MATTHEW LAWMAN - Newly appointed club coach for Newport Baseball Club.
The Newport Baseball Club are excited to announce the appointment of Matthew Lawman as club coach for the 2015-16 season and beyond. Matt brings a wealth of experience to the role which includes a four year professional stint in the USA (with Minnesota Twins organisation as well as independent ball), time at the VIS Academy and spells in Czech Republic and Austria playing professional, as well as time with the Melbourne Aces.
Matt is a passionate teacher and has developed a sound baseball philosophy along his well-rounded baseball journey. Matt will be ably assisted by Dean Anglin and Dean Malthouse in an exciting restructure of the RAMS baseball program. Newport are looking forward to hitting the 2015-16 season with a great deal of momentum to propel the club forward.
For further information please contact Newport Baseball Club.
Well, the first three week unit of the 2015 program, our term 2 events, run jointly between the Victorian Blind Cricket Association and Guide Doge Victoria, have now been completed. Twelve families registered for the program which included T-Ball, athletics and cycling. The aims of the program are pretty simple.
For the youngsters they are:
· Being given opportunities to participate in a range of sporting and recreational activities with their peers
· Challenging any belief systems that they can’t participate in or get to sporting and recreational activities because of low or no vision
· Learning that participation in sporting and recreational activities is a personal choice based on what they would like to do rather than the notion that they cant either participate or get to venues because of low or no vision
· Learning that that low or no vision is no barrier to participating in sporting and recreational activities for any person of any age or any gender at any level from grass roots all the way through to the elite levels
For the parents they are:
· Simply having fun with and enjoying activities together with their children
· Being able to socialise in a non threatening and fun environment with other parents of blind and vision impaired children
· Learning that that low or no vision is no barrier for their children to be able to participate in sporting and recreational activities
· Learning how they can adapt activities to enable their blind and vision impaired children to participate
· Learning the possibilities of what their blind and vision impaired children can achieve if only they are given the opportunities
· Learning there are no boundaries to their blind and vision impaired children being able to do anything they want to in sporting and recreational activities at any level from grass roots to all the way through to elite levels
The term kicked on May 17th with T-Ball. The participants learnt the basics of fielding, throwing, batting and running bases before implementing all the acquired skills in an all in game involving both parents and children. A very special thanks to Baseball Victoria for kindly providing all the equipment needed for the day.
On May 24th Athletics was the order of the day. After warm ups it was long jump, triple jump, shot put and discus before all manner of races including relays. Again, everyone including parents participated in all the activities. A very special thanks to the State-wide Vision Resource Centre for kindly providing all the track and field equipment.
For the final day for term 2, May 31st we shifted gear taking to the bike paths. Leaving Kooyong mums, dads, boys, girls, brothers and sisters all mounted their charges and followed the bike path towards the city. Seeking refuge at one point for a short time under the MacRobertson Bridge to avoid being caught in a heavy shower, the convoy proceeded onto the Botanical Gardens where they took time out for a rest, hot chocolates, coffees and the like avoiding a heavy down pour and waiting for the weather to clear up before continuing on their way. Back on the bikes and after returning to Kooyong it was time to fire up the BBQ and enjoy a well earned lunch. Again, the day would not have been possible without the support of organizations providing the necessary equipment and this time it was thanks to Blind Sports Victoria and Guide Dogs Victoria for kindly providing the tandem bikes that helped make the day such a success.
Now it’s time for a break until we are back again for the term 3 program when we take on goalball, basket ball, swish, indoor bowls and bocce before the term finale when we try our hand (or is that our feet?) at ice skating.
Thanks to all our families who joined in the various activities. We trust you enjoyed the days as much as we did seeing how enthusiastically everyone participated. Don’t forget to tell all your friends about the fun you have had and we look forward to seeing you all back again on August 9th when we can all once again “Get Physical” at our term 3 program.
The emphasis of the updated structure is to add value to our charters, clubs and participants and to complete alignment with Baseball Australia’s Pathway.
Ashley Blair from BV has been conducting the Charter sessions, outlining the changes to the way Baseball will be delivered across Victoria, with a large component of this being the valuable feedback received from Charter stakeholders.
Some of the key factors in making these changes are:
Alignment with Little League International and the National curriculum for player development
Ensuring the pathway is set up to gain, train, and retains players, coaches and officials
An environment of success
Improve the way we deliver Junior Baseball in Victoria
In essence, the new Junior Structure allows Baseball Victoria to deliver the sport under a localised structure as well as provide resources to assist in growing and developing participants within a charter region. The Charters themselves will control a large percentage of the activities within their respective Charter in conjunction with BV. It is important that Baseball is delivered with a localised mentality which fundamentaly underpins the State and National pathway system i.e. take the game to the people, rather than the people always having to come to BV.
As Ashley Blair has outlined, this is the most significant development in Victorian Junior Baseball in 30 years. A Competition-based development program in addition to player development, the new junior baseball structure also provides Coach and Umpire development all supporting Baseball Victoria’s primary goals of (1) Gain, (2) Train, and (3) Retain.
The formal Charter consultation process due to be completed by the end of July has been completed, and all feedback is being collated and the findings returned to the Charters for review and further consultation. This second round of consultation will help shape the look and feel of each Charter.
Neale Price, CEO, was a guest on the 3RPP radio show and fielded a number of questions in regards to reduced funding from Baseball Australia through to the new Charter modelling.
Further information on the new Junior Structure can be found in the New Junior Structure Executive Summary document. Click Here to view the document.
Baseball Victoria is pleased to announce Dean Marnell as the Head Coach of the 2015 U25 Program.
Dean has been an assistant coach in this program for the last two years and was also an Assistant coach with the Melbourne Aces for the 2014/2015 season. As well as this Dean was the head coach of the Cal Ripken teams in 2013 and 2014 plus in 2015 will also be an assistant coach for the U12 Australian World Cup team. Dean won back to back division 2 premierships in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 seasons with Williamstown.
The U25 National Championships will be played in Cairns from the 5th to the 10th of September 2015. Baseball Victoria will be conducting trials for this program on 8th and 15th of July with the team to be announced by the 20th of July 2015.
The training venue and times will be released in the coming weeks.
Training sessions for the final team will be conducted in August.
Baseball Victoria is excited to have the program overseen by someone as capable as Dean, and encourage all players to attend the trials.
Baseball Victoria is now seeking expressions of interests to participate in this program. If you are interested, please complete the following survey:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/FPL7RSL