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Mr Yard
provided this written report ...
So much has
happened since our last meeting.
Little League team has been to Hong Kong and back.
19
Hills players have been to Japan and returned and a
further ten players will return from the USA
tomorrow. In addition to the players six Hills
coaches had the opportunity to coach overseas and
further their personal development as coaches.
With all
these distractions over we now need to fully concentrate
on the upcoming season. Team nominations are due 26
August.
The
first division competitions in Under 17, 14 and 12
will commence on 5th and 6th September with all
other competitions apart from Under 8 will commence
on 13th September.
I am
more than a little apprehensive about the viability
of our first division competitions. Under 17 – the
teams appear to be Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill and
Winston Hills. Obviously we need to ‘find’ a fourth
with a Hills Kings format, although there is a
‘nibble’ from Workers in this age.
The
thing working against us is the ‘leakage’ of players
from one club to another, with a number of players
changing Clubs.
-
Under 14 – appear to be Baulkham Hills, Castle
Hill, and I assume Kellyville and Winston Hills…
otherwise we are in trouble in this age group as
well.
-
Under 12 – will be a problem with Baulkham Hills
and Castle Hill only ones certain.
The
proposed ‘new’ first Division competitions in Under
9 and 11 are continuing to be offered, along with
Under 10 Mod Ball (in which Castle Hill are likely
to have two teams).
I do
not know what Cumberland propose to do this season
with its first division teams.
Working
the selection trials around everything else that has
been happening has been far from easy. We had thought
that the Under 14 and Under 16 would have been completed
last weekend, however that was not to be.
- We
cancelled the Under 16 trial scheduled for last
Saturday as Baseball NSW had scheduled the
commencement of the State Trials for that day. Guess
what? The trials were apparently cancelled on
Thursday – certainly no advice to Associations. It
is as if Baseball NSW almost expect their website to
be people’s internet home page. Their method of
communication with Associations does not work. That
age group will trial again Thursday night. There is
no guarantee that the squad will be finalised then.
-
Under 14’s, because it had a player away could not
quite get down to its final numbers. The problem
they have is one of team balance including a lack of
hitters. That squad will be finalised Sunday.
- The
Under 12 team has been selected. It is a very young
team, much younger than we had hoped for. That was a
result of a very disappointing number of triallists.
For the first time in memory we asked individual
players to trial – but to no avail. The top nine
players will be good; it is the overall strength of
the squad that is our concern.
-
The
squad is Mackenzie Bohan, Guy Burgess, Dean Frew,
Liam Gilchrist, Patrick Holm, Jordan Lindsay,
Adam McAlonan, James Mc Callum , Jordan McCarthy
, Tom Roberts, Matthew Rofe, Isaac Whatson ,
Dylan Wiggins and Jordan Wood .
There is
a stand off between Hills (and I understand Cronulla and
Greater West) with Baseball NSW’s plans for Little
League this season. All three Associations are prepared
not to be eligible to play Little League if necessary.
It results from Baseball NSW’s refusal to recognise
separate Little League competitions as eligibility to
compete in Little League.
Little League does not improve the nine and ten year
olds (who are ineligible to play in the Little
League Tournament anyway). That is to say nothing
with the Under 12 Southern and Eastern Conferences
which last season could not handle 42ft pitching
distance and an 8 1/2” Rubber ball and are expected
to pitch 46 ft and play with a 9” hard ball. Give us
a break!
Really there is no plan here – it’s more of the same
approach to ‘massage’ the rules into something that
may fit the situation just to get the Associations
to agree. The 12 year olds that are too old for
Under 12 but eligible for Little League as they were
born on or after 1 May can still play Under 14 –
they don’t have to play in a Little League
competition…so why isn’t that considered a separate
competition?
The
Under 12 Representative Competition is played with
an 8 ½” ball equivalent to the Kenko ball over 48ft
x 70ft (greater than Little League distance)- yet
players of far less ability have to handle greater
playing distances than they are capable of handling
and doing it with a harder and larger ball. However,
I have a feeling that they will attempt to change
that decision of the JLSC.
While in
Japan I purchased six “Kenko’ bats. They are 72cm in
length (28.3”), 540 gram (19oz) and 2 1/2”dia. The cost
was equivalent to $A 42 each. As far as I am concerned
it is first in first served. There are some very nice
bats on the market. While I was in Japan I saw a carbon
and glass bat. I guess it was about 30” long and 450
gram (16 oz) – it had a beautiful feel but would not
comply with our rules. Cost was $A91.
We are
still seeking an Assistant Coach and a Manager for the
representative Youth League team.
Dennis Grogan has been offered the position of
Manager of the Under 14 team. Tim Mc Callum has
accepted the position of the Under 12 Manager.
The
only nominations for the coaching staff of Under 14
Association Cup team were Raff Petrone and Steve
Holloway.
