• Is this a change to come to us all?

Baseball West Australia has altered both the Age Groups and birth date eligibility for its Junior Competitions. In the 2009/10 season, its Junior age groups will change to: Little League (Under 13), Under 15, Under 17 and Under 19. The cut off date for all age groups is 1st May…the Little League birth-date eligibility. The World has turned full circle. With the return to Under 13 and Under 15 age groups. This used to be the case for many years before the ABF altered it to Under 12, 14, 16 and 18 so as to comply with the IBF AAA and AA World Championships for Under 19 and 17 respectively.

• Trials for the Representative teams continue. Under 12 will have its fourth trial fourth tonight. Under 14 have trialed twice plus a separate night trial for pitchers and catchers with another session planned for Thursday. Both age groups will take similar selection paths with the squads being reduced to approximately 20 players reasonably quickly and then take a few more weeks before announcing the final squads. Under 16 were to trials were scheduled to commence tonight however that was cancelled due to the coaches unavailability due to a clash with the Level 2 Coaching Accreditation Course. Both were unable to obtain a release from the Course segment. With the Hills’ meeting being the same night we just did not have the man power to conduct the trials. The Under 12 will trial instead. The alteration to the minimum squad size in the SJC competition is giving the selectors, especially in Under 12 ‘food for thought’. We totally disagree with the rule that requires a player to bat once and play three defensive outs in each Under 12 game as coaches are far too focused on that rule than the actual winning of the game. Any team that only has to handle 12 or 13 players is an advantage over one that has 14 players. This was our argument in this year’s Little League Competition with the actions of Cronulla.

• On the subject of Little League, the Asian Pacific Tournament has been played in Taipei. Guam and Chinese Taipei won their respective pools and played the final on Saturday which was won by Chinese Taipei 11 -0. Waverley struggled finished 2 and 3 (defeating Singapore 2-1 and New Zealand 6-2). That is not a criticism of Waverley it is just that people hopelessly under estimate the strength of Asian Baseball, it is very strong and the players’ knowledge of the game is vastly superior to ours. Sydney based teams will always struggle to even qualify to that level whilst ever we have to split our strength.

The tournament results are available on -http://www.littleleague.org/series/2009divisions/llbb/qualify/asiapacific.htm

• Just a reminder about the important dates for the upcoming season

• Assessment day for Dispensations will be 29th August…so there is a need to put the Assessment Panel into place over the next few weeks
• I will be overseas in that period not returning until 1st September. That will have an effect on the preparation of the draw. Team nominations for first division competitions are going to have to be by 17th August. For competitions commencing 12th September the team entries can be 31st August.
• The Rules night will be 3rd September subject on availability of a room at (probably) Riverstone RSL. Compulsory attendance by at least one member of each team’s coaching staff.
• The T Ball coaching and instruction for coaches will be Sunday 6th September at Castle Glen subject to the draw for representative baseball.
• The commencement dates for the competitions remain unchanged. Under 12, 14 and17 first division competitions will commence on 5th September with the second and third division competitions, including Under 9 and Under10 commencing on 12th September. School holidays and the World Masters Games will complicate the draw. The planning is that we will play on the 3rd October (which is the first day of School Holidays and the Saturday of the October long weekend). We will not play the 10th October (first week of World Masters Games) but will need to play the 17th October. Corbin will be unavailable on the 17th October so we will just need to juggle the draw the best we can. Under 8 T ball will commence 19th September.

• Peter will no doubt remind you that you need to organize the implementation of the Child Safe Policy. Hills will require certificates for:-

• All club coaches,
• One official from each club, and
• All Association officials, including the Executive and representative coaches. There are changes to the Legislation but do not extend to the depth we had hoped for in relation to volunteers.

• Last meeting I suggested that we revisit the policy of not playing for points in at least one of the Under 8 Conferences. That suggestion failed to gather any support and was left ‘without a feather to fly with’. Castle Hill, which was not represented at the meeting, has since written requesting that the Policy be reviewed.

• Since the last meeting I have forwarded to clubs the advice re Funding available through Department of Sport and Racing Level 1 Umpires Accreditation – extremely poor timing to conduct the course.

• We will start gathering names for the two Level 0 instructors. The dates are set as Sunday 9th and the night of the10th August. The dates of second course will be Sunday 23rdAugust and Monday 24th August. The ratio of coaches to instructors will remain six students to one instructor. At that ratio we are looking at 24 students per course. Cost $33 per person and candidates need to be registered in My Club. There was a question at the June meeting re the minimum age of candidates for Level 0. It was confirmed that they have to be 14 years of age. Having said that, should the nominations exceed the 24 students per course preference should be given to the adults who will be Head Coaches.

• The Winter Development program has now concluded. There were two sessions for Under 12 on a Tuesday night, coaching for Under 14 pitchers and catchers on a Thursday night and the Sunday Development program offered free and open to all comers on a Sunday morning. The Under 12 program fared well with the weather. All up, the early session on Tuesday had eight sessions out of a planned 10, the late session 12 from 14; however it had four of the five scheduled scrimmage games washed out. The Thursday night program achieved seven nights before the rain set in. We are now using Thursday evening as coaching of Under 14 Representative pitchers and catcher – there is a lot of work to be done there. Not all programs commenced at the same time We have offered two camps during the July School holidays. Numbers are ‘light’ but we will conduct the two camps. The intention for Summer is to build on what we achieved with the 10 year olds during winter by offering that age a Development Program on Tuesday nights and possibly a pitching course on another night once Daylight saving commences in 4th October,2009.

