Welcome to KiwiBall for the 2018/19 season!

Welcome to another fantastic season of KiwiBall at the home of the HP Hawks (Howick-Pakuranga Baseball Club)!

Registration for Kiwi Ball at HP Baseball for the 2018/19 has opened. Click here to register NOW!

Where are we:  Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga.  Entrance off Cascades Road (opposite Cascades Fruit and Vege / Cascades Road shops). Map to HP Hawks Baseball, Lloyd Elsmore Park

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 30 April 2019.
Players aged 9 as of 1 May 2019 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.

What you need (for the regular season onward):  
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.

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..

Season structure - Spring Training/Regular Season

This season we are again running our KiwiBall "Spring Training".  This gives as many children as possible access to our awesome game, without parents having to commit to playing a full season up front before they know anything about our game.  One of the most common barriers for parents to signing up the children to KiwiBall is they "don't know if he/she will like it".

We all know that our kids LOVE KiwiBall, so in order to help out parents who may be unsure, we have a 4 week Spring Training before we start our KiwiBall games proper.  There will be no requirement to register for our KiwiBall Spring Training, and it will be free for all to attend.  Of course, all those who register will get email communication directly from the Club.  Non registered Spring Training attendees will need to rely on checking this blog and our KiwiBall facebook page for information on changes, cancellations and other communications.

Please help us get word to your local school and families about our Spring Training opportunity and let's get our Howick-Pakuranga area humming with baseball!  You can send them to this blog for KiwiBall program details, or to hphawks.co.nz for more information on our Club.

KiwiBall Spring Training will be held Friday evenings/Saturday mornings - exactly as we have run for the last 7 years or so.  Instead of allocating teams from day one, during Spring Training, we will train as a group on Friday nights and play pick up games on Saturday mornings.  There will be no set teams, and no baseball shirts or pants will be issued until the regular season starts.  In every other way KiwiBall will run exactly as it has in previous years.

Please read through the rest of the page, and if you have any questions, please contact me through the comments on this site or facebook.

Key dates 

Spring Training: Friday 26 October - 17 November (4 weeks).

Regular Season: Friday 23 November - March 2019 with a break over the Christmas period.

Season dates:  26 October - 15 December 2019, 1 February - 16 March 2019 (14 weeks)

Games:  Saturday mornings 8:30am - 10am

Training times:
 Junior Sluggers - Friday 5:30 - 6:15pm
 Sluggers - Friday 5:30 - 6:30pm (to be confirmed with coaches)

Cost: $100 per player.

Even though Spring Training will be no cost, we encourage you to register as early as possible.  This helps us with planning for the season, working out how many coaches, uniforms and how much equipment we will need for the season.

There will be no need to make any payment for any child to play during Spring Training.  However, 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 regular season season (ie BEFORE 17 November).  We will also be able to issue playing pants and caps once full registration fees are paid (team shirts will be issued for the first round of the regular season once teams are finalised).

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, payment by installments can be arranged with the Club.  The first installment of any arrangement must be made before a player will be allocated to a team.

Baseball Pants Amnesty

Please, please, please, if you did not return your baseball pants last season, please let us know so we can plan for this coming season.  Also, if you know of anyone who didn't return their playing pants from last season, please nudge them along to do the right thing.  No harm, no foul - we just want to make sure all the kids have another great season.

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 26th of October.

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....