OTTAWA- The baseball season in Newfoundland is finally getting into the swing of things after the province experienced some inclement weather in May. This delay affected all associations in the province which have really just begun to start their programs.
“The weather in May and the early part of June was just awful,” says Ken Dawe the Executive Director of Baseball Newfoundland. “Now that school is over our programs are starting up big time.”
One such program is Rally Cap which is gaining popularity all over the province. This year Newfoundland’s biggest association, St. John’s Minor Baseball is adopting the program and will be using it amongst the association’s youngest players. The caps have been distributed all over the province ready for those participants who complete the different levels of the program.
“The Rally Cap program really fits the bill for this age group, it has been accepted very well by all of the associations that are currently using it and that will be using it in the future,” explained Dawe.
The Winterball program which sees baseball skills being taught in a gym class setting has been received very well by the 17 schools that used the program this past year.
“The teachers love it,” said Dawe. “The lesson plans are complete and everything is spelled out for the teachers to do, as a former teacher I really appreciate the detail of the program.”
A challenge that Newfoundland faces is in coaching, and more specifically the transfer of qualifications from the old NCCP to the new system.
“Trying to get coaches to buy into this and communicating the messages is definitely a challenge that we face,” noted Dawe.
Within the coaching program, Newfoundland is also working to overcome the process of certifying coaches by providing them with the workshops and courses necessary to complete their desired level of coaching.
“We have a minimum number of people who are qualified and who are willing and have the time to deliver the courses,” added Dawe. “We are doing everything we can to overcome this.”
A priority on the Baseball Newfoundland agenda is trying to promote the game to girls in the province. Efforts to do this were shown at a girl’s clinic that was held in St. John’s in the month of May. Two Women’s National Team members were on hand to instruct the 45 girls that showed up to the event.
“We were pleasantly surprised with the amount of girl’s that participated,” continued Dawe. “We had no expectation of the amount of girl’s that were going to show up and to see 45 of them was great.”
In addition to the girls clinic plans are underway for a Provincial Tournament which will combine the mosquito and peewee levels. This will provide a competition for the many girls’ only teams that are popping up throughout the province.
