Baseball Victoria has been up in Mildura all week delivering a community engagement program across schools and the community in the Sunraysia area as part of the State Winter Championships program.
On Thursday we headed to the Mildura Baseball Fields to run a series of clinics for the young baseball players of Mildura. Matt Whyte, BV’s School Sports Co-ordinator led the sessions, assisted by Jeff Paull , Taylor Crotty and Kelsey Quinn. Over 100 kids joined in with the activities, with ages ranging from 5 – 16. There were so many in fact that the participants had to be spit up into 3 groups; 2 for under 11’s and 1 for the older children.
The groups began with fielding and glove work drills before progressing to a tee drill. Players split into two teams and had to hit off the tee and run around a series of cones as many times as they could before the fielding team returned the ball to the top of the tee.
Matt Whyte was pleased with the great turnout and said “I think the kids had a great time, there are lots of smiling faces here and some really good skills going on. It’s fantastic to be up here and engaging with the Mildura baseball community. They’re an important part of the Baseball Victoria landscape and hopefully the clinics help get the kids even more motivated to play baseball.”
We have visited a number of schools over the week introducing baseball and T-ball to over 250 children. Schools have placed posters on their noticeboards and were excited to be trying a sport new to many of the children and teachers. They were very appreciated of our effort and hopefully this will see the Sunraysia Baseball League gain some new participants in the future.
We have visited a number of schools over the week introducing baseball and T-ball to over 250 children. Schools have placed posters on their noticeboards and were excited to be trying a sport new to many of the children and teachers. They were very appreciated of our effort and hopefully this will see the Sunraysia Baseball League gain some new participants in the future.
These clinics together with the Winter State Championships are part of Baseball Victoria’s wider strategy to help strengthen the interest in baseball in regional areas. The added exposure and extra tourists to both Mildura and Morwell will also benefit the host clubs as they try to grow their own baseball communities.