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0 Members of Manly Warringah Softball Association (MWSA) have a real reason to celebrate after being named Affiliate of the Year at Softball NSW’s annual awards.
“It was a real honour receiving this award on behalf of MWSA,“ MWSA President, Doug Freeman, said. “It’s great recognition for all the hard work our volunteers have put in over the last few years.”
MWSA’s local competition has been running successfully for over 50 years and the association has a proud history. But the attention of those in charge at MWSA is on its future. Freeman said MWSA is determined to keep growing their “wonderful sport”.
“Whilst we’ve achieved so much, our focus now is welcoming back all our existing players and attracting new players for the coming season. Our competition caters for all ages, male and female. Previous softball experience is not necessary as there’s a grade to suit all skill and athletic levels,” Freeman said.
Last season, MWSA had significant member growth of 17.5%. This was a result of active promotion of teeball and softball across our beaches community combined with word-of-mouth testimonies from current members [Ed: And stories in the Beaches Champion!].
After rain- and COVID-interrupted seasons over the last few years, players enjoyed a 16-week competition followed by a finals series. While teams do battle on the diamond, a big part of playing softball at MWSA are the off-diamond friendships across clubs and the time spent together at Abbott Road diamonds in a relaxed, social setting.
MWSA’s youngest members play teeball. MWSA’s girls representative teeball team has had a long history of success at Softball NSW’s State Championships and earlier this year won the title for a third successive year. After introducing boys into their Saturday competition in 2021, MWSA’s inaugural boys representative teeball team were crowned State Champions earlier this year.
MWSA’s nine representative teams had remarkable success in 2022, with six teams winning State Championships and the other three teams runners up. Subsequently 10 MWSA players were selected to represent NSW and five made one of the Australian teams – Diamonds, Development, Spirit – that played in the Canada Cup.
Two girls also played for the Aussie Spirit Team at the 2022 World Games while five girls played in the NSW PSSA Softball Team and two played in the NSW SSA Softball Team.
Importantly, MWSA also continues to develop its technical resources too. Last year 10 umpires gained new accreditations, from level 1 through to level 6, while 11 new scorers and 11 new coaches were accredited. Three teenagers were involved in MWSA’s representative teams as trainee coaches and there were two new representative team head coach appointments.
On facilities, the start of a long-term capital expenditure program commenced with the backnets on diamonds 1 & 2 replaced by the Northern Beaches Council just prior to the season start. Also on the list is diamond 3 & 4 backnet replacement, upgrade to the lighting on diamonds 1 & 2, acquisition of a new trailer to store equipment, building a storage shed to house the trailer and developing all weather battery lanes.
For anyone wanting to learn more about playing teeball or softball at MWSA, including joining free off-season introductory skills sessions: MWSA@mwsa.com.au
