Softball Season Set To Start

Swampscott Little League Softball Player Agent Bob Powell had these thoughts about the league on the eve of its opening today.

We're very excited about the start of the 2010 season.

Each year brings incremental changes, but this year was especially different. We made many improvements that will benefit for years to come.

For one, we were able to get a large group of adults to volunteer for board
positions and become engaged in the success of the program.

In fact, I think this is one of the most enthusiastic groups of managers, coaches,
directors and volunteers that I've witnessed in all my years in Swampscott
softball. 

Gary Lord and Jim Nisbet led our spring pitching clinic; and that was a huge
success. Jim Capone led our first-ever spring catching clinic.

Jim Capone and Glenn Kessler orchestrated the ordering of new softball-style uniforms for the Seniors and the Majors divisions.

We are especially eager to see the players in their uniforms and new team names, the Blizzard, Nor'Easters, and Heat Wave to name but a few of them. 

Another positive development was this: We were able to order and put down -
thanks to the help of dozens of volunteers -- 17 tons of new infield mix.

Our hope is that over the next two years, we'll add more of the clay/sand
mix and that by 2012 our softball field will be among the best in the state.

We're also thrilled about having all three divisions participating in
interleague play. As happened last year, the Seniors will play in a league
with teams from Marblehead and Salem, the Minors will play against East
Lynn, Pine Hill and West Lynn.

And this year, for the first time ever, the four teams in the Majors division will also play against teams in Lynn.

I also am thrilled to have a group of new volunteers become involved in the
Farm program.

Now led by Mike Reiter, the Farm division will institute a new program to teach skills and drills one day a week and then play a game at the varsity field one day a week.

We also decided to create four teams with fewer players per team so as to improve the coach-to-player instruction ratio. That should help girls develop the basic skills and knowledge required to make softball fun.

I certainly want to take this opportunity to thank all the people who work
behind the scenes to make softball a reality, especially league co-directors
Dick Faulkner, Gary Lord and Glenn Kessler who worked hard to make the
interleague game schedules work.

I also want to thank volunteers such as Debbi Rooklin and others who work so hard to make the concession stand schedule work.

I also need to thank Terri Lombard, who manages the concession stand; and Ed Mulvey and Steve Allen, who handle the equipment needs of the program; Jim Lombard, who led the safety clinic; Lou Oliveri, who is responsible for the fields; Jeff Rubin, who serves as the league's treasurer; Scott Sagan, the league's president; and the entire board of directors for its support of the softball program this season.

Without their help over the past four months, we wouldn't be having an opening day.

The managers and coaches have been practicing outdoors, as the weather permitted, and indoors since April 1, so the teams should fairly well prepared for
opening day.

The players seem quite excited to hit and start playing real games. I think they are especially eager to see whether we are competitive with the other towns. Often times, what we find is that when you play other towns, you often get to see these very same players on All-Star teams and years later on high school teams.

My last hope for this season is that we can continue a tradition that
we began several years ago. This tradition aims to help players acquire the skills and knowledge to continue playing softball at higher and
higher levels and have fun along the way.