In the eighth of 10 provincial association profiles, Baseball Canada speaks with Baseball Nova Scotia Executive Director Brad Lawlor about the 2006 season.
BASEBALL CANADA (BCAN) – In no particular order, what five initiatives are you looking forward to the most for the 2006 baseball season?
1. Baseball Canada National Convention
BRAD LAWLOR (BL) – The National convention is going to be held at the Delta Halifax November 1 to 5 and it’s something that we haven’t done for a long time so we’re going to try to make it a memorable event for everybody. We’re going to try to make it a more interactive event that it may have been in the past. Firstly we’ll look to get Baseball Canada’s high performance coaches involved by working with some of the kids and maybe even having access a Question and Answer Period with Ernie Whitt, our guest speaker, or Greg Hamilton.
We have some special events planned already in large part due to our committee, which has been at it for the last six months. We’re looking at holding a family day where the spouses and children of those who are in meetings will have activities to do during the day. It’ll give everybody the opportunity to come to this event, enjoy it and not be stressed with other things.
We’re really trying to entice people to bring their families and make the event about more than just meetings. For example, we have Casino Nova Scotia involved who is going to give out some tokens and have a Casino night. We’re also looking at getting involved with the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League to see if box seats would be available at that time. We’re also looking at arranging something with the “Harbour Hopper” which sails around the harbour and allows people to see the sights the east coast has to offer.
BCAN - What was the process in securing National Senior Team Field Manager and Toronto Blue Jays Bench Coach Ernie Whitt as this year’s guest speaker?
BL – We contacted him over a year and a half ago to invite him to our Baseball Nova Scotia Awards Banquet last year and he said that he would have absolutely loved to be able to come, but that the timing was bad because he had previous engagements. We just called him again and he said he would be delighted to come.
He has such a great passion for Canadian baseball and he’s extremely well known down in this area. A lot of that has to do with his playing days with the Jays, but also with the amount of exposure he’s gotten by coaching the Olympic team in 2004 and the World Baseball Classic this past March.
2. Rally Cap Program
BL – We’ve run out of hats and can’t get anymore. That’s how popular this program is. The associations that have picked it up are doing a great job with the program and they’re seeing the benefits in the way that other kids are trying to join their association. The associations that aren’t taking part in the program yet are seeing this and are in the process of catching up. I think the majority of the associations in Nova Scotia, especially in the mainland, will be participating in the Rally Cap Program by 2007.
We were a little slow in getting the word out for the first year of the program, but now that it’s out there and that people know about it, there have been a lot of requests. We know it’s one of these programs that will assist us in maintaining and generating membership. It’s a well-structured program that runs on one-hour time frames and focuses on development and fun. That’s exactly what people want.
That one-hour time frame is huge because there isn’t another program in baseball that offers it. There are a lot of delays in baseball, especially at that level. They’re getting the technical skills the development and the teachings in a wide array of aspects of the game in an extremely fun and productive environment.
3. Winterball/Blastball Program
BL - This is another program that really caught big time last year. We’re seeing a lot of benefits from this right now and every year we get the kits we sell out of them quickly.
There are couple of associations that have come back to us with some extremely positive news. One of these, the Fall River Area, had about 200 kids in their system two years ago prior to introducing the Winterball program. After incorporating the Winterball Program and Blastball kits into their schools two years ago, there are now over the 300 mark. There’s another area in Cape Breton that has seen an increase of 67 members over the last year, with only one kit.
We’re hearing from the gym teachers that the kids are really liking the game of baseball and asking questions about how they can get involved in the sport. And that again goes back to the fact that Winterball is a fun program. The honking base and the variety of games you can play with the kit really bring out the fun in the game and at the same time exposes the kids to the basic skills that they need.
The gym teachers absolutely love it because the entire program is just laid out so well. They get their practice plans for the different levels, the instructional video that comes with the kits, plus all the kids get their participant guides, so right off the bat it becomes an interactive and engaging experience.
4. Boundary Changes
BL – Our boundaries at Baseball Nova Scotia haven’t been changed in a really long time so we had to re-evaluate how our districts and regions were zoned. As a result, we started a project pilot this year that aims at better defining the boundaries, protect the small associations to promote growth and keep kids in their area. People in those associations are working very hard to build their associations so we’re trying to build some sort of sustainability around them.
We’re also trying to get more kids the opportunity to compete at the provincial level, so we’ve expanded our number of regions, so that there are now fewer teams in each region. As a result these teams will have a greater chance of getting to the provincials. The provincial is such a great tournament that we want to expose more kids to the event.
In addition to that we incorporated a recreational (R) division two years ago. We now have a provincial ® tournament in Mosquito, Peewee and Bantam. These are true house league teams that are playing in house leagues all year round. It gives these house league teams an equal opportunity to participate in a provincial tournament, which is a really positive experience.
5. Coaching Development
BL – We’re really trying to think outside of the box as far as developing coaches is concerned and that means looking beyond just getting them certified. We’re in the process of creating a business plan for coaching development in our province and we’re looking at the possibility of introducing a number of initiatives that could help.
For example, we’re looking at having high-performance coaches come in and hold clinics where less experienced coaches could learn new drills, practice plans and other things that could help them along. There wouldn’t be any extra certification attached to these clinics, but it would certainly help improve the quality of coaching across the board.
We’re going to try to monitor our coaches more closely and more effectively to ensure that they everything they need in order to coach in addition trying to get more people involved in coaching. We want to make sure that we have the resources available for them. We’d like to have a more complete library of materials here at the office or at least be able to point coaches in the right direction to find what they’re looking for.
Coming up!
Play Ball 2006! P.E.I. Amateur Baseball Association
Play Ball 2006! Baseball Newfoundland
