Annual Report to VSA

Annual Report to VSA - 2004 / 2005 Season

The 2004 / 2005 season was one to remember as after many months of planning and organising, the hard work came to fruition and was rewarded with the successful hosting of the 2005 Victorian Open State Softball Championships on the weekend of November 20th & 21st at our home grounds in Sale.

This was the inaugural hosting of an Open Championship by our association following the hosting of the U19 tournament in 1998, and the U14 tournaments in 1993, 1988 and 1984. This tournament promised and delivered some of the highest quality softball ever played in this region.

With less than ideal weather beforehand, we were fortunate to have perfect weather over the duration of the tournament, which complemented the superbly prepared playing fields and surrounding grounds.

With a total of nineteen men's and women's teams competing in both A & B grades, the hopeful fairytale finish of our own women's team winning their first Open Championship on home soil in front of a home crowd unfortunately did not eventuate, with the team finishing in a credible third place. After finishing runners up in the previous championship, their task was made extra difficult with the withdrawal of the C grade division and the resulting promotion to B grade, with six teams vying for a spot in the final.

The team performed exceptionally well to record wins against Sunshine, Dandenong and Keilor Park, but with losses against Glen Eira and Frankston, resulted in a third place finish. A big thank you to all those involved in the team, especially to the players who gave it their best shot and to all those members who contributed their time over the weekend to ensure the successful hosting of this tournament.

It had been hoped that a men's team could also have participated, but due to restrictions on pickup players this failed to eventuate. A men's masters team is now being considered and may be a better proposition to fielding a team.

In our local competitions, our Open Mixed Twilight competition commenced the season with five teams. The loss of the Grammar team from last season was overcome with the inclusion of the new Allstars team, comprising of junior t-ballers (& some parents) from last seasons junior competition. Again a double header was played under lights to avoid a team playing a bye.

The two teams that dominated all season, Sale Par 3 Sluggers and New Jays deservedly played off in the grand final. New Jays had a harder road to the final by first having to defeat T.N.T in the preceding semi final.

In the grand final, New Jays had the edge in defence in the pitching department and with strong batting set up a sizeable lead midway through the game. From here on New Jays were not challenged and recorded a 16 - 4 victory to become premiers for the third season in a row. After finishing third last season, the Sale Par 3 team will be striving to go one step further next season.

In the lead up to the junior season VSA Development Officer Andy Bailey and Director of Coaching Geoff Ritchie conducted a large number of well attended and successfully run clinics at local and surrounding town's schools. With up to 1300 children participating in these clinics, the start of the junior season looked very promising.

Disappointingly only a relatively small number of children went on to become involved in our Saturday morning competition. A washed out "come & try day" just before the school holidays didn't help matters either. Although it must be said that without these new players involvement, our junior competitions would have been placed in dire straits.

The Prep, Grade 1 & 2 T-ball competition only managed to have just enough players for four teams, with some teams only relying on seven or eight regular players to take the diamond each week. Still all those involved enjoyed the challenge as skills improved as the season progressed. Next season this competition may need to expand to include suitable grade 3 players, with the option for them to play in the Junior Modball competition if they so desire.

Last seasons Grade 3 - 6 T-ball competition became an U13 Junior Modball competition this season, with the emphasis on giving the older players the challenge of hitting a pitched ball while still giving the opportunity for the younger players to hit off a tee. The baseball club play a similar coach pitch game in the off season, so it was important to have consistency in rules between the two games. The idea being players can go between the two competitions, hopefully retaining a higher retention rate for both sports.

The committee and coaches devised a set of coach pitch rules which were trialled in the first few weeks and then further modified to best suit the needs of the players as the season progressed. The season started with four teams, but as in many instances, a RAAF posting resulted in the eventual withdrawal of the Araluen team mid season. Fortunately most of the remaining players were picked up by the other three teams.

545 Whitetails went into the grand final against Sale City Sluggers on a winning streak, having won their last five games in succession. As both teams had finished on six wins for the season, the final was always going to be a close affair. The Whitetails had a handy lead midway through the game, but to their credit the Sluggers fought back to almost snatch victory, with the Whitetails hanging on for a 13 - 11 victory.

Once again a well deserved thank you to our Saturday morning set up crew , who also performed umpiring duties in the t-ball and modball games as well.

The Slowpitch Corporate Challenge, now in its sixth season, saw the return of the four teams from the previous year. Ramahyuck were once again the team to beat, with the newly named Lo-Ded.com being the only team to chalk up a win against them in the nine game preliminary rounds.

The "winner take all final" was always going to be an evenly matched and keenly contested game, with either team capable of winning. In a low scoring contest, Ramahyuck managed to edge ahead in the dying minutes of the game to score a 9 - 6 victory. Ramahyuck's perfect record in finals appearances was maintained with its fifth victory. Emphasis next season will be on recruiting extra players / teams and hopefully returning the Corporate Challenge to its six team format.

Our representative masters team Gippy Girls were promoted to A grade at the Victorian Masters this year and found the level of competition quite a challenge to end up finishing fifth. For the next master's tournament in June 2005, a mens team is being considered.

In closing I would like to welcome Warren Sanders to our Executive Committee and to thank him for all his work over the past season. Warren, David & Ellie Johnson and Russell Booth deserve special mention for their contribution to the successful hosting of the Open Championships. On the other hand I would like to farewell Lynette Bennett after two seasons and Del Donoghue after five seasons of contributing to the successful running of the Association. Over the past six seasons Del has made a huge contribution to the junior t-ball competitions through her active involvement with the 545 teams and we hope Del can continue to be a part of Saturday morning activities in the following seasons.

Ross Game

President.

Season Summary