Little League State Championships
Kingsley Collins, Tuesday, 17 March 2009 The 2009 Little League State Championships will be played over 4-6 April 2009, at the Waverley Baseball Club, Napier Park Glen Waverley.....
Played by an estimated 80 million youngsters throughout the world each year, Little League has taken Australian baseball by storm and is a very attractive alternative for parents looking to get their children involved in a team activity that nurtures a strong set of values and offers kids the chance to have fun in a safe and ordered sporting environment.
Little League offers the “dream” for youngsters to be the best that they can in their neighbourhood or regional team while maybe - just maybe - getting the opportunity to play baseball against other Little Leaguers at state, national and international levels. However far Little League might take them, our young people are assured of an enjoyable time playing the sport, learning new skills and being part of a positive team environment.
Coach of Waverley Wildcats - the inaugural Victorian Little League winning team in 2008 - Richard Mason has a clear sense of the benefits of Little League and how it can best be advanced in this country.
“I am 100% behind the Little League concept of community involvement and team work,” Mason said.
“With the introduction of the Little League last year there was a huge learning curve required - for not only myself, but all the teams and people involved both at the club level and administration level.”
“We in Victoria have a way to go before we are truly doing it as well as some of the other states are,” he said. “However, we are making the right decisions as we move forward.”
One of the teething issues in Little League’s first year was some disparity in rules between the various states. While all agree on rules ensuring that each player gets minimum game time and that lop-sided contests are to a degree avoided, there was some inconsistency in the application of more technical rules.
Recognising that we are still in a developmental phase, Richard Mason has a clear position on the rules issue.
“I think that perhaps we should be playing our Little League Metro and State games by the same Little League rules that govern the tournaments. That way the rules and minor changes will have no effect.”
To be held at the Waverley Baseball Club over Saturday 4 April to Monday 6 April this year, the State Championships will involve five teams – Eastern Kangaroos, Melbourne West Giants, South-East, Northeast Sluggers and Waverley Wildcats.
All teams will have fourteen players, who must be under thirteen years of age at 1 May this year. Only eleven and twelve year olds can play.
The winner will join the Victorian Provincial team at the Little League National Tournament to be held in Surfer’s Paradise during June. Twelve teams from across the land will contest the Nationals.
Although the State Championships are an exciting enough assignment in themselves, there is potentially a deal more on offer, as Richard Mason explains.
“Last year Waverley won the right to represent Victoria at the National Little League Tournament in Queensland,” he said. “A great thrill for all of us.”
“It was held at the Redlands Baseball Club and was fought out with six games over four days. A team from New South Wales - Hills North - were the eventual winners of the tournament and they travelled to Hong Kong to participate in the next level of competition.”
“What a tremendous achievement for the kids and baseball in this country as a whole,” Mason said.
“The Asian Pacific tournament was eventually won by a team from Guam who then moved onto the World Series representing Asia Pacific in Williamsport Pennsylvania.”
While playing success is a buzz for sports people at any level, there is much more to Little League to help explain its phenomenal growth throughout the world.
“The Little League concept gives the kids a whole different perspective to club ball and representative ball,” Mason said.
“The Little League experience for me was not just about the team of kids playing the next level of baseball, but the community that got behind them,” he said.
“The lasting friendships made, the family involvement from training, fundraising events and BBQ dinners following training. The whole journey was amazing for all the coaches, families and children involved.”
Each of the teams participating in the State Championships has been through a careful process of preparing their squad for the State Championships - and all will be raring to go.
“At Waverley – as we are a region on our own - we ran our trials from a training squad that started in late November through to late January,” Mason said. “We then selected our fourteen member team from there. This process enabled a whole group of other children to benefit from extra trainings and the specialist coaching on offer.”
Richard Mason is one of many baseball people who have no doubt about the enormous potential of Little League.
“Little League is the way forward for the development of our junior ranks across the State,” Mason said. “The more publicity it can gather, then the only winner can be baseball.”
“After the first season of Little League, we had a number of children enrolling to play who said they cannot wait to try out for the Little League team,” he said.
“I encourage all baseball fans to come and witness for themselves the stars of the future playing in six innings games played at such a feverish pace.”
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