Parent and player handbook

What we are trying to do

We are coaching toward high school varsity and whatever comes after it. Not toward this weekend.

That does not mean we give games away. We compete on Saturdays. It means that when we decide how to spend a ninety-minute practice in January, we spend it on what a player will still need in four years rather than what would win the next tournament.

Four things underneath everything we do:

Practice is where players get better. Games are the test. Nobody gets better taking a calculus exam — you get better doing the homework. Practice is ours: we coach, we teach, we push, sometimes we push hard. Games belong to the kids. That is where they get to play, compete and enjoy what they worked on all week, and we act accordingly on both sides of that line.

Four things underneath everything we do:

• Everyone gets better. Roster spot one through twelve. If your player is not improving, that is on us, and we would rather hear about it in January than in July.
• Train like a shortstop. Every player works the same infield actions no matter where they end up playing. Hands, footwork, agility, arm strength, throwing accuracy, and the leadership that comes from being the guy the whole field runs through.
• Speed is built in. It is not a separate night. It starts in the warmup, every practice.
• We coach all five tools — run, hit for power, hit for average, throw, defend — and none of them is optional. A player is not excused from baserunning work because he hits well, and he is not excused from defense because he throws hard. Different players develop different tools at different rates, and that is normal. Practice covers all five regardless.
• Everything has a time and a place. We are not spending a 10U practice on bunt coverages. Youth development research — Driveline calls this skills that scale — makes a useful distinction: some skills transfer to every level and every field size, and some only matter at the level you are currently playing. Hitting and throwing hard scale. They matter on a 60-foot field and they matter on a 90-foot field. A specific bunt defense for an 11-year-old’s league does not scale — it disappears the moment the rules or the field size change. We spend practice time on what scales, and we teach the situational stuff when a player is actually at the level where it applies.

Practice

Two practices a week in the offseason, at our facility in Vernon Hills. In season it is generally two as well, adjusted around the game schedule.

Offseason practices are optional. We want players in other sports, and we would rather they play them. But attending is the best way to develop and the best way to get what you paid for. Tell us what else your player is doing and we will work around it.

That changes in March. Offseason attendance is optional because we want players in other sports. Once the season starts, baseball has to be the priority. We will still work with real conflicts, but from March on, this is the commitment, not one of several.

What to bring

• Gorilla practice jersey — required at every practice
• Glove, bat, helmet
• Turf shoes or gym shoes. No metal cleats indoors.
• Water bottle
• Catchers: full gear

What we expect

• Be on time. If you are going to be late or absent, tell your coach beforehand.
• Be present when you are here. Phones away.
• Take feedback and try the thing we are asking you to try, even when it feels wrong at first. It usually will.

Arm health

We try to comply with USA Baseball Pitch Smart guidelines wherever possible. Pitch Smart is the joint MLB and USA Baseball program that sets age-based pitch count limits and required rest days for youth pitchers, and it exists because overuse, not mechanics, is the leading cause of arm injuries at this age. You can see the current limits for your player’s age at mlb.com/pitch-smart.

• If your arm hurts, we do not want you throwing. Tell your coach. Every time, no exceptions, and there is no version of this where you get in trouble for saying something hurts.
• Tell us about arm health. If your player is throwing for another team, a lesson, or anywhere outside our program, let the program know so we can manage volume responsibly across all of it. An arm does not know the difference between one team’s pitch count and another’s.
• If you have a concern about pitching volume that does not line up with Pitch Smart, tell us. Do not assume it will sort itself out. Come to the program directly and we will address it.

Positions and playing time

Playing time is fair, but it is not equal.

Development happens in the offseason and in practice. Nobody gets better sitting on a bench, so we have no interest in parking a player there. But fair does not mean identical innings for everyone, and we would rather say that plainly in November than have the conversation in June.

Where a player lines up comes down to three things: where they are most likely to have success right now, where the team needs them, and where we think they project.

Roster and playing time decisions are made by the coaching staff based on what they see in practice and in games. Not by parents, and not by how many private lessons a family buys. That is the whole list of inputs.

If you want to know what we see, ask. We will tell you. That is a real offer and it stands all year.

Players, this means you too — more than anyone. Your own coach is always someone you can talk to about where you are playing and what you want to work toward. That conversation goes through your coach directly, before or after practice, not through your parents and not through Coach Dolenga. It is your position to ask about.

But here is the honest version of that offer. The clearest sign we get of whether a player is serious is how much they are using the tools we have already given them, and whether they are living up to the standard every day — not whether they say the right thing in a meeting.

If you want to talk about playing time and your player has not opened Pelotero, or cannot do ten real pushups, that is not a conversation we are going to have. Not because we are trying to be difficult, but because there is nothing to discuss yet. Do the work that is already sitting in front of you, and then let’s talk.

And when we do have that conversation, know what it is. It is a feedback session, not an argument. We are happy to tell you exactly what we see — but we are not going to sit through a defense of why your son should be playing more, or a list of reasons the numbers do not count this time. You asked. Listen to the answer. Excuses are not what we are here for.

