BQ Interview: Women’s Development Program with Geoff Wade

Jul 17, 2018

The future for female baseball in Queensland

After the release of the Queensland Youth Women’s and Women’s 2018/19 Baseball Calendar, Baseball Queensland spoke to Geoff Wade, Director of Women’s and Girl’s Participation to discuss his plans for the Girl’s Pathways Program and where he anticipates this new era of female baseball in Queensland will lead our female athletes. We also heard from the Girl’s U14 and U16’s BQ Bandits Team to hear their opinions on the upcoming developments within female baseball in Queensland.

Baseball Queensland partners with Sports Club HQ

Baseball Queensland partners with Sports Club HQ

Jul 16, 2018

Baseball Queensland are please to announce their new partnership with Sports Club HQ for all competition management services.

Sports Club HQ will focus their attention on secure competition management and user-friendly registration for clubs in Queensland.

Paul Gonzalez has acquired the additional services of Mr Kishore Singh to support Baseball Queensland in a project management capacity as well as in ensuring the organisations communication strategy remains strong.

CEO of Baseball Queensland, Paul Gonzalez said, “I am very pleased we have secured this deal with Sports Club HQ; this new partnership will not only benefit Baseball Queensland as a State organisation but also each club within our regions. This partnership will assist in our long term goal of building a better future for baseball in Queensland & we believe this is the next step to ensure the utmost professionalism with our competition structure, management and registration process.”

Sports Club HQ comments on their involvement with Baseball Queensland, “Sports Club HQ are proud to partner with Baseball QLD in delivering the new digital platform for the sport. We are excited to play our role in the team in driving the sport forward, by delivering a fully unified solution from; Registrations & Membership to Competition Management fully integrated into the Communications and Apps. At Sports Club HQ we understand that volunteers are the lifeblood of sport, and we are here to make their lives easier. We have a strong focus on the end user by providing access to the most relevant information, in their hand, in real time. We will deliver mobile applications that provide Club & Team Communications in the same space you can access your season schedule and ladder position. We look forward to being part of the Baseball QLD family.”

Below is a list of milestone calendar events:

TASKDUE DATE
BQ to provide media announcement with Sports Club HQ16/07/2018
Complete testing of BQLD Membership Database set up16/07/2018
Internal Review of BQLD Club Membership Database16/07/2018
Delivery of initial training documents (for review)17/07/2018
Club Training & Initial Rollout
  • 19th & 23rd Evenings – Location to be confirmed
19/07 & 23/07
  • 2 x August Dates to be confirmed
Aug. 2018
  • Live Web Tutorial
24/07/2018
  • Support Centre open to all Clubs
25/07/2018
All training materials (FAQ’s, etc.) to be sent to BQLD to upload to website23/07/2018
Soft/internal rollout (not including online payments)30/07/2018
“Go Live” with online payments11/08/2018
App designs provided for review and approval process25/07/2018
Apps in testing (UAT group to be pre-selected)11/08/2018
Apps submitted to stores20/08/2018

Sports Club HQ will be conducting a live web tutorial on the 24th of July for all clubs to get up to date with the new services.

More information will be released soon. Clubs can expect to be interactive with this service next week. Online registrations for the upcoming 2018/19 season will commence 11th of August 2018.

Moreton Bay Regional Council Supporting Baseball In Queensland

Moreton Bay Regional Council Supporting Baseball In Queensland

Jul 5, 2018

MORETON BAY REGIONAL COUNCIL SUPPORTING BASEBALL IN QUEENSLAND

MORETON BAY REGIONAL COUNCIL HAS PLAYED AN INTEGRAL PART IN SECURING THE STATE TITLE EVENTS FOR THE REGION
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Moreton Bay Regional Council Supporting Baseball In Queensland

 

Moreton Bay Regional Council has played an integral part in securing the state title events for the region.

A new deal between Moreton Bay Regional Council and Baseball Queensland will see the Baseball State Titles held in Narangba and Kippa-Ring.

