coached by Mike Salgado and Paco Parks, boasted a 26-2 mark and not only won the Bob Munoz tournament, but the Dale Wilson Tournament and Foster City tournament as well. The team has placed second in tournaments in Cambrian and San Carlos.

The under-10 Blue team has a record of 16-5 and in addition to the Sutter tournament also won the Dale Wilson tournament. The under-10 Red has a record of 12-6 -- both teams had good showings in the Northern California PONY sectional tournament in Morgan Hill to start off the month of July.

The Blue made it to the championship game which secured them a spot in the Northern California PONY Regional tournament last weekend. In the sectional and regional tournaments, the team placed second in their age group. Both teams also played in Twin Creeks last weekend and made it to the playoffs with the Red falling short in the championship game.

"We try to keep them involved as much as they want to be involved," Burton-Meza said. "Our purpose to be prepare the kids (for the higher levels) if that's what they want to do."

"It's a fun environment," she said. "We try to keep that family atmosphere around and I think that's what keeps people coming back more than anything -- it's the comfortable family environment we try to keep for our league."