At age groups with two teams

We generally field a more competitive team and one that is more developmental. The same rules apply on both — positions are earned, and players are placed where it is best for them and best for the team. Being on the second team does not mean everyone plays every position or that innings are split evenly. We want players competing at every level.

Game days

• Arrive when your coach tells you to, not when the game starts.
• Full uniform. Shirt tucked, buttoned, hat on straight, socks up. Nobody should be able to see your legs. No crocs or sandals at the field.
• Gear does not go on the ground. Bill Walsh, the coach who built the 49ers dynasty, would not allow a hat or a helmet to touch the ground at his facility — the idea being that if you let the little things slide, the big things slide too. We hold the same standard. If it has a Gorilla logo on it, it goes on a bench, a rack, or a bag. Not the dirt, not the grass, not the concrete in the dugout.
• We stay away from mechanical instruction during games. What you will hear from our dugout is approach, confidence, and external cues — hit it to the fence, not squish the bug. Body-part cues are not the focus in practice either, though it happens from time to time. In a game, they have no place at all — that work stays off the field between pitches.
• Players sit with the team, not with families. The dugout is closed during the game — players stay in it, and parents do not come in to check on a kid, pass along a thought, or have a conversation mid-game. Whatever it is, it waits until after.
• Nutrition and hydration get figured out before the game, not during it. Feed your player and get water into them ahead of time. If something is needed mid-game, it goes through the dugout, not around it.
• We clean up our dugout. Every time.
• Baseball is hard, and kids get emotional. We understand that. What we discourage is emotional outbursts in a game — a thrown helmet, a blow-up at an umpire, a meltdown after a strikeout. It makes the moment about that one player, and it generally brings the whole team down with it. Outbursts can be handled with time on the bench, at the coach’s discretion.
• Everyone gets treated with respect, regardless of the situation. Coaches, parent volunteers, umpires. No exceptions for a bad call or a bad day.
• Shake hands and mean it, whichever way the game went.

Work at home

This is the biggest lever in the program and it is the one we do not control.

We have your player a few hours a week. You have them the rest of the time. Twenty minutes a day, five or six days a week, is enough — it is not about volume, it is about the reps happening at all.

Every club player has a Pelotero subscription included in their membership. It gives them a custom workout every day, swing analysis, and their Universal Rating System score. If you want to know what your player should be working on, that is where it is, and any coach will walk you through it.

Communication

• Schedules, times and locations live in GameChanger. If it is not there, it is not happening.
• Account, payments and waivers are in LeagueApps.
• Everything else — schedules, gear, the app, resources — is on the parent portal.
• Anything urgent goes to your coach directly. Anything about the program goes to me.

We do not run team business through group texts. If something changes, it changes in GameChanger and you get a notification.

Our coaches

Paid coaches on our staff, not parent volunteers. None of them has a son on the team he coaches. Scheduling and logistics run through the program rather than through a parent.

Parent volunteers help too, on a different job. At times a parent will be on the field or in practice helping out, and that parent may coach the kids in the moment — running a drill, hitting fungoes, whatever the day needs. What a volunteer coach does not do is set lineups, assign positions, or influence the head coach’s decisions on either one. That stays with the coaching staff, full stop.

We also rely on parent volunteers for roles that have nothing to do with coaching — team mom, grounds crew, social coordinator, and others as the season needs them. If you want to help and coaching is not your thing, there is almost always a role that is.

Every Gorilla coach is background checked through USA Baseball and carries USA Baseball coaching certification, with Driveline youth certification on top of that or in progress.

What we hold coaches to

• If there is a question about a call, the coach calls time and discusses it with the umpire in person. Nobody shouts across the field, ever.
• Practices run to a plan. Every time.
• Language appropriate for the age group, always.
• No substance use around the team, ever.
• Phones away during games.
• Any incident gets reported to me the same day.

What we ask of parents

Players play, coaches coach, parents cheer. That is the whole thing, but here is the detail.

• Cheer for every kid on the roster, not only yours.
• Never coach from the stands. A player getting two sets of instructions mid-at-bat is a player who does neither well.
• Do not move our outfielders or infielders. We know it is a left-handed hitter in the box. That does not automatically mean we are shifting to the pull side — there are reasons for where someone is standing that are not visible from the stands. We are making those calls in real time. We do not need anyone showing off how smart they are about baseball.
• Never coach someone else’s kid. Not from the stands, not in the dugout, not with good intentions after a rough at-bat. It almost never lands the way you meant it to, even when you are right. Point it out to a coach and let them decide whether and how to say it.
• Nothing negative about an umpire, out loud, ever. They are often teenagers.
• Do not yell “blue.” The umpire has a name. And honestly, as a spectator you should not need to talk to them at all — that is what the coaches are there for.
• Nobody yells across the field at an umpire. Not parents, not coaches. If a call is worth questioning, our coach calls time and walks over to talk about it. That is the only way it happens.
• Wait 24 hours before any conversation about a game. Not because your concern is not valid, but because it will land better and you will say it better.
• Concerns go to Coach Dolenga, not to your team coach. Positions, playing time, batting order, or anything else — come directly to the program. That is not a runaround. It keeps every conversation consistent across every team, and it keeps your team coach focused on coaching instead of fielding the same conversation twelve different ways.
• Not to other parents in the parking lot, either. We can only fix what we actually hear about.
• Get them there. On time, fed, with their gear. That is genuinely most of it.

