WELCOME BACK TO THE 29 TH
SEASON OF ABGSL SOFTBALL!
Announcement: FALL 2011 U10 and U12 Sting Teams
Welcome to the 28th season of ABGSL softball.
2011 Spring Recreational Schedules: Younger Division | Middle Division | Older Division | Week at a Glance 2011 Game Reports are in from ABGSL Team Reporters!Check out this Season's Game Reports for your Division! All Game Reports are posted here and emailed to ABGSL Yahoo Groups (If you are an ABGSL family and not signed up, send an email to ABGSL-Families@yahoogroups.com, and the moderator will approve it.). CLICK HERE or on the "Game News" Section Header above Congratulations to Balls of Fury for being the top team in earnings
for the 2011 Batathon! ABGSL Families: -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's Time to Register for ABGSL Softball!!! Dear Current and Potential ABGSL Families Welcome to the 28th season of the Albany Berkeley Girls Softball League. Our parent volunteers have been hard at work during the off season to make this another fun and memorable season for you and your daughters. Registration for ABGSL's Spring season begins now, with Opening Day scheduled for Saturday, March 5th, so please enroll your daughters at the earliest possible date. Early Bird registration with reduced fees ends on December 31st and Registration closes on January 31, 2011. WE WILL BE USING ONLINE REGISTRATION THIS YEAR In our ongoing effort to contain costs and reduce waste, registration will be done on-line through an Oakland based company called Sportability. We think you will find this to be a convenient and efficient way to register your daughter for ABGSL, although it may require a little patience the first time through. It takes about 5 minutes. Sportability has been used by Albany Berkeley Soccer, Albany Little League and many other local leagues for a number of years so many parents are familiar and recommend this company. Online registration will improve data accuracy, save a lot of paper, and save our Registrar and a massive amount of data entry. HERE'S HOW ONLINE REGISTRATION WORKS To register your daughter for the Spring season, please follow these steps:
PAYMENT OF REGISTRATION FEES
SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE As in past years, scholarships are available and must be requested and finalized upon prior to completing the online registration. To request a scholarship, please send an email to registrar@abgsl.org or call the ABGSL Hotline at 869-4277. CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION TO ABGSL Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to ABGSL when registering online as it benefits many girls whose families cannot afford the full fees. ABGSL is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) so donations are deductable as allowed by law. Our tax ID number is 94-2958214. PRACTICES DAYS/ SCHEDULING CONFLICTS On the website you will be asked to indicate which days of the week each girl can play. Micro players all play on Saturday on the same field. Younger, Middle and Older girls play either Monday, Wednesday and Saturday OR Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. By indicating that you can practice and play on ANY DAY you will increase the likelihood of receiving your friend request and makes it easier for us to balance the teams during the team formation process. FRIEND REQUESTS (MAKE SURE THEY ARE RECIPROCAL) You may specify up to 3 friends you would like to have on your team. ABGSL will make every effort to accommodate requests, but cannot guarantee that requests will be honored. Be certain to check that friends are available on the same practice days and that a reciprocal request has been made on the friends' registration. Part of the fun of ABGSL is that girls get to play with their friends and that families need to organize car pools. Once you have identified which days of the week your girl(s) can play, you have the option of requesting up to 3 other girls that your daughter would prefer to be teamed with. Be certain to check that the girls you are requesting are available to play on the same days of the week. Please note that we cannot guarantee that this teaming will occur, but your request will be taken into account when teams are formed. The more flexibility you can provide regarding availability the more likely it will be that your request is fulfilled. We also know that many new friendships develop when girls play with different team members over time. A fundamental component of ABGSL is the mixing of teams from year to year, which presents a great opportunity to meet families from other schools and greatly adds to the fabric of our League. ABGSL IS AN ALL PARENT VOLUNTEER ORGANIZATION ABGSL runs entirely on volunteer labor, which means that every family in the League volunteers for both a Team Job and a League Job. Indicate on the volunteer portion of the registration website whether you wish to sign up for a specific League and Team Job, or whether you would like to be assigned both of your jobs at the Team Parent Meeting. If you do not sign up for a specific job, then you will sign up for both your team job and your league job at your team's parent meeting at the start of the season. Other than the Head and Assistant Coaches and Team Manager, ALL Team Jobs will be described and assigned at the parent team meeting at the start of the season. Our Coaches and Managers are an essential component of our League. Without them we would not be able to field teams. Being a coach or team manager fulfills BOTH your Team and League job requirements. If you sign up to be a Coach or Manager, the League will contact you before the season starts. Being a coach is a tremendous amount of FUN! You will find the following volunteer jobs on the registration website:
