ABGSL Opening Day on Saturday, March 6thABGSL Families:Welcome to Opening Day for the 2010 ABGSL Recreational season. PLAY BALL! ABGSL OPENING DAY SCHEDULE Our season begins this morning as we welcome everyone at our Opening Day ceremonies. Please join us at ABGSL's home field, Fielding Field (north of 5th Street and Harrison in Berkeley), with the following schedule for each Division. Parents MUST accompany girls to sign-in and MUST return when the clinic ends 30 minutes prior to the end of the session for their Division for team introductions and to participate in a brief team meeting. The players will run through drills led by the Albany High School softball team for the first hour of their session so please have them bring their glover, cleats and a water bottle. The Albany High team includes many ABGSL alumni so it is exciting to welcome them back to where they started their softball adventure. The schedule by Division is:
IF YOU CANNOT ATTEND
We've received questions from families with long-standing plans to be away or other conflicts with Opening Day. If you aren't able to attend, your daughter's coach or team manager will contact you to let you know the team to which she is assigned, the location of the first practice, and the date, time and location of the mandatory team parent meeting. If you haven't heard from your coach or manager by Sunday night, feel free to contact me and I will provide you with the information. We don't provide team assignment information in advance of Opening Day. MICRO ORIENTATION AND SKILLS CLINIC Micro players and parents should plan to attend an orientation and skills clinic run by our fabulous Coaching Consultant and former Cal 3rd baseman Katie Vickers. We still need Micro players so you are welcome to invite other families who are interested in playing softball. This is a great opportunity to meet the other players and parents who be enjoying the Micro experience with you this season. We are still forming the Micro teams so they will not be announced until the first practice on Saturday, March 13th from 9am to 11am at Codornices Park. DIRECTIONS TO FIELDING FIELD AND PARKING Fielding Field is at the north end of 5th Street north of Harrison Street in Berkeley. Enter where 5th street dead ends and walk across the bridge. DO NOT park in a red zone as the UC Police Department is very aggressive about ticketing. You can park on Harrison Street or on 6th Street and walk across the bridge to the field. You can also produce an internet map with directions to 1101 5th Street in Berkeley, which is a business adjacent to the field. TEAM ASSIGNMENTS As a reminder, teams were formed taking a number of factors into account, and our Commissioners spent many hours making the best possible configuration of teams. We worked hard to balance the teams by skill level so that no teams dominate, and to create diverse representation of schools and communities. We also considered restrictions on availability in terms of the days of the week, as recorded on your registration forms, and confirmed in the mailing that was sent out mid-February. For Middle and Older division teams, we considered pitching and catching skills among the teams. We also considered car pool requests, and requests to be teamed with friends, but could not honor all of those requests. Please keep in mind that playing with new team mates and families every year and making new friends is part of what makes ABGSL such a rewarding experience. I'm sure you will appreciate that reconfiguring teams at this late date is complicated, and will only be possible if there was an error in placement for days of the week shown on the registration forms and where you responded to our confirmation mailing. In other words, the team assignments are final at this point. ALTERNATIVE LOCATION AND SCHEDULE FOR OPENING DAY ONLY IF FIELDING FIELD IS CLOSED We may have move to an indoor location and adjust the schedule if Fielding Field is closed. If we do implement this alternative plan, players and parents should plan to come on Saturday to get their teams assignments, meet your team mates, coaches and managers, and participate in a short team meeting. We will send a confirming email and update the Hotline tomorrow morning before 8am. ALTERNATIVE LOCATION FOR OPENING DAY: If Fielding Field is closed due to the weather we will meet at the Multi-Purpose Room at Cornell Elementary School in Albany. Cornell's Multi-Purpose Room is located in the rear of the school on Cornell Avenue a half block south of the intersection of Solano and Cornell Avenues. The street address is 920 Talbot Avenue but the MPR entrance is on Cornell Avenue. Parking on Solano Avenue is free for 2 hours. ALTERNATIVE SCHEDULE FOR OPENING DAY:
ALTERNATIVE TEAM EQUIPMENT PICKUP AT FIELDING FIELD Coaches should plan to pick up their equipment on Saturday at Fielding Field after they meet with their teams. We apologize for having to do this at two locations. The Equipment Managers will not be at Fielding after 1:30pm so please get their promptly THANK YOU I want to thank all of our coaches, managers, commissioners, administrators and other critical league volunteers for their help in assembling the teams and getting us ready to kickoff the season. It takes all of us as parent volunteers to pull together to run a league for 300 girls. The season promises to be great, thanks only to the tremendous commitment of all of us as parent volunteers. We'll be looking for help in many areas throughout the season, and I know we will get the support needed to keep ABGSL vibrant. We have a lot to be proud of in ABGSL and collectively we provide a great softball learning experience for our girls and our community. What started in 1983 with a handful of local families looking to organize softball games for their daughters, and in the past 27 years ABGSL has grown to become one of the largest and most respected parent-volunteer sports organizations in the East Bay. We bring recreational softball to more than 300 girls from Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, Kensington and other nearby cities from over 30 local schools. ABGSL has some unique and long standing philosophies, such as stressing fun and skill development over competition and a winning-at all-cost mentality. Participation and inclusiveness are priorities, and our hope is that all girls enjoy being part of the League, working together to learn and enjoy softball. See you on Opening Day! Regards, Walt Walt Gill ABGSL President 2010 Spring Recreational Schedules for the month of March: Younger Division | Middle Division | Older Division Week at a Glance Schedule for all Divisions (March) The Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League provides a fun learning opportunity for girls. Our 1st grade division is registering now, and will accept registrations until March 13th or until our teams are full. 1st graders play in our Micro Division on Saturday mornings at Codornices Park from 9am to 11am. Our practice and game season runs from March 13th until June 6th. The season begins on Saturday, March 6th, 9:30am - 11:00am at Fielding Field (across the foot bridge north of 5th Street and Harrison in Berkeley). This includes a Skills Clinics for any interested the players so please stop by. Registration for Micros will remain open until their first practice on Saturday, March 13th from 9am to 11am at Codornices Park Welcome to the 27th season of Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League Recreational softball. Registration for the ABGSL Spring season began November 1st 2009 and ended on January 31, 2010, except for the Micro Division (1st Grade) which will remain open until March 13th (see above). Please complete and send your completed registration forms as soon as and payments to: 1700 Shattuck Avenue, #28, Berkeley, CA 94709. To contain costs and reduce waste, we have discontinued our past practice of mass mailing Registration Packets. We ask that you choose from one of the following options to register your daughter:
PLEASE COMPLETE AND RETURN THESE FIVE FORMS TO REGISTER
PLEASE SEND REGISTRATION FEES WITH THE FORMS WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOUR FORMS AND FEES ARE RETURNED:
VOLUNTEERS ARE NEEDED!
FRIEND REQUESTS AND SCHEDULING CONFLICTS TEAM FORMATION EQUIPMENT The League has a large stock of donated equipment from prior years, and we will be accepting donations at our assessment days and Opening Day, and making the equipment available to families on those same days. Feel free to sort through that equipment to see if anything will work for your daughter LICE PREVENTION OUTREACH--HELP SPREAD THE WORD ABOUT ABGSL We're looking forward to another great season of girls softball! |
