Baseball Victoria is pleased to announce the following updates regarding the 2015/2016 Junior Competition.
Charters
Over the last couple of months, Baseball Victoria has been consulting with all charters and clubs in rolling out and finalizing the charters for the upcoming seasons.
During this consultation period, it has become clear that there were a number of challenges that existed, which we have attempted to alleviate by realigning the charters.
Some of the challenges are a by-product of a junior structure that has not been adjusted for over 30 years. The new junior structure will help address some of these challenges, however, other areas still need to be reviewed such as the junior criteria, how we recruit participants, ensuring a quality entry-level program and changing the way we deliver the sport. Increasing our resources within each charter by having a Charter Development Coach and Officer will assist in improving our sport.
The main changes that have occurred during the consultation period:
The charters for the Little League Major, Junior League and Senior League will be as follows:
Southern Mariners
Eastern
Berwick
Bonbeach
Cheltenham
Chelsea
Moorabbin
Sandringham
Springvale
Blackburn
Ormond
Malvern
Melbourne
Upwey
Waverley
Northern Diamondbacks
Geelong Baycats
Doncaster
Essendon
Fitzroy
Newport
Preston
Sunshine
Werribee
Williamstown
Made up of local
Geelong Clubs
The Western Mets charter will conduct a Little League Minor competition on Friday nights and Berwick and Pakenham Pumas will also form a Little League Minor Charter.
Baseball Victoria is still working with some clubs which may result in further clubs joining the above charters.
Charter Academy Program
In 2015/2016, Baseball Victoria is pleased to launch the charter academy program. The academy program is a high level competition. It will be a competition-based academy program that picks the best players from both the Little League and Junior League age groups, in order to provide high quality competition games for those players as well as an academy training program. The sessions will be held on Saturday mornings alternating each week between training and playing games against the other charter academy teams.
Originally the cost to participate in this program was $420. However, Baseball Victoria (BV) is pleased to announce that it has been able to source funding from Sports and Recreation Victoria (SRV), with Victorians More Active funding that will significantly subsidise this program for 2015/2016. This has enabled us to reduce the cost to participate in the charter academy program to $250. Note: BV and each of the Charters will endeavor to look at future funding opportunities to keep the cost of all Charter programs from 2015 – 16 onwards to a minimum.
Charter Development Coaches and Officers:
Baseball Victoria is pleased to announce the following appointments for the roles in each charter:
Charter
Charter Development Coach
Charter Development Officer
Southern Mariners
John Carlile
Chris Kennedy
Eastern
Chris Harman
TBA
Northern Diamondbacks
Paul Brown
Bronwyn Gell
Geelong Baycats
TBA
Joshua Beaumont
Western Mets
N/A
Bronwyn Gell
The charter development coach (CDC) will oversee the charter academy in each charter as well as working to improving the coaching standard within the charter.
The charter development officer (CDO) will be responsible for going to schools on behalf of the clubs in their charter to increase participation in the sport.
Charter Committee:
Each charter will form a committee to be made up of members from clubs within the charter. This committee is formed for the sole purpose of organising and overseeing the charter competitions, charter representative teams and the promotion and development of the sport within the charter. These charter committees are still to be formed. Once finalised clubs will be advised of the members of the committees.
Baseball Victoria would like to take this opportunity to thank all clubs for their patience and the valuable feedback and assistance provided during the consultation period. The changes we are implementing are significant changes that would not be possible without your assistance and support.