OTTAWA, ON – Ever since the inception of the Rally Cap program in 2006, there are more and more kids participating in baseball.
The towns of Vaughan in Ontario and Beloeil and la Mauricie in Québec have adopted the grass roots program in their community and it has helped them tap in to a new resource.
“The way we can implement a player development program into our grass roots level and the fact that there is a bit of a reward for achieving the different levels. The incentive to play well and to get better is magnified and it gives them something to strive for,” says John Milton, Coordinator for the Rally Cap program in Vaughan.
The Rally Cap program is a nation-wide initiative meant to introduce better tools for players and coaches in order to enhance their first experience with the game of baseball.
“The reactions we get about the program have been positive,” says Milton. “The benefits have been shown just by the increase of participation. The kids really want those caps.”
The impact that the program has had, especially in Québec has been significant. Baseball often finds itself in direct competition with soccer. In Beloeil, there have even been discussions by city officials to take down the baseball diamonds and replace them with soccer fields. But the Rally Cap program has helped renew interest in baseball.
“It has resurrected the game in our region,” says Sylvain Joubert, President of the Baseball Association of Beloeil.
The Baseball Association of Beloeil has documented eight factors as to why the Rally Cap program has been so popular in the region. Those include learning by playing and having fun, Development of the player abilities and confidence at their own rhythm and linking the parents with the child’s baseball development.
“Rather than fighting against soccer, which is very popular in our region, I presented it as something that was complimentary,” says Joubert of his methods of implementing the program.
“When I started in baseball at the novice level, there were 12 kids registered in the region. Once we started with Rally Cap, in three years we went from 12 to 76,” says Marc Hallée, Coordinator of the Rally Cap program in Beloeil.
One of the advantages of Rally Cap says Hallée is the way an exercise can be modified without hindering the objective.
“We would place targets on pylons and the kids would more or less pass the level, but they were starting to lose interest. I consulted one of the parents on how we could change that and she came up with posters of cartoon characters that the kids loved and recognized. The kids loved it and the best part was to see how they would improve in their mechanics with less effort.”
The region of la Mauricie will implement the program this coming season and the President of the Baseball Association of la Mauricie, Philippe Tomlinson hopes to see similar results in his region as there have been in others.
“The bottom line is this can save baseball in our community,” says Tomlinson. “The game’s infrastructure in the region was dying and these programs (Rally Cap and Winterball) can revive it.”
The growth of baseball in Vaughan, Beloeil and la Mauricie are examples how the Rally Cap program can make a difference. In any region anywhere across the country can take advantage of the program. To find out more about Rally Cap, click on the Development link on our website and click on Rally Cap Initiation Program to see what Rally Cap has to offer.
