Annual Report to VSA

Annual Report to VSA for Season 1998 / 1999

After six years of waiting, only a mere $80,000.00 over budget and nearly two years behind schedule it finally happened, we are in our new clubrooms. Wonderful, how exciting, your thinking well it was for less than three months, then council officers decided to change the ground rules bringing in ridiculously high charges and taking away the management from the user groups/ share holders. Negotiations are still under way. The moral to this story is don't trust men wearing yellow ties (it used to be red ones)

In conjunction with the Baseball Club we are continuing to improve our playing facilities. The main diamond has a new six-metre high mesh fence from 1st to 3rd base and new fully enclosed dugouts. All the diamonds now have scoria batting boxes, Scorer's huts have been built on two and another set of dugouts are being modified and enlarged on another. This season also began the start of the gradual replacement of Association uniforms.

Again this year we endeavored to increase awareness and participation in our sport by delivering 5000 pamphlets to homes in Sale and the nearby town of Stratford. It proved to be quite successful attracting enough new players to create two new teams in our "Open Mixed" competition. Overall our numbers are remaining fairly static at about the 300 mark. Like most Associations increased competition from other sports, work and family commitments and for country Associations young people leaving town for tertiary studies takes its toll on the membership.

This year we combined with Bairnsdale to create a larger Open Women's competition this will hopefully renew interest and provide greater challenges for those teams competing. A night time Men's competition was started but unfortunately the weather was against us and with so many of the younger players having to study for their exams the competition folded after several weeks.

The Bairnsdale Association also came to our rescue by providing players and officials to support our U16 and U19 Girls Representative teams for the State Championships, however we did manage to enter both the U13 Boys and Girls and U16 Boys teams in our own right. Our immediate problem is a lack of commitment from members to become qualified officials and umpires. The Association presently has only 3 active Coaches, 1 Scorer and no Umpires.

Played under lights the "A grade" Open Mixed Grand Final followed by the Presentation night was well supported by members. Perpetual Shields were presented to the "A" and "B" grade Winners, both winning teams Raiders "A Grade" and Sinners "B Grade" were teams playing for the first time in the Mixed competition. The combined Open Women's competition was won by Bairnsdale's "Musketeers", the runners up Wellington's Shots. In the local Open Women's competition "Squaws" defeated the "Shots" team. Gippsland Grammar won the U13 Competition with St Mary's Primary School winning the six team Teeball competition.

R Booth

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Season Summary

Wellington Softball Association Inc.

Season 1998 / 99

Grounds Stephenson Park / Rotary Reserve

Committee

President                   Russell Booth

Vice President          Ross Game

Secretary                  Ross Game

Championship Secretary Leanne Heywood

Treasurer                  Jill Kingscott

Assistant Treasurer Rosemary Webster

Registrar                   Barb Henderson

Property Officer       Barb Henderson

Publicity Officer       Sharyn Baldwinson

Grounds Manager    Bruce Garner

Social Secretary       Kim Falls

Social Committee     Members of Mitre 10 Panthers

Registrations

193 members (65 T-ball, 46 junior, 74 senior, 8 non playing)

Teams

Grade 3 & 4 T-Ball

As below

Junior U13 Softball

As below

Open Women

Wellington - Squaws, Shots, Pink Panthers

Bairnsdale - Musketeers, Rebels, Bandits

Open Mixed Twilight

As below

Final Ladders

Open Women Wellington

Squaws            32

Shots               20

Pink Panthers 4

Open Mixed Twilight

Raiders            48

Black Ducks    44

Blue Jays        40

T.N.T               28

Condors          20

Sinners            20

M10 Panthers  16

Swingers          8

Spoons (withdrew)

Silver Brumbies (withdrew)

Junior U13 Softball

Grammar        28

Trapdoors      12

Shots               4

Grade 3 & 4 T-Ball

St Mary's Slidders   40

Araluen Green         32

Grammar                  26

St Mary's Sloggers  26

Araluen Gold            24

Sapphires                   4

Finals

Open Women Wellington                       Squaws d Shots 23-3

Open Women Wellington /Bairnsdale Musketeers d Shots(Squaws?) 2-0

Open Mixed Twilight A                           Raiders d Blue Jays 12-2

Open Mixed Twilight B                           Sinners d M10 Panthers 24-8

Junior U13 Softball                                 Grammar d Trapdoors 14-6

Grade 3 & 4 T-Ball                                   St Mary's Slidders d Grammar 26-18

Regional Championships

U13 Girls Played at Sale

U13 Boys Played at Sale

U16 Girls Played at Sale against West Gippsland, best of 3 games, 3 win 0 loss

U16 Boys Played at Sale against West Gippsland, best of 3 games, 0 win 3 loss

State Championships

U13 Girls     B grade Finished 4th / 6 (1 win from 5 games) at Fawkner Park

U13 Boys    A grade Finished 3rd / 5 (2 wins from 4 games)

U16 Girls    B grade Finished 3rd / 6 (3 wins from 5 games) at Werribee

U16 Boys   B grade Finished 4th / 5 (1 win, 1 draw from 4 games)

U19 Girls   B grade Finished 3rd / 7 (3 wins from 6 games) at Northern Districts

U19 Boys  Not entered

Open Women Not entered

Open Men Not entered

Masters Gippy Girls Won B grade at Victorian Masters Championships.

Season Highlights

Major local membership drive with 5000 flyers delivered to Sale / Wurruk homes and 350 flyers to Stratford homes. From the resulting information nights / practice sessions, four new open mixed teams were formed.

Pre season information sheets sent to all members.

With only three local open women's teams, a combined Open Women's competition with Bairnsdale (also with three teams) was established with a Wellington / Bairnsdale grand final at the seasons end.

Men's competition trialed on a Tuesday night, games played up until Christmas.

Association played host to a round of the Victorian Women's State League competition in November. Along with the ten teams playing, a Bairnsdale team was entered with Wellington players Colleen Henderson and Alison Butler from our Association.

After many seasons of hassling by the Association VSA have finally granted a form of fill in fee for those people wanting to try the game and still have insurance coverage

Clubrooms were finally completed, but troubles with council resulted in tenure and management problems with user groups to be resolved

The back net on diamond 1 (baseball) was extended to protect the clubrooms from foul balls

State selection trials - U19 Colleen Henderson, - U16 Greg Johnston were given the opportunity to try out.

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