AGM 13 SEPTEMBER 2020 PRESIDENTS REPORT

Thank you for your attendance tonight or should you be reading this from home thank you for your support.

Our 2019/2020 baseball season started out with amazing outcomes directly attributed to a core of enthusiastic Committee members, parents and players.

Everyone stepped up to the plate as our coaching clinics, tee ball tournament and holiday programmes got underway before our 2020 October Open Day.

The In Schools Programme again reached over 700 students exposing them to a sport code that is now played in over 140 countries by over 65 million participants.

Little did we know of events that would challenge our baseball community. The break-ins and destructions of our Avery Field equipment room in October and November was heart wrenching. But a collaborative effort from our baseball community bonded us together with purpose and we moved on.

The Nelson Heat Invitational over Labour Weekend continues to grow with our best success in 2020. Almost 100 baseball players from 8 teams representing both North and South Island clubs competed at Avery Field. For the Nelson Heat we placed first (u16) and second, by only one run, in the u13’s. A real accomplishment for the coaches, players and parent support. I have yet to hear anything bad about walking nachos!Getting our Saturday baseball season underway is always special. It was great watching the teams compete. A special thanks to the u13 coaches who took the challenge and guided our players to a most successful season.

In December a Nelson Heat u13 team travelled to Wellington to play in the Wellington Holiday Ham tournament. The team played six games in one day, four of them back-to-back! The team made the finals and took out second place.

In January our very own Cooper Grant achieved a fantastic accomplishment in being called up to New Zealand’s professional baseball team’s (Tuataras) development squad.

More success for the Nelson Heat u13/14 was around the corner at the Jim Kaat Invitational in Christchurch on 9 February. In the final game our two Nelson teams competed with the Pumps holding on to win in the 7th inning by 1 run.

Our very young u19 team did themselves proud with two of our pitchers having the best ERA in the entire tournament. Our u16 team again proved themselves well at the 2020 United Airlines National Baseball Championships placing in the top 5 in a field of 11 teams from throughout New Zealand.

This is a real credit to the coaching staff, players and support from club members. And then sadly on the 17th of March:It is with deep disappointment that Nelson Heat Baseball announces the cancellation of the United Airlines u13 Baseball National Championships due to the spread of Covid-19.While the NHBC was 100% behind the cancellation, it nevertheless was a huge disappointment for our baseball community.

Perhaps summed up well by a letter received several days later from the president of the Hut Valley Hornets:With all that is happening this is the right call.I do have real sadness and sympathy for the Nelson heat club who I know have gone beyond expectations and financial expense to host the tournament.To Meg Mathews and all the personal at Nelson Heat our sympathy and thoughts are with your club.The Sun always rises in Nelson. It is just a matter of time in the near future when we will be playing national tournament Baseball in Nelson.

So true, because we will be back to Saxton Field in April 2021 for the u13 National Championships!

I look at the 2020/2021 season calendar and pray we can overcome this current global pandemic.

I can guarantee that we will move forward together with the exciting events that we can control.

We have so much on our plate. And it’s going to take a real commitment and energy from every single one of us in the baseball community to make our 2020/2021 adventure come to realization and fulfilment.

Consider what we have achieved in 4 short seasons such as winning South Island tournaments, placing at National Championships, players chosen on New Zealand teams and representing their country overseas, National awards for best coach, players and teams… the list continues.

The outstanding dedication and commitment of our committee, parents, players and sponsors make this happen.

We are all into this together and I am tremendously proud and honoured to be a part of this exciting time as we move forward into our 5th season.

Tom Kroos

President Nelson Heat Baseball Club
 

Article added: Tuesday 15 September 2020