General ...

What a busy three weeks, Behavioral Standards Commission, rain, 21st Celebratory Dinner, more rain and final series.

The Behavioral Standards Commission (BSC) sat for the first time and was involved in the Castle Hill v Baulkham Hills Under 17 Youth League game.

• The findings of the Commission resulted in three suspensions. E Bray six games, M Bray suspended for two games, R Standish suspended for 20 games. All suspensions are to be served in Hills’ Junior competition. All three have seven days from last Tuesday night to appeal.
• The Commission members were Kevin Fitzgerald, who was the independent Chairman, Greg Robinson and Andrew Borg.
• Both Peter and I were very impressed with the professionalism of the Commission members. Peter will have more to say once the appeal period has passed.
• It is worth noting that we know that we may have to revisit some areas of the games between the two clubs. Certainly there is a lot of information I know about that never came to light.
• Hills is serious about eliminating the personal abuse at players and umpires. I know of four cases where coaches were warned to control their team's spectators or the coach would be ejected. Even had a ground official request that a spectator quieten down or he would be asked to leave. Had it got to that stage then the person would have been considered as being ejected and have to appear before the BSC.
• It is a Zero tolerance approach. Support and barrack all you like for your team - but leave the personal insults and attacks on umpires at home. Umpires are being directed to be even tougher in their control of the game. Hills' new Behavioral Standards Commission has 'teeth' and it will be used to get us to an acceptable level of behavior. Maybe a five second thought of "that is my son I am yelling at" - would quell your frustration. Baseball is not a 'blood sport' in Hills. What you do in Major League we don't care about, that is not our problem. Children are!

The dinner celebrating Hills 21st year of operation has had a reasonable response – at last count there were approximately 150 people attending – we would really like 180. We would like more numbers but more importantly we need to be able to contact with some of the people who were ‘key’ players way back when.

• Please contact Cheryl Barnier or Moya Muller, (who are coordinating the attendees for the dinner) if you have suggestions as to who you consider should be invited.

Two questions for another time are:

• Do we move the start time of games back 30 minutes (to 9am and 11am) next season. We do it in the final series as we attempt to partly overcome the heavy dew at this time of the year.
• The other is whether we alter the venue of Hills meeting. Continue to be unimpressed with present venue.

Rep competitions

• The Hills Under 12 won the Under 12 Sydney Junior Championship. The team went though the three game final series undefeated. In the process they scored 31 runs for and allowed two against.
• The Under 14 finished second, beaten on a head to head count back, having lost to Ryde in the first game of the final series. Really, given the rules they play and with only three games the format is sub-optimal. It is not one thing or another. Luck is the predominant feature as to who wins Under 12 and 14.
• The Under 16 faded losing its last two games, Losing to Ryde in the Major semi final and Greater West in the final. It has to be said it was a disappointing end to a disappointing season.
• The Under 14 Association Cup team also fell at last hurdle losing to Ryde in the grand final after being extremely lucky to win its semi final.

The placings of the three representative teams is enough for us to win the Brother Lambert Shield.

There is an attitude problem in Hills older teams that has to be some how reversed. It starts in Under 14 and almost an epidemic by Under 16 - it certainly has been bad the last two years. As a general rule when you have to select two year players in any representative team – then basically you are ‘in trouble’. Young players just do not have the technique, nor the strength, to cope with older players; maybe they can manage in Under 12 age group but not in older age groups.

Next year’s Under 12 appear at this stage to have to rely on a number of two year players. It does not look to be a ‘strong year’. Under 14 have some good ‘little’ players, we appear to lack size and strength just now.

Development

We, as an organization are providing some coaching support for Monica Bergan in her quest to have baseball introduced as a School Sport. We organized for Trent Oeltjen to attend one day, he was to attend last week but could not make it. The cost of coaching is being met by Hills on the basis that if it attracts new players they may play in Hills.

Alex Griffiths is reported to have been selected to represent Baseball NSW at the World Children’s Baseball Fair. Hills has had a number of its players who have been selected to attend the WCBF in past years.

Details of the winter Development Program are almost set in concrete. They are

• Under 12 elite Development on Tuesday evenings, commencing 3 April, 2007. Venue will be Knights Field (7pm -9pm). Participation will be by invitation. There will be a charge for this program. In return Hills will supply training shirt, cap, theraband and possibly a skipping rope.
• Under 14 elite Development will proceed Under 12 Development at Knights Field (6pm to 7.30). Participation will by invitation – available only for players not involved in any other program.
• Development conducted on Sunday mornings for players aged 9 to 12. The venue will be Castle Glen (9am – 11 am). This is offered at no cost.
• We are considering a visit to Victoria in the July school holidays for players involved in the Under 12 Development Program. We have a club prepared to host the visit.
• There will be a winter competition on Sunday mornings commencing 15 April for Under 12, 14. Hope to have an Under 16 competition on Sunday afternoon. The competition will be club based. Teams will be found for any individual whose club is not entering teams.

