Little League Celebrates 60 Years of Success
First chartered in 1963, the Canyon Country Little League turns 60 this year. Along with other celebrations, this fact was acknowledged on March 18 during the league’s 2023 spring season opening ceremonies (which were rain-delayed from March 11). During those 60 years, the CCLL has moved a couple times, but has never wavered from the goal to positively serve local youth.
Current CCLL President Scot Mahotz said, “We are a family-first, kidfirst organization, one that believes our success is based on the success of the players. If one player starts hating baseball or quits, we’ve lost. Every kid wins.” He also notes that the Canyon Country Little League is the only Little League in the SCV. (Hart youth baseball is affiliated with other organizations).
“There was, formerly, a Little League in Castaic,” Mahotz said. And he expanded to describe his personal quest to enlarge his league’s confusing and limited boundaries after it became the only local Little League. “Our boundaries now (since 2021) extend all the way to one-half mile east of Lake Piru, and to just west of Acton.”
“Canyon Country Little League is 100% volunteer based,” Mahotz said. That includes everything, from field maintenance to coaches and umpires, snack bar and more. Noting that the volunteers’ time is extremely valuable, but the rewards are so worth giving it, he commended them, including the current 18 members of the board.
“What kids want is your time,” he emphasized. “We try to encourage parents to give just a little bit of time. Every hour they give multiplies to the benefits the kids get.”
Fundraising is also extremely important to CCLL, and so are sponsors. “Sponsors are definitely a big part of our continued expansion, field maintenance and improvements,” he said. “We try to keep the registration fees as low as possible.”
Though CCLL has offered both softball and baseball in the past, Mahotz said that, currently, there are not enough softball players to make up enough teams, so there are “20 to 25 girls in our fast pitch baseball leagues. And many girls have been extremely successful up to age 14 in our Junior Division.”
CCLL offers two baseball seasons, spring and fall. Spring registration begins in October of each year. “Tryouts and assessments are in January, and opening day is the second weekend in March,” Mahotz said. The regular spring season ends the weekend before Memorial Day, and post season (All-stars) might run through July. The spring season is currently full, but fall registration opens in June. The fall season begins the weekend after Labor Day and runs for 10 weeks, with no post season play. The CCLL Division breakdown is T-ball ages four to five
Rookie ages six to 7
Farm ages seven to eight (kids pitch)
Minors ages nine to 10
Majors ages 11 to 12
Intermediate age 13
Juniors ages 13 to 15, and Seniors ages 14 to 16.
The Seniors’ season is after the high school CIF competition. “Registration for Minors and above is around $250 for the spring season and $150 for the fall,” Mahotz said. And younger divisions are about $10 less in the spring.
Canyon Country Little League maintains six baseball fields, which are used for both practice and games. And Mahotz notes these are kept in top green condition, as the league has its own well.
Mahotz said that about 280 to 320 players are served each spring season and about 180 in the fall season. For the last 60 years, the Canyon Country Little League has served many thousands of local players and families. And many of these players have reached high levels of performance at the high school level, including Mahotz’ son.
Regarding his years of service with CCLL and the time spent with is son during that service, Mahotz said, “I’m giving back for what Canyon Country Little League did for myself and my son over the last 12 years. I was able to work with such amazing volunteers, building relationships. Everybody worked toward one goal, the development of these kids, using the arena of baseball to teach life lessons and build stronger individuals through teamwork.”
The Canyon Country Little League is located at 16054 Sierra Highway, Santa Clarita 91390. For more information, visit www.ccll.org.