GMS Gladiator Baseball

About:

GMS Gladiator Baseball is a competitive program designed to prepare middle school players for high school baseball. The teams will participate in the Knox Metro Middle School Baseball League (KMMSB) and are generally made up of players that will attend Central High School. Knox County Schools does not sanction middle school Baseball, so the teams are organized by Fountain City Recreation Commission in cooperation with CHS Baseball.

Age Divisions:

This league is open to players who are in 5^th - 8^th grade for the 2026/2027 school year.

Varsity

This is considered the top division and can be made of 6^{th -} 8^th graders. Players in the Varsity division should be the most talented and are willing to put in extra work to be prepared for high school baseball. Games will be played on a 60/90 field.

Junior Varsity

The "JV-Majors" division will be composed of the most competitive 6^th & 7^th graders while the "JV-Minors" division will be mostly 6^th graders, but some less competitive 7^th graders are allowed. Both JV Divisions will play on a 54/80 field.

Futures

The "Futures" division will be comprised of 5^th graders who have shown interest in developing into skilled high school players. The Futures division will play on a 50/70 field.

Open Practices:

Open practices will be held prior to tryouts for all players interested in the program. These practices will be organized by the 2026 coaching staff. All returning players and prospective new players should attend as many of these sessions as possible. Parents wishing to assist with coaching should attend these sessions as well in order to be considered for official positions. Player/parents should join the "Summer Practice" GroupMe for more information: https://groupme.com/join_group/115595379/GL0mfGUR

Schedule:

Summer Open Practices:

Open practices will be held at 7 pm on July 6^th, 13^th, 20^th, and 27^th at Fountain City Ballpark Field 6. Coaches may add additional open practices as the schedule permits. These will be communicated through the link above.

Conditioning Sessions:

Conditioning sessions will be held at Kim Day Training on Tuesdays at 7 pm and Fridays at 4 pm. The schedule is as follows:

October: 13^th, 16^th, 20^th, 23^rd, 27^th, 30^th

November: 6^th, 10^th, 13^th, 17^th, 20^th

December: 1^st, 4^th, 8^th, 11^th, 15^th

** Players are required to attend at least half of all conditioning sessions. 

Regular Season:

Practices start early September and games will be played February - April. Games will be played Monday - Friday with some makeup games on Saturday. the full season schedule will be provided by KMMSB at the beginning of the game season. Practice days/times will be determined by the coach of the respective team.

General Calendar:

Evaluations are held on 8/23/2025 at Fountain City Ballpark

• 5^th grade at 2 pm
• 6^th grade at 3 pm
• 7^th grade at 4 pm
• 8^th grade at 5pm

** There are no makeup or alternate evaluation dates

Parent Meeting will be held during evaluations. All players are expected to have a parent present at this meeting.

Team Formation will take place the week of 8/24/2026, with players notified week of 9/7/2026

Practices will run from September through February

Games will run from February through mid-April

Team Formation

Teams will be formed by the coaches and the FCRC Baseball Committee. The coaches and committee will evaluate the talent level and number of players, then determine the number of teams in each division that will be fielded.

There may be more than 1 team in each division, but the program is limited to a maximum of 3 teams.

Evaluations

All players are expected to participate in evaluations. Players will transition through a series of stations where their performance will be scored based on a standard rubric. Evaluators will be made up of "baseball-fluent" individuals who are not coaches and do not have kids in the program. Coaches may observe all evaluations.

General Rules and Deviations

The program generally follows NFHS rules with some deviations. KMMSB will provide detailed rules before the season.