Training 25 Nov 2016 cancelled

Hi folks.

Training tonight cancelled. Hoping it clears in time for tomorrow!  See you all then.

Cheers,
Paul

Info for new parents signing up after 19 November 2016

Hello and welcome to Howick-Pakuranga Baseball Club (aka HP Hawks) and our KiwiBall program!

We have a number of parents expressing an interest in joining our Club, and the following is all the information you need to know about how the process will work.

First, check out the "Welcome... " post in the blog, which is a mega info dump on how our program operates.  Find it here:

Welcome to kiwiball for the 2016/17 season!

For players joining us over our last four weeks leading up to Christmas, here are the additional details you need to know:

In order to complete your child's registration, please follow the link below, click on "Please Register Me Now" and enter your details:

https://www.clubhubssl.com/hubsystem//index.php?fuseaction=login.login&callclub=HPBB

We will be forming teams for the newly registered players over the next four weeks in the lead up to our Christmas break based on the number of registrations. Until the new teams are formed, all new players will train and and play with our existing teams, or in a newly formed team, depending on numbers attending each week.  Our last game before Christmas is on Saturday 17th December.

At the commencement of the second half of our season we'll assign all our new players into teams.  We restart after Christmas for training on Friday 3rd February, games 4th February.  

Please note, any players that have not registered and paid their fees (or set up a payment arrangement with the Club) will not be placed into teams.  We understand it can be difficult to cover fees, especially in the lead up to Christmas.  If you would like to set up a payment arrangement, please contact your KiwiBall coordinator at HP Baseball who will be able to assist.

Once registered and paid up, players will be issued with baseball pants (which get returned at the end of the season), and a baseball to keep.  Team shirts and caps, which the players get to keep, will be issued at the beginning of the second half of our season.

Here's looking forward to seeing you over the Summer for a heap of KiwiBall awesomeness!!

Pre season this Friday CANCELLED

Hi folks

Due to the distinct lack of cooperation from the elements over the last month or so, our diamonds at Lloyd Elsmore Park are still too damp to be able to cope with a horde of rabid KiwiBall players this Friday.

Sooo... we'll reset and look to have our first session and parents meeting on 28 October, starting at 5:30pm.

If you have any questions, comment below or get hold of me through the usual channels.

Take care!

Paul

Welcome to KiwiBall for the 2016/17 season!

Welcome once again to the home of the HP Hawks' (Howick-Pakuranga Baseball Club) Kiwi Ball program!

Registration for Kiwi Ball at HP Baseball for the 2016/17 has opened! Club registration site here.

Where are we:  Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga.  Entrance off Cascades Road (opposite Cascades Fruit and Vege / Cascades Road shops). Here's a map!

Ages:
HP Junior Sluggers grade ages 5 - 6 (although we do accept 4 year olds turning 5 during the season)
HP Sluggers grade aged 8 or under as of 1 January 2017.
Players aged 9 as of 1 January 2017 play U11s baseball.

Please note that due to player numbers we may need to move players up or down between these grades in order to get complete teams.  We'll do our best to work with the parents and players to make this work for everyone, but we do ask for your understanding as it's often a no win situation putting the teams together where the player numbers don't cooperate.

Want to help out?  Get involved helping out as a coach, assistant coach, 'dugout' parent or just wrangling KiwiBallers.  Comment here, go on facebook, or sign up when you register.

Pre season *** DUE TO FIELD CONDITIONS AS A RESULT OF THE RAIN OVER THE LAST MONTH OR SO, THE PRE SEASON HAS BEEN CANCELLED.  FIRST MEETING WILL BE FRIDAY 28 OCTOBER (and have a go days for those wanting to try out KiwiBall - please bring your little champion's mates!): Friday 21 October 5:30 - 6:15

Pre season muster: Friday 28 October will also double as our muster night.  We will hand out all uniforms on 4 November for all paid up players.

Season runs: Friday 4 November - March 2017 with a break over the Christmas period.

