Why Should I Become A Volunteer?
At NELLS we rely on a devoted collection of adult volunteers to help ensure that the league remains structured and runs smoothly. We are always looking for responsible and enthusiastic parents, family members, and friends to manage, support, and coordinate our teams, facilities, and activities. As a volunteer, you should have a keen interest in the safety, well-being, and overall development of all our girls.
All parents of children involved in NELLS are strongly encouraged to volunteer. As a parent, volunteer, you have the opportunity to spend quality time with your daughter in a safe, fun-filled environment. Oftentimes, parent and child social lives parallel each other. Volunteering allows your life and your child’s life to intersect on common ground, with shared interests and goals.
Our Current Volunteer Openings
Who Can Volunteer?
Anyone can apply to become a volunteer. Whatever talents or skills you have, we can use them! Across the league, volunteers are grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, retirees, community leaders, former Little Leaguers, friends, neighbors, and more. Any community member who wishes to become a volunteer may apply.
On rare occasions, Little League, through District Administrators and our local league, may deny individuals the privilege of volunteering for reasons, past or present, that may be detrimental to the positive development of young people, other volunteers, and/or Little League International. When you apply to become a volunteer, you give the local Little League organization the right to conduct necessary background checks.
No experience is required to become a volunteer. Most of the volunteer opportunities require little or no training. NELLS will provide you with any necessary training (as well as support and encouragement), as they deem necessary. The best volunteers are those who are able to bring added enjoyment to the game simply by being themselves. What you see during the softball games is a mere fraction of what you can do as a volunteer. You can volunteer to help in virtually any aspect of our league.
How Do I Become A Volunteer?
Parents, take a minute to fill out the volunteer form while registering your child. If you are not a parent and would like to volunteer, take a minute to fill out the form while visiting our Spring registration days. You can also find our Secure Volunteer Registration Form here.
If you have questions before you fill out the form, you can get them answered by emailing us at [email protected]
Coaches & Managers Role
NELLS managers and coaches must be leaders. All must recognize that they hold a position of trust and responsibility in a program that deals with a sensitive and formative period of a child’s development.
As such, it is required that the manager and coach have understanding, patience and the capacity to work with children. The manager and coach should be able to inspire respect. Above all else, managers and coaches must realize that they are helping to shape the physical, mental and emotional development of young people.
The team manager must be something more than just a teacher. Knowledge of the game is essential but it is not the only badge of a softball coach or manager.
While an adult with training and background in the game is a desirable candidate for manager or coach, we also look for other important qualities. We have a through screening for managers, coaches, and others who volunteer and have contact with the children. This is extremely important in attempting to discover those with a history of child abuse.
The heart of NELLS is what happens between the adult manager/coach and player. It is the manager more than any other individual who controls the situation in which the players may be benefited. Improving the level of leadership in this vital area must be a continuing effort.
Children of Little League age are strongly influenced by adults whose ideals and aspirations are similar to their own. The manager/coach and player share a common interest in the game, a desire to excel, and determination to win. Children often idolize their managers and coaches, not because the adult is the most successful coach or mentor, but because the manager and coach are sources of inspiration.
Managers and coaches must be adults who are sensitive to the mental and physical limitations of children of Little League age and who recognize that the game is a vehicle of training and enjoyment, not an end in itself. It has been stated many times that the program of Little League can only be as good as the quality of leadership in the managing and coaching personnel. This is why we make a determined effort to enlist the best adults in the community to serve as managers and coaches.
Anyone interested in being a Northeast Little League Softball manager or coach should click the email link and contact the league president at [email protected] All managers, coaches, and volunteers must be willing to undergo a screening process that may include a background check, as well as interviews of those with personal knowledge of your qualifications.
We thank you for taking the time to learn more about the volunteer role and process of NELLS