• We
have been approached by a Cumberland player to transfer
and play Youth League for Hills. His mother has spoken
to Baseball NSW’s Competition Secretary and his opinion
is - because the player’s club team played in Hills
competition and that since the player did not play for
Cumberland Youth League last year that he is entitled to
play for Hills if he wishes. Wonder if they even thought
to ask what competition they were playing this year?
Standing down a season appears to have become
retrospective. Dear oh dear what a mess they are in
administratively and with rules – all of their own
doing.
The
Executive just don't agree with this - there are no
rules with this mob. The player has never been
registered in Hills nor has he paid any fees to
Hills. Cumberland clubs register with (and pay)
Cumberland, this example is a reason why.
As
far as I am concerned the player does not play for
Hills. Not our problem if the team is not good
enough for him or he doesn't like the coach.
Unless otherwise directed Hills will continue to
support what used to be the eligibility rule under
NSWJBL – when you change Association without
changing address you are ineligible to play
representative baseball for one season.
The
player will probably make the State Team this year.
Having said that, it does not alter my opinion.
The
Winter competitions have been finalized. Under 16 was
won by NSWJBL World Series team defeating Winston Hills
8-5 Under 14 was won by Blacktown defeating Baulkham
Hills by a run Under 12 went to Quakers Hill, defeating
Dragons 10-8.
We
need to tighten up our rules for next season in
relation to eligibility age; they were ignored in
this competition.
Barry
Shipley is intensive care in Westmead Hospital suffering
from meningitis. He is in an induced coma.
Hills
have only nominated one team in Association Cup, that
being the Under 14 age group.
It
was obvious from the numbers attending both the
Under 12 and Under 16 representative trials that we
just did not have sufficient numbers to field
anything like a ‘balanced’ team. The pitching and
catching depth was simply not there, nor was it
close to being there.
The
Development plans for summer are similar to last summer.
We will again have the services of Trent Oeltjen from
November. We will make him available to clubs at their
venue on basically an as required basis. Not sure of
what nights at this stage as it depends upon what days /
nights that Trent organizes his own training regime. The
pitchers and catchers training mid week which was badly
disrupted by rain last year – will again be repeated
this year. I need to confirm the availability of a venue
with lights.
The
Little League team performed well and at one stage would
have thought that they could have made it at least to
the final game – but that was not to be. They got off to
a bad start unexpectedly losing to Indonesia 3-2. They
atoned for that defeat with a 2-1 win over the fancied
CNMI (Saipan).
That
was followed up with a 9-4 win over New Zealand. At
that stage of the competition they and Guam were the
leading teams in the Pacific Region. The 4-2 loss to
Philippines (who produced a ‘gun’ pitcher, equipped
with a very effective curve ball) put paid to the
team’s dream.
That
loss was followed up with a 5-0 loss to the eventual
winners of Asia – Pacific Tournament – Guam which
defeated Hong Kong in the final.
Overall we should be extremely pleased with the
effort. We are National Champions and we were
creditable on the World Stage. We could match it
with everyone when we had our top rotation
available. This is an excellent effort when you
consider that we were up against it due to our lack
of depth in the squad.
The
trip was one that the players will never forget.
Undoubtedly there are lessons to be learnt, there
are from every tournament.
The
Executive has not had the time to conduct a debrief
with team management. With a venue like Disneyland
there were always going to be a lot of distractions
- unfortunately those distractions far outweigh
Baseball in the minds of 11 and 12 year olds.
There was a lot of wasted effort and money through
poor communication. The ABF would not talk to either
Peter or I direct – we had to go through Baseball
NSW and they did not have the answers either. It was
never a Hills team it was an ABF team. It was a case
of the right hand never knew what the left hand was
doing.
Riverstone Bowling Club is the venue for the Rules night
on 25th August. 7.00pm for 7.15 pm start.
The
practical training organization session and explanation
of rules for T Ball and Mod Ball coaches will be held at
Castle Glen on Sunday 31st August at 9.30am. It will
take approximately 2 hours.
I wrote
to all clubs regarding the purchase of equipment. Not
all clubs replied. We have stocks of the Kenko C class
ball, the K500 ball for Under 8 and T Ball gloves at
$21.50 each. I will have a large quantity of
Wilson 1010 baseballs available next week – they will be
available @ $58.00 dozen. If you require any equipment
please contact me.
We
conducted two camps in July school holidays. Neither
were well attended, in fact one run at a small loss. We
will continue to offer such programs in an attempt to
improve the playing standard.
It is
rumoured that the Institute will cease after this
season.
Cost in
one Association to play representative baseball is $500.
Hills’ cost of $25 is insignificant compared to that
figure.
Mr.
Yard believes that Hills should have the right to say
where Kyle Darroch, Kirby McIntosh and Ben Macerola play
this season if Kings Langley cannot nominate a team. Mr.
Yard stated that if it is not possible to field a Hills
Kings team then the three players should not all play
for the same team. It only becomes relevant if all three
are selected in the Hills’ Youth League team.
The
Secretary’s report was accepted. |