Season dates:  4 November - 17 December 2016, 3 February - 18 March 2017 (15 weeks)

Games:  Saturday mornings 8:30am - 10am

Training times:
 Junior Sluggers - Friday 5:30 - 6:15pm
 Sluggers - Friday 5:30 - 6:30pm 

Cost: $90 for the first player (discounts apply if you have more than one player registering for the season).

In order to help the Club with collection of fees, registration fees must be paid before the player will be allocated to a team for the season.  Our fee covers all costs of putting a player on the diamond (ie cap, shirt, affiliation fees) on a break even basis.  As such, we can't provide discounts for players wanting to play only part of a season, nor can we issue refunds once the season has started as the costs have already been incurred and can't otherwise be recovered.  For those families that need it, a repayment arrangement can be negotiated with the Club.  The first installment of any arrangement must be made prior to players being allocated to their team.

What you need:  Shoes/sneakers, socks and undies - we supply everything else! (ie pants, shirts, baseball caps and all playing equipment).  Every player is even given their own soft core flexi-baseball, and the shirts and caps are for the players to keep - you only need return the baseball pants at the end of the season.  Running/casual shoes are acceptable (at this age we don't want kids wearing cleats so as to avoid injuries to other players), but no jandals, sandals or bare feet please.

There are often changes in the lead up to the season, so please check back here often leading in to the season to get the most up to date information possible.  We will have a parents meeting at the muster on the 28th of October.

As noted above, we will have a parent's meeting at the muster on the 28th October (our second and last pre season training).  This will be a whole grade (ie Sluggers and Jnr Sluggers) combined training.  Regular training nights will commence from Friday 4th November 2016.

Please don't be afraid to visit and like our facebook account:

HP Kiwi Ball facebook page

Also, here is a link to the HP Hawks main website:

HP Hawks

If you listen carefully, you will hear it:  Summer is coming....

EDITS:  
5 Sept 16:
Updated pre season and opening day dates - pushed back by one week, now preseason is 21st/28th October, Opening weekend training is 4th November.
Updated parents meeting date to 28th October.
21st November: (finally!) confirmed season dates (ie finish before Xmas, restart after new year dates)

Baseball coaching and player development - help is at hand!

Hi folks

At Kiwi Sluggers baseball we're always trying to improve our depth of understanding of the game and what it takes to make a top quality baseball player.

While not aimed at our Junior Sluggers or even our Sluggers necessarily, the MLB have a coaching development site packed full of drills and basic information aimed at making our coaches and players baseball savvy.  

So if you have a young superstar, or are craving information or drills or games that can make you a better mentor for your kids and their friends, or develop your own understanding to help coach a team, I recommend registering (FOR FREE!!!) on:

http://www.usabaseball.education/

So if you want to help coach at Sluggers level or above, I heartily recommend at least checking out the USA Baseball education site and working through a couple of their short but brilliant courses to learn what our bsaeball players should be striving to be as they move through the U11s, U13s and above grades.  Also the ability to put together training plans complete with drills with text and video descriptions from basic level to advanced drills.

For anyone else with an interest in understanding what we would like our kids to focus on and develop as they progress through the grades, you couldn't get a better grounding.

Check it out and let me know in the comments below or directly what you think of this resource!

Cheers,

Paul

Thanks for the season!

Thanks everyone for a great season, and for being the best thing about prizegiving today.

A special thanks to all our coaches for doing such a great job with our kids this season.

Best of luck with your winter codes or time off.  We'll see you, your young champions and all their mates for the next season in October/November!

Game canclled today

Happy Waitangi Day! Now it gets worse. :(

Rain everywhere and it's wetvso no KiwiBall today.

Don't forget we have team photos next Saturday!  See you there.

Paul.

Traing cancelled 5 Feb

Hi folks

Short story short, the weather is rubbish and unlikely to improve, so we're cancelling training tonight and hoping for better tomorrow for the games.

Take care all.
Paul