IMPORTANT DATES
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER YOU REGISTER Players in Grades 2-9 must attend one of the Player Assessments on January 15th or January 22rd. These assessments are used to balance our teams and are NOT a tryout. You must be registered in order to participate in the Assessment Days. In mid-February, a Confirmation Packet is mailed to each player that is registered with more information about the season. Team assignment and practice schedules will be announced on Opening Day, Saturday March 5th at Fielding Field. TEAM FORMATION EQUIPMENT Families of Kindergarteners We have registered a few Kindergarteners in the League in the Micro Division in years past, and expect to continue to do so on a limited basis. There are certain things we think families should understand when they register their Kindergartener. The Micro Division is structured to work for the developmental level of 1st-graders. We know that some Kindergarteners are particularly mature, and that they have the necessary ability to focus to begin learning softball skills, while others are more distractible. Families have the best ability to evaluate whether their child is ready to participate for the two hours of practice and game on Saturday mornings. Our skilled coaches can also help assess your daughter's readiness to play. Girls with older siblings who have played softball or baseball tend to do better than those who have not seen the game in action. (This is also true of 1st graders, but tends to be more important with Kindergarten girls.) All 1st graders play in the Micro Division, so if your daughter plays Micro in Kindergarten, she will remain in the Micro Division in 1st grade. This works great for some girls, and others find two years of Micro to be less challenging than they would prefer. Kindergarteners will be registered on a space-available basis. If we have more 1st-graders than can be accommodated on our Micro teams, we will have to ask Kindergarteners to wait until next year, when they will be first on our list for registration. If you have any questions about our Micro Division please feel free to contact me at president@abgsl.org, or our Micro Division Commissioner, Jane Hammond at jane@jhevents.com. We are looking forward to another great season of girls softball. For questions or more information, please feel free to email our Registrar Lucy Kuntz at registrar@abgsl.org or me at president@abgsl.org , by visiting our web site at www.ABGSL.org. or by leaving a message on the ABGSL Hotline at 510- 869-4277. Walt Gill UPCOMING Fall Clinic - Sunday November 7th - CANCELLED due to rain - To be rescheduled..... Clinic times by grade are: **Pitching clinic attendees MUST bring their own catcher*** Players should come to the clinic for the division you're going to be in next Spring, not the division you were in last year. Please call the ABGSL hotline at 869-4277 that morning for field status updates as there is a chance of rain. Hope to see you at the clinic 12U Sting Team Wins Fremont Tournament! Congratulations are due to ABGSL's 12U Sting team (Older Division players) that won the tournament championship yesterday afternoon in Fremont. This game was won in dramatic fashion against a very good team, the Campbell Crush. In the bottom of the final inning with the Campbell Crush ahead by a score of 4 to 2, Cielo Franco was at bat with the bases loaded and 2 outs. With the count 3 and 2, Cielo ripped a double to score 2 runs and tie the game 4 to 4. Bonnie Coulman was at bat next with 2 runners on and 2 outs. Facing a 1-2 count, Bonnie ripped a single to right field to win the game 5-4. Imani Hiller-Bateau was the winning pitcher. Congratulations to head coach Carrie Arth, assistant coaches Shannon Thomas and Rick Salas, and most of all the players. Walt Gill WELCOME BACK TO THE 28TH SEASON OF ABGSL SOFTBALL! MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THE 2010 FALL CLINICS Our FREE Fall Clinics will begin at Codornices Park next Sunday, October 3rd (1201 Euclid Avenue, across from the Rose Garden in Berkeley). The clinics are FREE and are open to all ABGSL players from last season, as well as any other interested girls in grades 1 – 9. The Clinics are great way to introduce your friends to ABGSL and girls softball, so please invite a friend to join you. A flyer promoting the clinics and ABGSL is posted on the ABGSL website for your use in promoting the League at your school and in the community. The Skills Clinics will be held at Codornices Park on the following Sundays: October 3rd, October 17th and November 7th. Times by grade level are: 1 - 2 pm 1st graders (New Micros) 2 - 3 pm 2nd and 3rd graders (Younger) 3 - 4 pm 4th and 5th graders (Middle - general skills) 4 - 5 pm Pitcher/Catcher clinic for 4th-9th graders (Middle and Older) You can be self-selecting on these times and can attend more than one time slot if you want. Players should come to the clinic for the division you're going to be in