Moreton Bay Regional Mayor Allan Sutherland said baseball was a growth sport and he was keen to see it become even bigger in the Moreton Bay Region.

“The combined economic benefit of this major event will see nearly half a million dollars pumped into our region,” he said.

“There will be around 300 competitors and officials as well as nearly 500 spectators looking to stay in Moreton Bay, eat in our local restaurants and hopefully extend their stay to explore the region.

“Moreton Bay has a proven track record of hosting major sporting events from the AFL to the Rugby League Commonwealth Championships this year, so I’m thrilled to be adding baseball to our repertoire.”

The U16’s State Titles will be held on the September 22nd to the 25th at Redcliffe Padres Baseball Club.

Neal Ragau, U16’s event organiser commented on the importance of having community clubs host these large events, “As a community club, hosting events like the state titles provides Redcliffe Padres with income that can be re-directed into our club and will have an impact on our players, supporters and visitors.

“We have a wonderful facility at the Padres home ground (Talobilla Park) and it’s a great spectator field, so it’s a great opportunity to utilise our facility that will benefit players not only from our own club and region, but also those travelling in from other regions.

“The atmosphere that these events bring to our club is phenomenal; it really brings out the true baseball spirit.

“We always like to acknowledge and thank our major supporters without whom our club does not operate; these include the Moreton Bay Regional Council, Qld Department of Sports and Recreation, The Redcliffe Leagues Club and Leading Edge Sports.”

Ragau reveals that hosting events like the U16’s State Titles requires a larger effort than most would expect.

“To host a tournament like this, there is a huge effort from our club volunteers, committee and sponsors,” he said.

“Everything from field preparations to cooking sausages requires someone and we are fortunate to have such as huge support network.

“Each day begins before 7.00am and generally does not finish until late into the night, so being able to share the work load is essential.

“Planning will begin a few weeks out and now that we have hosted a few tournaments in the last couple of years, we do have a number of check lists and programs in place to ensure all runs smoothly.”

The U18’s State Titles will be held on the September 28 to October 1st at Narangba Demons Baseball Club.

President of the club, Gareth Irving commented on how events like these help out community funded clubs.

“It has a massive impact on the club holding these state titles, showing the baseball and the wider community that baseball in Narangba is alive and well,” he said.

“Any sort of player recruitment from hosting these titles would be excellent; the extra revenue helps as well. Most of the preparation [for these events] revolves around volunteers for the titles, whether its grounds crew, canteen or any other various roles.”

These tournaments are widely successful with close to 300 participants and officials converging in the Region from all over Queensland and Northern New South Wales. These two events provide athletes with one last chance to secure their spot on Baseball Queensland’s Bandits Squad. Both of the final teams will compete in the U16 and U18National Youth Championships, which are held at Blacktown Baseball Complex, NSW in January (specific dates will be released on the Baseball Queensland website).

CEO of Baseball Queensland, Paul Gonzalez stated, “Baseball Queensland would like to acknowledge the continued support from Moreton Bay Regional Council to host the U16’s State Championships at Redcliffe Padres, Talobilla Park and the U18’s State Titles at Narangba Demons Baseball Field.

“Baseball Queensland will send 160 of our premier Regional athletes to this year’s U16’s and 120 premier Regional athletes to this year’s U18’s, showcasing their baseball skills in the Moreton Bay area.”

Baseball Queensland would like to direct all teams, parents and supporters to book any accommodation they may require for the event through: https://www.visitmoretonbayregion.com.au/

Regional teams can nominate their rosters by completing the roster form available here and submitting it to [email protected] by no later than Friday 24 August 2018.

More information regarding the two events can be found on Baseball Queensland’s website –www.baseballqueensland.com.au/

South West Indigenous Network Providing Opportunities

Jun 27, 2018

SOUTH WEST INDIGENOUS NETWORK PROVIDING OPPORTUNITIES

Baseball Queensland are partnered with SWIN (South West Indigenous Network) with their TRAX Tours to deliver sporting opportunities to children in rural and remote areas of Queensland.

