Girls Baseball Day, Past and Present
Windsor Junction (D2N) – In the summer of 2008 – Over 80 girls between the ages of 5 and 13, from both the Hammonds Plains Baseball Association and LWF Baseball Association showed up at the Windsor Junction Community Centre fields for the first ever Girls Day in Baseball. This was a fun day of exhibition games and skill development for the girls.
The highlight of the day for the young girls was the appearance of Melanie Harwood and Autumn Mills of the National Women’s Team. Melanie and Autumn lead the girls through a skills camp, as well as helped ump some of the afternoon games; they signed autographs and posed for photos with all the girls in attendance.
Not only was it about learning skills and helping them to become better baseball players, it was also about the social networking and participating with their peers that has helped these girls become more confident and out-going. In the summer of 2008 – Over 80 girls between the ages of 5 and 13, from both the Hammonds Plains Baseball Association and LWF Baseball Association showed up at the Windsor Junction Community Centre fields for the first ever Girls Day in Baseball. This was a fun day of exhibition games and skill development for the girls.
This year – Girls Day in Baseball will be held on July 26th – at the Mainland Commons baseball field in Clayton Park and it will be hosted by Baseball Nova Scotia and Baseball Canada. Returning this year will be Melanie Harwood from Team Canada – and joining her will be her team-mate, Samantha Magalas. Also participating in the skills clinic for the girls will be the two local senior men’s teams – Halifax Pelham Electric and the Dartmouth Dry. Both of these teams will be participating in the Senior Men’s National Championships to be held here in late August.
This year’s Girl’s Day will include a skills camp, Mini Game, Hit Run and Throw contest, Home Run Derby, BBQ, Autograph Session, and a “Wish You Could Throw Like A Girl” t-shirt. The 101.3 Bounce Summer Cruiser will be live broadcasting from the field.
At this time the LWF Baseball Association has two all girl teams; one in the Rookie division and one Mosquito/Pee Wee in the Girl’s League with Hammonds Plains.
“This is the result of six or seven years of work to have all-girls teams,” said Councillor Barry Dalrymple. “We always wanted girls to have the choice to play on all-girl teams; we have peewee and rookie teams and an all-girl peewee league. We are thrilled to be where we are, with the Girl’s Day program.”
The spin offs from last year’s girls day have been amazing. This concept has been launched across the country this year. In late May, Manitoba held it’s first Girls Day and received coverage on the CBC National news. New Brunswick and P.E.I. both hosted their own Girl’s Days at the end of June. All of the other provinces will be following suit this summer as well, but no where will it be bigger than on the Mainland Commons later this month.
To learn more about having your daughter participate in this event, please click the Q & A form under the “You Wish You could Throw Like a
Girl” Link at http://www.baseballnovascotia.com/forms/view.php?id=1 or visit Baseball NS at: www.baseballnovascotia.com
“This concept is fantastic and I hope to see it continue to grow,” said Kent Pietracupa, President of the LWF Baseball Association. “I would love to see more girls attend this years event; “it is open to all girls not just the one’s playing now.”
“We would like to invite everyone to come watch our girls play,” said Dalrymple. “This has been a dream for us, to have these girl’s teams, and it is finally coming true.”
For more information on the LWF Girls teams and registration for 2010 please contact Kent Pietracupa at fiveps@accesswave.ca