CARY, N.C. - USA Baseball hosted its annual Youth and Amateur Leadership Summit on Tuesday, March 19, in Cary, North Carolina. As the National Governing Body for baseball in the United States, the organization put on this event in an effort to enhance collaboration with its National Member Organizations and significant figures within the sport to foster widespread adoption and implementation of USA Baseball’s initiatives and standards.

Attendees met in the morning at the DoubleTree Raleigh Cary Hotel for presentations from various staff members with USA Baseball and Major League Baseball, including USA Baseball President John Gall, 2023 18U National Team Manager and MLB veteran Michael Cuddyer, and MLB Chief Development Officer/USA Baseball Board of Directors member Tony Reagins. The morning session also included a bat licensee meeting with National Member Organizations, which provided coverage of USA Baseball’s certification standard for youth baseball bats.

Following the conclusion of the morning portion of the summit, attendees shuttled to the National Training Complex for a tour of the facilities, lunch, and breakout sessions inside the newly built executive offices and high-performance training center. The breakout sessions showcased several of USA Baseball’s programs and initiatives that have been established to help advance the sport at the amateur level nationwide.

The initiatives and programs included in the breakout sessions were:

• Baseball5 - The hip, new partner of America’s Pastime. Designed to make baseball more accessible to everyone, it shares the same core principles as traditional baseball and can be played anywhere by anyone.
• BASE (Baseball Athlete Safety Education) – USA Baseball’s zero-tolerance campaign for any type of abuse within the sport of baseball.
• Baseball Education – Resources to help emphasize a culture of development, safety, and fun within the sport.
• Coach Clinics – An initiative that provides coaches with the opportunity to learn and grow by networking with colleagues while participating in on-field demonstrations.
• Fun At Bat – An enrichment program that teaches the fundamentals of baseball through elementary school physical education classes.
• PDP (Prospect Development Pipeline) Performance Assessments - A series of comprehensive evaluations that utilize state-of-the-art technology to measure cognitive skills, speed of processing, athletic performance, and on-field talent through technology created by Diamond Kinetics, Rapsodo, and TrackMan.
• Umpire Recruitment – An effort to enhance umpire education and training with a focus on understanding the basic skills required to umpire a game and provides tips on conflict resolution.

Organizations that had representation at the summit included: AABC (American Baseball Amateur Congress), AAU (Amateur Athletic Union), American Legion, Babe Ruth League, Baseball For All, DYB (Diamond Youth Baseball), Little League, NABF (National Amateur Baseball Federation), NBC (National Baseball Congress), NCYS (National Council of Youth Sports), NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), NFHS (National Federation of State High School Associations), NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association), and RCX Sports.

USA Baseball strives to be a leader in the amateur baseball landscape. The organization is continuously creating and implementing ways to improve the experience of the game at the grassroots level, and takes pride in sharing its latest innovations with other key partners and organizations. Through this summit, USA Baseball aims to collaborate with its National Member Organizations and establish a united framework for introducing and advancing baseball among amateur athletes nationwide.

What attendees are saying about the summit:

“It's always great for us NMO’s [National Member Organizations] to collaborate and talk about initiatives that impact all of us. While we all have our own programs, it's always great for us to get together and share ideas about how to improve the games of baseball and softball.” – Pat Wilson, Little League Summit

“Without USA Baseball organizing this opportunity every year, our organizations most likely would never get together so we're really appreciative of that opportunity.” – Randy Boer, NCAA

“We have a great representation of different organizations across the country here, learning from the USA Baseball staff who is putting on a bunch of presentations on different programs that are helping to promote baseball across the country.” – John Gall, USA Baseball President