We had a terrific season with many highlights that we’d like to share with everyone. Here are some of the highlights from 2018:
- We had 150+ girls over 14 teams playing for us during 2018, from 6U through 14U. This marked the 2nd consecutive year of tremendous growth in the organization.
- We welcomed several new coaching volunteers into the organization to respond to this growth.
- We made heavy investments into our fields and equipment, including:
- Renovations of the fields at both Testerman Park and the Jr High
- New field boxes, maintenance equipment, and practice equipment for each field
- Brought the organization into compliance and achieved 501(c)(3) tax exemption
- Upgrade of our team uniforms to include color-coordinated uniforms across teams and supply socks/belts along with the standard uniforms
- 60+ girls attended tryouts for our 10U/12U Lightning teams…by far the biggest turnout we’ve ever had!
This was all possible through the interest and support of our players, parents, coaches, and organization volunteers. We want to thank each and every one of you for everything you did in 2018 to help provide a positive softball experience for the girls and young women of the community!
As we look forward to 2019, we want to continue to grow and improve our organization as much as possible. There are some key initiatives we would like to accomplish, and how much is possible will largely depend on the community coming together to help. Here are some of the topics we’d love to get better at and some of the help needed in order to do so:
· Coaching
o Our entire organization depends on those people who are willing to volunteer countless hours of their time and coach our teams across the various age groups. One area we plan to continue to improve in is providing more support to these coaches through knowledge sharing, training, equipment needs, etc.
o We also need your support to consider volunteering your time as a coach (head coach or assistant). We are ALWAYS looking for more coaches! We can provide support, training, etc to anyone that is willing to commit their time to providing a positive learning experience for the girls. Please consider as we approach 2019 if you are able to volunteer your time. The #1 investment you can make to improve your daughter’s experience is your time to help coach.
· Umpires
o There is an area-wide shortage of umpires for softball in our communities. This is not only a challenge faced by Little Miami but across our neighboring communities as well. We have responded by raising umpire payment fees in line with all other communities but we still struggle to fill all of our spots throughout the season. Please consider if you are able/willing to help by umpiring games this coming spring/summer. Umpires are paid so it is a great way to make some extra money while also helping the community. An understanding of the rules is required but training can be provided. Our younger age groups provide a great opportunity for older kids (i.e. Jr High and HS) to earn some money so please consider discussing this with your older children as well.
· Organization Events
o We would love to host organizational events like a jamboree or an opening day celebration, etc. These would provide great opportunities for our girls to interact with each other across teams as well as provide opportunities for our families to have fun together outside games. However, we are already over capacity with our time just with our current commitments to run the organization. If we could get a volunteer (or a few volunteers) to act as chairpersons for this type of event planning we are confident we could make it work.
· Fundraising
o We would love help if anyone has experience with fundraising, sponsor coordination, grant applications, etc. We improved in this area this past season and completed successful fundraising initiatives. However, there is always the opportunity to do more if we would have more help. Every dollar we bring in helps offset our costs and allows us to provide more to the girls and/or lower our fees.
As we get ready for our 2019 season, please consider your ability and willingness to volunteer for any of these efforts (or others if you have ideas!). If you would like to discuss further you can reach out to us via email at director@lmfastpitch.org.