The meeting briefly discussed the idea of slipping game times next season to 9am and 11am. Some thoughts offered from the floor were:-

Mr Bray:- the dew problem affects us early and late in the season, but not in high summer. However, when it does affect us, the difference between the grounds at 8:30 vs 9:00 is not (usually) dramatic enough to warrant a change.

Mr Petrone:- Would aligning the game times to daylight saving help?

Mrs Trau:- If we start at 11:00pm, doesn’t this have the potential to impact Sydney Metro games in the afternoon?

The meeting made no attempt to resolve the issue, simply to discuss it in a preliminary manner. It is indeed “a question for another time”

• Discussion on the status of the touring team due to go to Taiwan. Progress is good. The team won't be competitive at this level but the experience will still be enjoyable for all concerned.

• Discussion on Constitutional change required to update the objects and powers of NSWJBL in response to the changed circumstances since 2003. It was discovered that most of the required changes can be achieved by removing references to NSWJBL "controlling" junior baseball in Sydney. The rest of our objects and mandate are unchanged.

• There has been no further communication from the ABF regarding their demand for NSWJBL to change its name. In the absence of advice to the contrary, we assume that the changes to the website and Constitution will be enough to allay their fears in this matter.

• Discussion of the winter touring team programme. All members were asked to promote this to players and families.

• None submitted in the absence of Mr Catt.

• Statement of Financial Position was not available in the absence of Mr Yard
• Held over until next meeting

While introducing the document, he advised that Mr Yard (from Taiwan) had expressed some misgivings about some areas of the section dealing with the Rulebook. Accordingly, Mr Schmidt advised that he was withdrawing that section from consideration by the meeting:- it will be held over to a future date. As the season is now all but over, and none of the suggested changes were of any real importance (most are just administrative “catch-up”), this seemed wise.

Nonetheless, there was some sporadic discussion about some of the rule issues.

During this discussion (specifically in respect of Rule 11.1), Mrs Fox disclosed the problem that Baulkham Hills might have had in the Youth League Grand Final on Friday night, regarding available players. This material was revisited later in the night (See General Business)

The meeting was then asked to consider the section of the document dealing with ratifying the actions of the Executive since the last meeting, concering the creation and structure of the BSC.

Extensive and prolonged discussion followed.

Motions were put to the meeting in respect of the four points in that document, viz:-

1. The BSC was convened under the authority of the Constitution which allows a subcommittee to the Executive to be created. To complete the formality, I would like this meeting to ratify that action. 2. The current wording of our Rulebook required anything notified under the “Notice of Breach” procedure [Rule 7.9] to be handled by a General Meeting. Again, I would like the power of the BSC to hear such complaints, rather than a General Meeting, ratified.

2. The BSC was created with a charter to sit as a Disciplinary Panel if required, to hear allegations of Code of Conduct breaches which are outside the power of a formal Hills Judiciary. The requirement is most obvious in a situation where an umpire did not cite or eject a player:- this is a requirement for a formal Judiciary to be convened. However, it was required to use “the same broad process” as a Judiciary.

3. The Judiciary Procedure sets up an appeal path for decisions to the Executive. Flowing from (2) above, I decided that the appeal path from the BSC should also be to the Executive, rather than to a General Meeting [as implied by 7.9]. This is largely because many appeals will need to be dealt with swiftly, rather than waiting for the next General Meeting. This needs to be ratified.

4. The appeal process within a Judiciary requires an appeal to be lodged within 7 days. However, the work the BSC has done already leads me to believe that delivery of a documented Judgement to a respondent might take many days, simply because of the extremely high quality and wealth of detail contained in the first few we’ve seen. Therefore, I altered the procedure to allow an appeal “within 7 days of delivery of the written Judgement.” This needs to be ratified.

Motions to ratify the four points were introduced and unanimously approved.

A fifth motion was introduced as part of the discussion regarding Point 4. This was to compel the BSC, when sitting as a Disciplinary Panel, to issue a written Judgement within 7 days of the decision being made (generally at the conclusion of a Panel Hearing). This, too, was carried unanimously.

• The three U/8 coaches feel that 1 hour games in teeball are long enough (currently 1.25 hours)
• Carlingford also asks that consideration be given to bringing out the tee after 4 balls in the U/11 liveball conference only, rather than issuing a walk.

