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| University baseball tournaments signal development focus on higher education |
John Irving has recently joined BSUK as a National Development Manager, but was also one of the founder members of the British University Baseball Association. In this article, John talks about the important role of further and higher education in bringing new players to our sports.
For many in this country, the baseball and softball seasons have now shut down and the long hiatus until spring has begun. However, while most of us are bedding down for a winter hibernation or a series of games in sports halls, there is one group out there for whom the baseball and softball seasons are just getting underway. They are, of course, the students. For them, it is a new year, a new term and a new chance to show off their skills with bat and ball.
It all kicked off on the weekend of October 17-18 with the British Universities Baseball Fall Cup held at Herts Baseball Club in Hemel Hempstead. This annual tournament, along with its second tier sister event the Fall Shield, played, on October 24-25, provides an early-season outlet for competitive baseball. The aim is to get new players and first-year students playing competitive matches as early in the academic year as possible to retain their interest until the season proper rolls around in the spring.
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Players from the competing universities mingle after the BUBA Fall Cup 2009.
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The value of doing this was demonstrated by the fact that the University of East Anglia were the winners of the two-day Fall Baseball Cup. The UEA team barely played at all in 2008, but showed how valuable good freshman recruitment can be as they out-hit and out played every opponent they came across in 2009.
For a reports on the Fall Cup tournament, click here. For a report on the Fall Shield tournament, click here.
Recruitment
It is recruitment of new players to the game that has kept the flame of student baseball alive and helped it to burn even brighter over the last few years. Universities are a unique environment that provide an ideal setting for the active recruitment of new participants into our sports. Many students have come to university seeking to fill their newly-discovered free time; couple this with a desire to try new sports and an institution that can provide cheap, readily accessible facilities, and it is no wonder that student participation numbers have steadily increased.
When the British University Baseball Association was formed in 2007, there were only four actively competing student baseball clubs across the country: Oxford, Southampton, Nottingham and the aforementioned UEA. Going into 2009-10, this number has more than doubled, with nine teams confirmed for entry in the 2010 Universities Championship. These numbers have not gone unnoticed by BSUK, who as of this year are targeting university participation specifically as part of the wider baseball and softball growth targets laid out in the Whole Sport Plan.
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The University of East Anglia team took home the BUBA Fall Cup trophy.
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Challenges
But Higher Education also presents some challenges to development. First, for a university to accept a new club onto its books, there must be a group of students that has shown an interest in the sport or activity in question. To facilitate this in the case of baseball and softball, and to help discover the wannabe participants, BSUK is arranging to hold a number of “taster sessions” at universities up and down the country.
These sessions, run by BSUK Regional Coaches, will introduce groups of students en masse to the sports. It is hoped that from these sessions, students who get the bug and want to play will come forward and approach their Student Unions with the aim of founding a new club.
Once this is done, there are more hurdles that need to be jumped before a university team can be safely on the road to success. Many new student sports clubs find that their Student Unions will not support them financially until the club has been in existence for at least a year. For equipment-heavy sports like baseball and softball, such a situation can often lead to the death of a new club. This is why BSUK is announcing the launch of equipment “Starter Pack Loans” to help these clubs get off the ground. Each Pack will contain the equipment necessary to get the club through its first few training sessions and into the playing season, including gloves, bats, balls bases, helmets and more. It is hoped that by providing this kind of support, BSUK can turn around some of the attrition often seen in university sport.
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The Next Level
Once these clubs are up and running and looking for places to play, BSUK will help to move them on to the next level by providing a national competitive framework.
In baseball, BSUK will work towards powering the British University Baseball Association, helping it to deliver the competitions it has already founded.
In softball, BSUK is looking at producing a framework from scratch, which will start in December this year with the first-ever BSUK National University Indoor Softball Championship, followed in the spring and summer of 2010 with the provision of regional and national slowpitch tournaments.
Intramural Leagues
However, BSUK recognises that not everyone wants to play sport as part of a competitive and representative travelling squad. So BSUK is also pursuing the introduction of intramural co-ed slowpitch leagues to further and higher education institutions across the country. Many universities have established intramural frameworks already up and running, with friendly and social matches played in a competitive environment between academic departments or Halls of Residence. BSUK feel that this market suits slowpitch softball perfectly, and that it will fit in easily among the small number of other summer sports on offer.
Exciting Times
This is an exciting time to be involved in student baseball and softball and BSUK is doing all that can be done to help take the sports to the next level.
If you are a student at a British university and would like to find out more about bringing baseball and/or softball to your institution, please contact John Irving through the Contacts Page on the BSUK website.
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