The goal of Lake County Stars Youth Baseball is to provide the absolute best coaching and competitive environment for players who wish to compete, develop skills and enjoy the game.

Stars Youth teams compete at the 8U, 9U, 10U, 11U, 12U, 13U and 14U levels in spring/ summer league and tournament play.

League Games: the Lake County Stars usually participate in the Mid Suburban Baseball League (MSBL) which is a league comprised of Elite Level, A Level and B Level.  Each Stars team will enroll in one of these three levels for the league play. The MSBL league consists of 45-55 teams per age level which play in and around the Lake and Cook County. The regular MSBL season runs about 16-20 league games (about half will be at home fields) and finishes with a championship tournament. Note: The MSBL 8U season typically has about half the games of the older divisions.

Tournaments: in addition to league play, each team will participate in local tournaments (IL or WI). We place teams in tournaments based on team skill level and our past experience with these tournaments. Most tournaments have a three-game minimum guarantee (weather permitting).  

11U – 14U teams can optionally participate in an overnight away tournament each season. Decision to participate is based on majority vote of the families. These tournaments have an additional charge and teams are encouraged to fund raise to attend these tournaments.

Typically, the tournament plan is:

• 8U 4 tournaments, generally local
• 9U, 10U & 11U: 3 tournaments, generally local
• 12U: 5 tournaments, including Cooperstown
• 13U: 5 tournaments, including Omaha
• 14U: 5 tournaments, including Omaha, Ohio or Myrtle Beach

Each team has a paid Head Coach (except for younger age teams where there is an option for a parent to coach - to be approved by all families). Player package includes Winter Training, Spring/ Summer Season and Uniform Package. Fees include five to ten (depending on age) 30-minute private 1-on-1 lessons with player’s team coach. Costs for major out of town tournaments such as Cooperstown, Omaha and Myrtle Beach are not included.  Therefore, parent vote is required before these are booked.

Schedule: the following is a typical season schedule in our youth program (varies by age):

• October - December: individual lessons with your coach
• January - March: indoor team practices
• April - June: regular season games and tournaments
• June - July: league playoffs, late-season tournaments

During the regular spring/summer baseball season, we expect that the Star team is our athletes' first sports priority. However, the Stars encourage our athletes to participate in other sports as well for a variety of reasons:

• multi-sport athletes are typically less prone to injury from overuse of the same muscles from a single sport
• young athletes can get burnt out and lose interest if only participating in a single sport
• a large majority of athletes that are successful at higher levels are multi-sport athletes

As such, the Stars does not sponsor a fall ball program.  Some of our coaches (or even parents) and teams do form fall ball teams on their own and participate in fall leagues in the area.  We love to see our athletes form a bond with their coaches and teammates and are happy to have them enter their own Stars team in fall leagues.  When this occurs, we understand our players may have other priorities and teams usually have larger than normal rosters to account for conflicts.  Fall ball is generally low pressure, fun and relatively short season.  Please talk to your coach if you're interested in participating in fall ball with your Stars team!