The Southern Minny program is for youth baseball players in 3rd grade through 8th grade. The season includes 12-15 regular season games and an end of season tournament where each team gets additional games.

Team Formation

Teams are primarily formed based on current school attendance. If more players are needed, a player's future middle school or high school will also be considered depending on the grade.

Sometimes players from the same school are placed on different teams. This can happen when:

• There are requests to play with a friend from another school
• There are enough players from one school to form multiple teams
• There are not enough players from one school to form a team
• There are enough players to form a team but no coach available from that school’s parents

If you’d like to increase your player’s chances of being with classmates, consider volunteering to coach. When RYBA can’t find a coach for a school group, those players are likely to be split among teams led by available volunteers.

Teammate Request Policy (New for 2026)

Getting players assigned to teams takes a lot of time and effort from our volunteer board members and league commissioners.  To ease that workload and to make our teams more fair and balanced:

• Players may request to be rostered with only one specific teammate.
• The request must be reciprocal (e.g., Johnny must request Ben, and Ben must request Johnny).
• Any non-reciprocal or additional requests will not be considered.

We will make every effort to honor these teammate requests, but they are never guaranteed.

Season Dates and Times

Team practices begin in mid-April and are scheduled 2 nights per week. Games will begin in late April or early May and the schedule will transition to 1 practice per week and 1 game per week. Practices will start at 6:00 P.M. unless your team’s coach works out an alternate time with the team. Games will start at 6:00 PM.

Practice and Game nights are set by grade level and are still being determined.  They will be posted here as more information becomes available.

End-of-season tournaments will begin in the latter half of July.  Each team is guaranteed at least three games in a grade specific tournament. Play may begin during the week and will carry through the weekend.

Game Locations

Most games are played within the city of Rochester. There may be occasional travel to games in neighboring communities.

Scholarships

Scholarships are available for families that qualify for educational benefits for free and reduced-price school meals. Read more about the program and apply here: https://www.rochesterschools.org/page/application-for-benefits

Reach out to staff@rybamn.com with an approved application to receive scholarship benefits.

Registration Specifics

Players should register for the grade they are in during the 2025-2026 academic year. For example, if a player is in 4th grade during the 2025-2026 academic year, that player should register for 4th grade baseball.

Players with early birthdays for their grade may choose to play with the grade above, but it is not required. All players are welcome to play with their own grade.

Use this age calculator and the grade-to-age list below to see if a player is eligible to play with a grade above them. https://www.usssa.com/baseball/ageCalculator If the player’s birthday places them with the age above their current grade, that player is eligible to play with either their current grade OR the grade above them.

Grade-to-age:

3rd grade: 9U

4th grade: 10U

5th grade: 11U

6th grade: 12U

7th grade: 13U

8th grade: 14U

For example, a 4th grader born on 04/15/2013 would be eligible to play 4th grade baseball or 5th grade (11U) baseball.

Weekend Tournament Teams

If there is significant demonstrated interest, we will consider forming weekend tournament teams for Southern Minny players.

Formation of 6th, 7th, and 8th Grade Leagues

RYBA strongly prefers creating a separate Southern Minny league for each of our 6th, 7th, and 8th grade players, but registration numbers for each grade dictate how leagues will be formed at these levels. In recent years, we have had several seasons with combined grades. For example, in 2025 we had a 6th/7th grade league and a 7th/8th grade league.  Depending on registration numbers for the 2026 season, combining grades may need to happen again.

If there are not enough players to form a Southern Minny 8th grade or 7th/8th grade league, the 8th grade Southern Minny players will have to play in the Zumbro Valley League (ZVL). The ZVL starts play in June and goes through July. ZVL teams play in towns around southeast Minnesota.

Cancellation Fee

If you sign up and decide to not play there will be a $25 cancellation fee if canceling before March 1st. Canceling registration on March 1st or later will result in a $45 cancellation fee. Those interested in signup after registration has closed will be placed on a waitlist. As openings are available, players may be allowed to register on a case by case basis. Each late registration will be charged an additional $50 late registration fee.