MV Recreation Attends Annual RBI Conference

From March 14 — March 17, 2019, Mt. Vernon Director of Athletics, Rick Wright and Commissioner of Little League Baseball, Dwayne Brown attended the Major League Baseball RBI Institution in Birmingham, Alabama.

While attending we networked with other teams we may play in the future, this will further MT. Vernon’s reach nationally. While speaking with other directors and coaches we were informed on how other town’s/city’s run their programs which proved to help build our insight. We attended daily sessions with various topics that displayed how crucial baseball in minority communities needed a resurgence. To that end, Mt. Vernon was highlighted because we went from having twenty (20) players to over three hundred (300) players in one season.

Breakout sessions included grant writing, player safety including appropriate and inappropriate touching, tournament eligibility, as well as scholarship availability and application process.

While in the grant writing session we learned how vital government funding is to the program as well as how to be a successful formidable contender. They walked us through the whole application process including the desired answers and responses. In the player safety session, we were brought up to date on current policies and procedures on physical contact with players especially while helping during or after an injury. We were taken through the tournament eligibility procedures and the scholarship process. This included but was not limited to how players became eligible, and the guidelines that had to be followed. We look forward to continuing working with Major League Baseball to help revise baseball within the Mt. Vernon community.