• Henry Woo (former Carlingford Under 14) has been selected in Ryde’s Under 14 SJC team. This is a clear breach of the SJC rules as we know them. Unfortunately it is going to involve Hills taking a Policy decision, as unpalatable as that me be. If we do this there is real possibility that BNSW will declare him ineligible for representative Baseball. However, we have been open in our support for Bankstown in its ‘troubles’ with Macarthur. Henry has always been loyal to Hills, attended camps and always trialled but was never selected. We never complained about Zayneth Estacio who played for Bankstown last year.

• Mark Trau (Carlingford Junior) has agreed to terms with Minnesota Twins and will formally sign a Professional contract on Thursday.

• Applications were invited to host the Hills initial four home games of the representative games. Applications were received from Castle Hill (game against Manly), Winston Hills, Hawkesbury, Kings Langley, Quakers Hill and Kellyville. Winston Hills also offered to host the three stand alone Under 16 games, something it did very, very well last season. Sutton has the added bonus of being an enclosed ground which I believe should be essential for that standard of competition. In addition to the four rounds of competition, there will be a three round competition among the top four teams. Problem is that will be based on the finishing positions at the completion of the initial round robin. There is a distinct possibility, almost a certain probability, that the Under 12 will be split from Under 14 and the day become an unattractive stand alone game when compared to the three games a day in the regular season. We could get two of those games or only one. Six doesn’t go into four. Castle Hill because of its commitment to provide a base for the Development Program should get its choice, same with Kellyville’s second choice in round against Ryde. Sutton has the best facilities for watching Baseball outside of Knights would be the third choice. It also is the best wet weather ground (other than Bensons) in Hills. I would leave Hawkesbury out at this stage as it is again intended that it be the venue for Grand Final Day. This leaves a ballot between Kings Langley and Quakers Hill with the unsuccessful club having first refusal to host one or both the ‘top four shootout’ games.

• Whilst Development fared reasonably with the weather, the Winter competition is just about decimated. One of the reasons we opted for two four team competitions in Under 12 was the concern whether we could achieve seven weeks free of rain. Other than the lack of baseball no one has been disadvantaged in Under 12 and Under 14 which were at semi final stage last Sunday. Overall both competitions achieved four weeks of baseball. The Under 16 competition varied a little, with teams between four and six games depending on where teams were drawn to play and where the Bye fell. We will re-think next year’s competition, with a view to starting earlier to avoid the clash with representative trials now that the Representative season commences so early. Normally trials would not have started yet. However the restrictions of not wanting to start earlier and not wanting to play Mothers Day or June Long week-end make it difficult. Soccer does not appear to care – if there are washouts to be replayed – it seems a case of play or forfeit!

• Peter Whatson has announced his intention to resign as the Hills’ Representative to the JLSC. This forces us into a situation to find a replacement.

The Secretary’s report was accepted.

Mr. Schmidt reported that the June meeting of the NSWJBL followed its Annual General Meeting where the existing Executive was re-elected.

The other matters discussed related to the four touring teams and the Pan Pacific Tournament to be held in August at Andrews Road.

Mr. Schmidt reported on the June & July meetings, from notes provided by Mr Whatson.

There was a presentation by T. Harradine which was a synopsis of previous plans for Junior Baseball within BNSW. The power point presentation contained the same goal matrix used several years ago. Since that meeting Mr. Harradine has resigned from BNSW to return to USA.

Mr. Schmidt then reported on the JLSC July meeting at which the meeting resolved that Macarthur cannot use Moorebank players in its representative teams. Macarthur has until tomorrow (15th July) to resolve/fix the problem. Moorebank stayed as a member of Bankstown yet affiliated some teams with Macarthur.

Matters arising from the JLSC Report: Hills Board is of the view that the existing rules written, relating to players changing Association and wanting to play in the representative competition should be enforced. This is of more importance since Henry Woo has decided to play in Ryde and has been selected in the SJC team. The board believed that Henry’s reason for changing Associations ‘to play with his mates’ was genuine. It was resolved that Hills approach Ryde, unofficially, for Ryde to take Henry Woo out of the SJC team and place him in the Association Cup team. If they refuse they will have to go to the JLSC, where based on the Macarthur decision it would be refused. Proposed action carried 7 votes to 1.

• Statement of Financial Position was presented.
• Payments were approved.
• Debtors and liabilities were disclosed.

T ball website - Mr. Schmidt advised that the Association is intending to place an advertisement for T Ball players in the Hills’ local papers. The offer to local clubs/organisations by the publishers is attractive. The advertisement will ‘take the reader’ to the Hills T Ball web site. In today’s society the internet is the major source of enquiries for information.

Child Safe Co-Ordinators - Bronwyn Bailey has been appointed as Child Safe Co-Ordinator for Oakville. Louise Mawbey is the Child Safe Co-Ordinator for Kellyville.

Rules Night - Mr. Power enquired as to the consequences where coaches or managers cannot attend the rules night. Mr. Schmidt advised that the initial penalty was that the team would not be recognised. However, in reality it will be probably a $50 per team fine.

Under 8 playing for points - Castle Hill had written requesting that the decision taken at May meeting be reversed and one Under 8 Conference play for competition points. Mr. Bray advised that initially he disagreed with the suggestion. However he changed his mind after the club’s Under 8 coaches convinced him that they believe children want to play some sort of competition. The playing for no points was also a reason for the disintegration/ignorance of the rules. Mr. Yard stated that the playing for points is not such a large step. Already there is a conference that has a structure of three outs, a defined batting order, and rules requiring the tagging of unforced players. That will be the competition that will play for points. It was also resolved that that Under 8 competition would attract Club Championship points. Mr. Grogan stated that the B Ball competitions need good umpires.

Come N Try Days - Winston Hills has conducted its Come N Try Day – approximately 30 children. Kellyville also has completed its Come and Try Day with 25 children attending.

Stress Balls - Mr. Yard advised that the Association has 50 stress balls for sale, should any Club need them for the Come N Try Days.