December 13, 2018

 

For the fourth consecutive year Calgary West Little League (CWLL) experienced an increase in registrants, with nearly 100 teams wearing CWLL uniforms and filling diamonds on the west side of Calgary in 2018. These numbers resulted in the CWLL executive, approximately 300 rostered coaches, and countless other volunteers dedicating thousands of combined hours towards ensuring the nearly 1060 registrants’ baseball experience was enjoyable while offering the opportunity to establish new friendships and hopefully create lifelong fans of this great game.

 

The growth experienced over the last four years has meant a corresponding growth in required coaches and umpires. To help our coaches succeed, CWLL partnered with a third party to implement a successful coach development program, which will continue in 2019. As for our league umpires, CWLL established in-season communications to help with development, as well as in-person feedback from our umpire-in-chief. In addition, the league outfitted all umpires with new equipment (subsidized based on number of games umpired). Developing our coaches and umpires is critical for CWLL to remain a league that attracts area families.

 

CWLL also continued to look for ways to improve the on-field development and opportunities of our players. Traditional events once again offered included:

 

In addition to these events, CWLL also added the hosting of a 16-team Minors House League Tournament at Shouldice Park to its schedule, with the CWLL Orioles winning gold.A unique opportunity was presented to CWLL in 2018 which was to utilize the newly opened Rose Field at Stanley Park, operated by Rocky Mountain Little League, for CWLL games. In total we scheduled over 40 major and minor games at this amazing facility which provided our kids with a baseball experience they will not soon forget. I would like to thank Rocky Mountain Little League for this opportunity and particularly Allan Chatenay who went out of his way to treat our players, coaches and parents with the utmost respect and always helped make our time on that diamond special. We look forward to continuing this relationship in 2019.

 

I am happy to say that our league has once again been able to provide these extra on-field and off-field development opportunities without increasing our registration fees in 2018 and they will remain the same in 2019.

 

In addition to providing our kids with the opportunity to experience the wonderful game of baseball, we feel that this league provides its families with the opportunity to get to know each other a little better. In addition to regular games where this can take place, we also continued our tradition of hosting Opening Day as a full-day of activities at Springbank Park For AllSeasons and hosted our now 3rd annual First Pitch Parent Social, this year at Richmond Pub. Our social media presence also continued to grow with much more effort spent supporting our CWLL Facebook and Twitter accounts.

 

A special thank-you to Marchuk Roofing which donated a significant amount of labour to CWLL to shingle our Optimist Park equipment shed (if you saw it these past few years, you will know it was needed!). As a volunteer, non-profit organization, offers such as this help us keep registration fees stable while also helping to ensure funds we do have are directed towards our kids’ on-field experience as much as possible.

 

Our 2019 season officially begins January 1 with the opening of online registration. A primary goal for the season is to begin addressing the one area where CWLL is lagging other leagues, the condition and maintenance of our diamonds. From improved safety fencing, to improved mound maintenance, to significant improvements to Optimist 6, these are all areas that we need to begin making progress on. Apart from that, we will look to stabilize our recent growth and development initiatives to make them standard CWLL operational activities.

 

As customary, I want to thank all our volunteers who coached, sent emails, kept score, counted pitches, umpired, prepared the fields, got the kids to their practices and games on time...our kids’ baseball experience is directly tied to your efforts. I also want to especially thank the small group of volunteers that comprise our league Executive. Not everyone knows the time and energy you put into making CWLL the successful Little League it is, but I do, and I want to personally say thanks...it truly is a great team to work with!

 

With respect to the league Executive, we are saying goodbye to two members who have been critical to the success of our Rookie Ball, Minors and Majors divisions over the past 4 years: Tamara Remillard (Rookie Ball Coordinator) and Glen Lindsay (Major/Minor Coordinator). It has been a pleasure having the two of you on-board handling much of the evaluation, scheduling, and general problem solvers for these divisions. Thanks to the both of you.

 

As for myself, I am announcing that 2019 will be my last as President. I’m hopeful that a successor can be identified relatively soon to utilize as much of 2019 for transition as possible. Being CWLL President is a fantastic experience but I truly believe the league is stronger and more successful if there is regular turnover of this position as new ideas as well as an infusion of energy is required to keep the league strong. I am definitely looking forward to 2019 and ensuring it will be another great season!

 

Sincerely,

Kevin Gerla

President

Calgary West Little League