This report is my fifth in the chair for Hills, and I’m pleased to be able to report that Hills Juniors is still in tremendous shape, and it’s just getting better.

In my 2005 Annual Report, I had grave concerns about junior baseball in our district. Those concerns have now faded, although the bigger picture of baseball’s place in Australia, and Sydney in particular, is still a worry.

I have to say, even though I was involved in the construction of that Constitution, that it just isn’t working. Of most relevance to us is that the Junior League Standing Committee has still not delivered on some key objectives:- most notably a coherent strategy for development of the junior game. Individual associations and clubs are pretty much doing their own thing, with the JLSC just overseeing the rep competitions and some ad hoc activities. It once had so much more promise than that.

Nonetheless, highlights for this year locally were:-

• Our Association remains affiliated and intact. No clubs have felt the need to go elsewhere, and we’ve not had any move to us from elsewhere.
• Our players have the development opportunities afforded by membership of both BNSW and NSWJBL. The former is for elite players with aspirations to State or Australian representation, and the latter is available to everyone. A nice balance, in my view.
• The work of our Behavioural Standards Commission puts us much further down this track than everyone else in our sport.
• We've implemented Little League on our terms. I believe our model was superior to the one we were asked to use, and it conforms more closely to the Little League vision.

Congratulations to Castle Hill, Club Champions in 2007/8 and to Hawkesbury for collecting the Incentive Shield.

• Winston Hills Warriors won the U/14 title in the inaugural Champion of Champions Tournament.
• Hills North won the NSW Championship in Little League, and have since gone on to claim the Australian title as well.
• Finally, both the U/14 and U/16 teams were champions in the SJC representative competitions.

Although Hills Juniors is exclusively concerned with junior baseball, it’s appropriate that I take a moment to pay tribute to our coaches, past players and patrons who were involved with several elite ex-Hills kids:- those who have signed professional contracts since last season. Those signings included Tim Stanford (Rangers), Michael Olson (IBL), and most recently Adam Spencer (Cubs). There are many more who have gained scholarships and are now at colleges in the US.

In what has become a perrenial note, I also need to again acknowledge the engine, the gearbox, and the drive-train of Hills Juniors:- John Yard. Without this guy, Hills probably wouldn’t exist. Even if it did, it would be a pale shadow of the powerhouse organisation that dominates junior baseball in this country, on so many levels. Local officials like myself come and go, but the one constant in our equation is John’s untiring commitment to the sport, and therefore to you and your children.

Basically, our place in the baseball landscape remains secure. Let’s drill down to some detail…

• Hills have done well at the representative level, having won the Brother Lambert Shield again in perhaps the last year when it will be awarded. The impact of Little League next season means we can only guess at the future of this trophy. For now, we won both the U/16 and U/14 SJC competitions, and we came third in the U/12s.
• Internally, the Miniball programme has ticked over. Although the numbers this season are down on last, this vehicle has delivered another 100+ players into the local baseball family.
• Our overall player-base has increased slightly this season to 1,106, up from 1,093 last season. As with last year, it’s hardly spectacular growth, but it’s not a decline either (against the trend elsewhere).
• We conducted competitions for 111 teams this season, the same as last.
• We again ran Winterball with 15 teams involving 160+ players, and we continue to be the only Junior Association in Sydney to offer a full-spectrum competition like this.
• Our Development Programme this season was more comprehensive, with 7 camps in all three of the school holidays in 2007. In January ‘08, we ran three 4-day camps instead of the usual two, and attracted over 60 participants.
• Private Tuition and elite development also ran to schedule and boasted numbers up from last year. We were very pleased that Trent Oeltjen was involved.
• Our membership of NSWJBL allowed us to send 38 players overseas last winter, all of whom gained an eye-opening experience and a unique glimpse of foreign culture that will stay with them forever. This winter, 30 have so far been selected with one tour still to go.

We all need to thank some other special people who’ve helped Hills to do more than just tick over this season ...

• Hills Administration: Wendy Sloggett (Recorder), Raif Oymen (Webmaster).
• The BSC: Kevin Fitzgerald (Chair), Andrew Borg & Greg Robinson.
• Little League: Greg Robinson (Commissioner), Phil Griffiths (Umpires), Eddie Bray (Concept), and all the coaches and officials who made it work.
• Rep Staff: Nigel Hern, Peter Olson & Tim McCallum (U/12 SJC): Jeff Catt, Greg Robinson, Steve Fogwill & Andrew Woodward (U/14 SJC): Greg Giffin & Mark Bricknell (U/14 AC): and John Chapman, Ralph Warne, Robert Stone & Rick Cone (U/16 SJC).
• MiniBall: Mark Scrymgeour, Bill Simpson & Raf Petrone.
• Phil Leonard, Trent Oeltjen & Grant Balfour for special assistance with coaching.

Finally, I can’t leave you without thanking, on your behalf, the army of volunteers who make this sport function. All of them work for your club in capacities as diverse as club officials, umpires, groundspeople, coaches, assistant coaches, managers, scorers, trainers, canteen workers, and probably more. Without them, the rest of this would be meaningless.

Peter Schmidt
President, Hills Juniors