Message from General Manager

A message to the Baseball South Australia family,

I wanted to reach out to the Baseball SA community to further update you on where all things baseball lie now that we have concluded season 2019/20 and finished with a bang as we rolled out 7 nights of Capps Medal, senior presentations in early April. I think you will all agree with me, in these challenging and uncertain times, the Capps Medal Award count was outstanding, a fine job done by Baseball SA President, Mark Snelgrove. Thank you Mark for your time and energy that went into creating the final night, I know it is a monumental task and you delivered it professionally maintaining the elitism deserved by the Capps Award.

As I’m sure it has been for all of you – it has been a difficult time for all of us at Baseball South Australia as we were presented with a challenging situation and were forced to make decisions that we never thought we would have to consider. I understand the season did not end how any of us had expected with the Baseball SA Board having to make the difficult decision to cease operations and competition immediately. We had seen such a strong, solid season played out until then and I sympathise with clubs and players who felt the brunt of the decision, but again, it was one that had to be made. I am so very grateful for and proud of the baseball community for how they have dealt with these challenges and supported Baseball SA in navigating our way through the storm.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many contributors to our sport over the season gone by. You, the member, parents and families, clubs, club presidents, club committees, volunteers, umpires, scorers, coaches and the amazing Baseball SA staff and Board of Directors. All are integral to the success of the sport and without these valuable people our sport would not thrive as it does and we would not see the game played week after week.

A big thank you goes to those individuals who also put their hands up to sit on some of our external committees, those on the Women’s and Girls Advisory Committee, Baseball Umpires Association SA, SA Baseball Scorers Association, SA Country Baseball Association, the BSA Tribunal, Super League Committee and Competitions Review Committee. It doesn’t stop there though, Baseball SA have many volunteers involved in our State and Charter teams, including coaching staff, Executive Officers and General Managers, who spent countless hours coordinating trials, trainings and logistics around the tournaments and travel all for the betterment of the sport. For your tireless and selfless commitment and passion, we are extremely grateful.

The service and dedication shown by all volunteers involved in our sport assures the future of baseball in South Australia and we will continue to work with you to promote development and growth and provide new opportunities to maintain the professionalism and high standards set in SA.

Throughout the season we had many positives, with a new partnership with CMI Toyota, an increase in membership numbers from 2679 in 2018/19 to 3512 in 2019/20, increased regional activities with sporting schools programs in Port Pirie, country clinics run in Mt Gambier, a new membership and competition platform with Revolutionise Sport and a brand new website increasing communications and information sharing. We also saw three bronze medals brought home to SA by our three State teams, Women’s Open, U16 and U18 boys teams.

Moving forward through the offseason now, Baseball SA will continue to work on new initiatives and programs to be delivered on line. These will include our brand new Podcast series “The Change Up”, four week at home online workouts now on the Baseball SA website, Backyard Baseball skills and drills videos on Facebook and YouTube and various competitions and opportunities on social media. We are also working towards live online education sessions over the coming 3 months for coaches, umpires, scorers and high performance athletes. Stay tuned for more updates. The Baseball SA staff are full steam ahead in preparation for when we can return to play and are slowly returning to the office in small groups to network with peers and work together on joint projects.

A full review is being undertaken on the season gone by, with a survey recently sent to all clubs to complete following consultation with their committees. This will provide Baseball SA with valuable information as we start to look at the structure for our competitions and events in 2020/21. The off season will also allow the staff and Board to address many projects and ideas that have been placed on our “Parking Lot”, which is a great opportunity that has presented itself to have the time to look at these.

The Board of Baseball SA will this year begin the process to review the strategic plan, as the current plan was a four year plan covering 2017 – 2020. With many of the key objectives set under the strategic pillars having been met, it is timely to review and set new objectives and strategic outcomes for the next 5 years, that will ensure we continue to grow and develop and deliver a sustainable sport model.

Baseball South Australia will continue to work with the Winterball Association regarding the upcoming winter season, with the hope that we will be able to see some form of winter competition rolled out in July 2020, however it is too early to commit to a date and we will again be guided by the advice from the Australian and state Health Departments.

Baseball South Australia remains committed to our members and clubs and will strive to deliver a bigger and better baseball competition in 2020/21, creating more opportunities for more people to play and be involved in our fantastic sport.

We urge the baseball community to adhere to the restrictions in place and review all health information available. In the meantime look after yourselves, your families, your friends and the people doing it tough in your communities.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to myself or any of the staff at Baseball SA.

Sarah Kelly
General Manager
Baseball South Australia