“The TRAX sports Education Tours are often the only chance for students from small and remote schools to trial and experience new sports, and access coaching.  The Tours, held over a week, offer primary school aged participants with quality coaching, inclusiveness and the ability to improve overall health and well-being through physical activity.  It also provides sports administration workshops and in-service training for teachers, coaches, officials and club administrators to ensure ongoing participation is well supported in communities.  The tours are strongly supported by the state and national sporting organisations whose development officers host many of the specialist clinics.

The South West Indigenous Network (SWIN) currently has funding through the Department of Social Services (Community Development and Participation Programme) to conduct a total of 12 tour programs (4 tour programs each year across a 3 year period) with visits to 61 communities across the South West Region.  These tours also aim to provide community members and volunteers with regular access to development officers and high quality sporting experiences to continue getting children and community members in rural and remote areas to participate in physical activity.”

 

Baseball Queensland coach, Nick Bachono, is heading the 2018 Trax Tour and has just completed the first tour in May in Cunnamulla, Eulo and Wyandra in rural Queensland. The second stage of the tour is running from the 18th of June until the 22nd June in Cunnamulla, Charleville, Thargomindah and Quilpie.

 

Nick Bachono sat down with Baseball Queensland to talk about the importance of Trax Tours and his view on the development of sport in rural Queensland.

What is your current role with SWIN?
My role with the South West Indigenous Network (SWIN) is a regional sports development officer on behalf of Baseball Queensland/ Brisbane Bandits for the 2018 TRAX Tour. The TRAX Tour is a tour of South West Queensland delivering sports programs to regional schools and communities throughout the region. The sports program is made up of a wide variety of Queensland based sports organisation- Baseball Qld/Bandits, Brisbane Heat Cricket, Hockey Queensland, Tennis Queensland, Touch Football Queensland, Netball Queensland, Golf Queensland, Softball Queensland and Queensland Rugby League. We meet in Toowoomba and travel to regional schools and deliver our sports programs to some isolated schools on South West Queensland. So far this year we have travelled to: Goondiwindi, Cunnamulla, Quilpie, Charleville, Eulo, Wyandra and Thargomindah. In 2018 we’ve worked with over 1200 students.

Why are networks like SWIN so important to the development of sport in Queensland?
The TRAX Sports Education Tours are often the only chance for students from small and remote schools to trial and experience new sports and access quality coaching. The Tours offer a variety of sports to a broad student base that focus on inclusiveness and enable participants to improve overall health and well-being through physical activity.

What is your favourite part of coaching these kids?
It’s fun! Getting the chance to travel these remote schools and communities is an awesome experience. There’s so much to learn and lots to take in. My role is to introduce kids to baseball, which they otherwise wouldn’t experience and I like to see them enjoying that experience.

Is there a specific element of coaching these kids that is especially rewarding for you?
Being able to introduce these kids to baseball is extremely rewarding!
Watching the looks on their faces when they realise they can actually hit a ball is magic.

Where can you see this network going in the future?
Going into more communities that otherwise wouldn’t be exposed to this kind of program. One such program is the Pathways Program. The Pathways Programs is SWINs priority program. It was created to further the sporting journeys of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people through assistance with the costs of competing, which can often exempt families from being able to send their young people to competition. This program provides pathways for young people to travel the state to represent their communities at regional and state level sporting competitions.

The outcomes from this program include increased Indigenous representation in sport, health and fitness for Indigenous youth, rise in confidence and pride for the young person, their family and their community.

Could you see SWIN traveling to other states in Australia?
Yes, it’s such a great program and has great outcomes for Indigenous communities. It would need to be adapted for the different communities but would be a valuable program for young people who otherwise would not be exposed to such programs.

Baseball Queensland would like to congratulate Nick Bachono on his involvement with SWIN; keep updated on further information on Baseball Queensland’s website.