In past years, the Orcas and Lopez kids’ baseball and softball teams have been under the official Little League umbrella.

But now Orcas is launching a league of its own, renamed the Islands’ Baseball and Softball League.

“Our baseball and softball program is taking an exciting and new direction that we think better fits our community,” said board President Michele Keyes. “We are dissolving our little league membership and forming an islands’ league.”

The league has been reorganized to fit an inter-island setting and includes a board representative from Lopez.

“In many ways it will be similar to Little League and we will continue to follow their playing rules, but Orcas, Lopez and San Juan will be scheduling games with each other in order to either eliminate or minimize mainland travel,” Keyes said. She hopes that lower travel costs will encourage families to attend more games, and says another benefit of operating independently will be the flexibility to choose teams based on age and ability.

San Juan Island discontinued their affiliation with Little League two years ago, becoming the Friday Harbor Baseball Softball Association board.

“Little League requires the board president to go to Lynnwood once a month to hear about Lynnwood stuff,” explained Friday Harbor league board member Michelle Herko. “It was just amazing that we would have to do that.”

She also said that frequently off-island Little League teams just wouldn’t show up for games, causing disappointment.

“Once we weren’t little league, we could adapt to suit our unique circumstances, living on the island,” Herko said. “We twisted Orcas Island arms to play with us even though they were not supposed to.”

Now that arm-twisting won’t be necessary.

“I think it’s grand. I hope that it works out really well,” added Herko.

“The [Friday Harbor] board is thrilled to be able to play [Orcas] regularly. With inter-island game scheduling we hope to cultivate inter-island camaraderie among our kids and families,” Keyes said.

What’s next

Early registration will be held at the sheltered play area behind the elementary school building on Feb. 5 from 3 to 5 p.m., on Feb. 7 from 1 to 4 p.m., and on Saturday, Feb. 6 in the high school commons from 1 to 4 p.m.

The next league meeting is Wednesday, Feb. 10 at 10:50 a.m. upstairs at Orcas Homegrown. It is open to the general membership.