next Spring, not the division you were in last year. We are not holding general skills clinics for girls in our Older Division because attendance has been fairly limited, but any girl in grades 6 - 9 who wants to participate can join the Middle Division clinic. Players should bring their gloves, cleats and water. We'll If it is raining on the morning of the clinic or has rained in the 72 hours prior to the clinic, please call the league hotline 869-4277 that morning for updates and possible cancellations. Note that all girls in grades 2-9 who are new to the League will need to have a parent present during the entire time they are on the field. We may be able to make limited exceptions to this policy, in which case her parents MUST complete a medical release form before leaving and provide contact information for how they can be reached if necessary. Forms can be downloaded from the ABGSL web site ( www.ABGSL.org ), printed and filled out ahead of time and brought to the clinic or filled out at the field on the day of the clinic. For 1st grade girls - parents MUST remain at the field. See you at the Clinics! Walt Gill ABGSL President Follow this Summer's Sting tournament action on the Sting website. ABGSL
Families: Thank
you for all of your work in support of a great 2009/ 2010
season. We hope you enjoy your summer vacations. ABGSL will be
conducting FREE
Player Skills Clinics in September and October so keep an eye out for
announcements about those events. Registration will begin in November
for
our 2011 Recreational League with practices beginning in early March. Walt Gill
May 22nd, 2010 Game News (w/ submitted photos) Coach/Manager Game & BBQ Photos (video) Bat-A-Que 2010 Photos (video) --- Cal Band @ Bat-A-Que (video) 2010 Bat-A-Que Team Schedule (Adobe PDF) 2010 Sting Tryouts
Please note - May 7th Sting tryout canceledABGSL Parents: We will be conducting tryouts for the ABGSL Sting Competitive 10U and 12U Summer and Fall teams on Sunday, May 2nd and If you love softball and being part of a competitive and fun team, then ABGSL's Sting program is right for you and your daughter. ABGSL sponsors summer and fall Sting teams for girls who played ABGSL recreational ball in the spring 2010 season and ASA-registered recreational players that played interleague with ABGSL this spring. Our Sting teams play fast paced, unforgettable games after the Recreational Season and learn advanced skills from experienced women coaches. Most of all they have tremendous amounts of fun playing together as a team in American Softball Association (ASA) tournaments in the Bay Area and Northern California. ABGSL invites all of our Recreational players to try out for ABGSL's Summer (June and July) and Fall (September and October) Sting teams. Depending on the number of players, we plan to offer at least one 10U (Players who were age 10 or under on 12/31/2009) team and one 12U (Players who were age 12 or under on 12/31/2009) team. For more information, click here: 2010 Sting Tryouts. 2010 Bat-A-Que - Saturday, May 1st @ Fielding Field Scorekeeping 101 (video) 2010 Schedules for the Rest of the Season: Younger Division | Middle Division | Older Division TRAFFIC SAFETY VOLUNTEERS ARE STILL NEEDED FOR THE PARADE !!!! Four to six traffic monitors are still needed to allow ABGSL to participate in the parade. This is a really easy job that will entail blocking the traffic until the parade passes and then removing the traffic barricade, after which you can rejoin the parade. I need to hear from people TODAY to ensure our participation. Parents who are not coaches or managers should volunteer, since the coaches and managers need to be with their teams the entire time. ALBANY LITTLE LEAGUE/ABGSL PARADE on SATURDAY, MARCH 27TH Saturday morning is the Albany Little League/ABGSL parade in Albany. All teams will meet at the corner of Solano and Key Route in Albany between 8:30 and 8:45 am. (right by the BART tracks.) Wear your uniform shirt and hat or visor, and wear tennis shoes for walking. Cleats are not comfortable and will be ruined. The event will end at Ocean View Park. You may want to coordinate parking with another family, with one car at the beginning and one at the end, but the whole walk is less than a mile. We will assemble our teams by Division on Key Route at the intersection with Solano Avenue, then march along Solano to Ocean View Park. The parade takes 20 to 30 minutes and then we assemble at Ocean View in the infield. For Little League the parade marks their official opening day, and they continue to a separate location for their festivities. We introduce the teams and they show off their new team nicknames and banners BREAKFAST SPONSORED BY COACH KENT KOBELIN AND THE SAN FRANCSICO SOUP COMPANY We will kick off the season with a light breakfast at Ocean View Park provided by Kent Kobelin and The San Francisco Soup Company. Thanks Kent! The breakfast wraps up around 11am and most teams have practices later in the day, including Micros from 11am to 1pm at Codornices FOOD VOLUNTEERS We need two or three parents at Ocean View Park to help Kent unload and arrange the breakfast food at 9am. There is no preparation work involved. Please send me an email if you can be Traffic or Breakfast Volunteer at president-abgsl@yahoo.com if you can help. Thanks! Walt Gill ABGSL President 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! |