What we ask of players

Every player signs this at the start of the year, and we mean it as a real commitment rather than a formality.

• I will be a good teammate.
• I will try my best to do what the coaches ask me to do.
• I will practice regularly to improve my skills.
• I will represent Gorilla Baseball Club with respect and sportsmanship.
• I will support my teammates and celebrate their success.
• I will take responsibility for my effort and attitude.

When a player is struggling with effort or attitude, this is what we point at. Remember what you signed.

Uniforms and gear

Your uniform package comes with club membership. Fitting happens in November before the season starts — watch for the date.

• Team store is open all year for spirit wear, warmups, hoodies and hats.
• Baseline Sports for bats, gloves, catcher’s gear and everything else — code GORILLA15 takes 15% off.
• What to buy and when is covered in our equipment guide.

Put your player’s name in everything. Bats, helmets, gloves, bags. All of it.

Social media

We use it, and we are going to keep using it. Kids love seeing themselves on the page, and it helps promote the program — which over time means better competition, more opportunities, and a program that keeps getting better for the players already in it.

The media release for this is part of registration. If your player is on our teams, it is already handled and there is nothing further you need to do. If you would rather your player not appear, tell us directly and we will make a note of it.

Using the logo and name

No use of the Gorilla logo, in any form, without approval from the Head Gorilla. That covers the mark itself, any version of it, and anything built around it — a shirt, a sign, a sticker, a graphic for a group chat, a banner for a tournament.

The same goes for the name. If something says “Gorilla” and is going to be shown to anyone outside your own house, it needs to be in our approved font and style, and it needs a yes first. That includes things made with good intentions — spirit wear a parent is putting together, a sign for a tournament, a graphic for a team account.

This comes up more than you would think, and it is not about being precious. One consistent look represents the program. A dozen slightly-different versions floating around says something different every time, and most of them say it wrong.

Always “Gorilla,” never “Gorillas.” Singular, every time. “Go Gorillas” is not our name.

If you are not sure whether something needs approval, assume it does and ask. It is one message, and we would much rather say yes in a text thread than ask someone to take down something already printed.

Full colors and fonts are on our brand guidelines page if you are actually making something.

The season

November to December — the Gorilla Way

Uniform fitting, team norms, laying the groundwork, hitting, fielding and throwing mechanics, and establishing a baseline on every player.

January to March — build

Hitting every week, throwing progressions, position-specific work including pitching and catching, and speed and power throughout.

April to July — in season

Two practices a week, league play and tournaments, one trip out of state for the older teams, and adjustments as we go.

The plan is one outdoor practice and one indoor practice a week, in addition to games. If the game schedule gets heavy in a given week, that flexes — games come first, and the split adjusts around them.

Around this point every summer, somebody asks why we are not outside more. Fair question, and here is the honest answer: it may or may not be the right move. Baseball IQ gets built in games, not on a field in practice once or twice a week. We hit where it is efficient to hit, which is our own facility. Each environment does a different job, and we are not choosing indoor over outdoor by default — we are choosing whichever one does that week’s job better.

Fees

Your club fee covers paid coaching all year, the uniform package, league and tournament entry, facility membership from November to July, two practices a week in the offseason, Pelotero, and discounts on lessons, camps and gear.

A deposit holds the spot, with the balance on a payment plan through LeagueApps. We walk you through the full number before you commit to anything — what it covers, what it does not, and when each payment lands. No surprises in March.

Payments need to stay current — through LeagueApps on schedule, or through an arrangement worked out directly with your coach ahead of time. A player who falls behind and has not made other arrangements may be held out of practice or games, at the coach’s discretion. That is not a threat, it is a plan we would much rather never use — which is exactly why talking to us early matters so much.

If something changes for your family financially, tell me early. There is usually something we can do, and there is nothing we can do in July.

When something goes wrong

It will, at some point. Here is how to handle it.

1. Wait 24 hours if it is about a game.
2. Then come to me directly. Not your team coach. I would rather field it myself than have your coach caught between coaching your son and managing you as a parent — that is a bad position for both of you, and it is not one I put my coaches in. I will give you a straight answer, including when it is one you did not want to hear.
3. Players can come to us too. A player who has a concern should be able to raise it, and we want them practicing that.
4. Players can advocate for themselves — the right way. We want a player who wants to play shortstop to tell a coach that. What we do not want is a kid asking mid-inning, or lobbying from the dugout during a game. The right time is before practice, after practice, or before a game starts. Ask, make your case, then let the coach do the rest.

The one thing that does not work is the parking lot. If six families are unhappy about something and none of them told us, that is a failure we could have prevented.