Castle Hill: Mr Bray raised two points for consideration by the League …

1) Pitching Restrictions

He asked that Hills review our pitching restrictions for next season. Currently, there are points of inconsistency between the Hills rules and the BNSW rules. He was concerned that this:-

• Introduced unnecessary confusion,
• May expose Hills officials to litigation in the event of injury to a player where a child threw (under Hills rules) a greater number of pitches than he would have done under BNSW rules, and
• That rep coaches governed by BNSW rules may be disciplined for overpitching if they (in their role as a club coach) allowed a club player to pitch to Hills limits rather than BNSW limits.

He specifically asked whether Hills were subject to BNSW pitching limits as a BNSW affiliate, and suggested that other Associations (not specified) believed that they were.

Mr Schmidt replied that as it stands, neither Hills nor any other affiliate are required to adopt BNSW pitching limits, although all have been encouraged to do so. The matter will be referred to the Competition Secretary and the League generally, for further consideration and comment before next season.

2) Knights Field future

Mr Bray declared that Castle Hill were aware that the intimate environment at Knights may have contributed to the problems experienced in Youth League games there this season. Accordingly, the use of Knights in future for YL was being reviewed by the club, together with the conditions on which it may be offered for use in future seasons. He stated that The League would be consulted in this matter in order to come to a resolution.

Note:- This is entirely consistent with advice provided by Mr Yard to the February meeting that Council had imposed new restrictions on the use of Knights in exchange for an extension to the curfew

9:30pm:- Mr Bray leaves the meeting.

Baulkham Hills:  Mrs Fox asks the meeting to consider a Dispensation for Ben Cone (accomplished U/14 rep player) to play in the Youth League Grand Final on Friday Night. Mr Schmidt confirms that this is being put to the meeting only because the time-line involved makes it possible. If there were no Hills meeting this week, the matter would have been decided by the Executive.

• Ben has previously played during the season, under a proper dispensation, for this YL team.
• No paperwork was provided. Mrs Fox gave an assurance that this was because it was being secured at training, but that it would be available before Friday.
• Mrs Fox outlined the situation …

The YL team, with a roster of 10, will have two players away on a school camp in Canberra on Friday, and they’re not expected to return to William Clarke College until 6:30pm or later on Friday night. This puts their participation in a game at Kellyville at 7:15pm at risk.

The BH team management has arranged for a player from their Cashmore team to be available as a potential substitute (in compliance with Rule 4.7) should the registered players fail to appear at the start of the game.

They have also arranged for a parent to drive to Goulburn to collect the two registered players and bring them directly to the game, thus avoiding any problems with the school bus.

Mrs Fox asked the meeting to consider Dispensation for Ben on the basis that he would only be used in the event of an illness or injury to the starting nine players.

Mr Schmidt offered his support for the application, primarily based on the extraordinary lengths that the team management has employed to comply with both the rules, and the spirit of those rules, in this instance…

• Although the rules allow a team to play only its nine best roster players in the playoffs, the BH team has indicated that it wants to play all ten:- that complies with the spirit of our participation policies,
• The rules require a lower-grade same-age player to be invited to sub ahead of automatically selecting a {potentially} better player from a lower Div #1 conference. The BH team complied with this requirement without complaint, and to their possible disadvantage,
• The fact that a parent would make a 600Km round trip in order to ensure that roster players can attend on time goes well beyond “reasonable effort” to comply with the rules.

The Dispensation was approved unanimously. Conditions:-

• Ben can only play in the outfield if used at all,
• He can only be used in the event of illness/injury if the starting nine (including the Cashmore sub if used) is reduced to eight or fewer,
• If the game starts with the ten roster players and two are lost through illness/injury, leaving a choice of whether Ben or the Cashmore player is used as the first sub, the Cashmore player should fill this role.

Finally John Hook suggested that the Cashmore player’s parents should formally consent to his participation. No objections to this were heard.

Winston Hills: Mr Hook asked that anyone who is able to umpire a fixture at the upcoming CHS carnival contact him urgently. His sister is a convener, so his interest is personal as well as professional. Approaches to BNSW Umpires as early as last October have yielded no response.

President: Mr Schmidt tabled two issues for note …

• John Yard was yesterday presented with an award as “Coach of the Tournament” for his work with the NSWJBL touring team in Taiwan. This is a huge accomplishment given the team’s lacklustre on-field results, and recognises that excellence in coaching sometimes has more to do with the deportment and attitude of a team vs whatever the scoreboard says at the end of a particular game.
• Clubs were advised that nominations are again open for the Mitchell Commonwealth Sports Achievement Award. All were invited to contact Mr Schmidt for nomination forms and further details.

Meeting closed 9:45pm.