With a significant delay, the Herts Baseball Little League announced the award winners for the 2011 season in the various Herts youth teams.

The awards were presented at Grovehill Ballpark as part of baseball festivities which included HSL games, softball tournament and of course the 2012 National Baseball League Opening Game between the Herts Falcons and Bracknell Blazers.

The coaches of the Herts youth teams presented the awards covering various categories form outfield and infield gold gloves, batting and home run champions, rookies of the year and of course the most valuable players of each Herts team, as voted by the players and coaches.

More photos from the 2011 Little League Awards courtesy of Pascale van Dort

Photos from the family softball tournament courtesy of Simon Roberts and his family

2011 HERTS BASEBALL LITTLE LEAGUE AWARDS 

Herts Baseball Club has been awarded a grant of £10,000 from BaseballSoftballUK‘s capital facility funding from Sport England. 

This grant, together with nearly £7,000 raised separately by Herts through various fund-raising activities, will be invested into the next stage of development of Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead, creating one of the most advanced baseball and softball venues currently in existence in the United Kingdom. 

History 

The baseball facility at Herts was created in the early 1990s.  In those early years it consisted of a single baseball diamond with a backstop and dirt infield, hosting games for the club’s one adult baseball team.  Since then, Herts Baseball Club has seen unprecedented growth and has become one of the biggest baseball organisations in Great Britain with eight baseball teams — four senior and four youth — playing in various British senior and youth leagues.  The facility was no longer capable of accommodating so many teams and the club had to put in place a plan for the long-term expansion and development of the venue. 

With funding and support from BSUK, the National Lottery, Dacorum Borough Council, Dacorum Sports Network, Scotthall Watford BMW and MINI and many others, a second baseball field was added in 2010 and both diamonds now feature permanent backstops and permanent outfield fences – the only such facility in the UK. 

Strategic investment 

BSUK’s decision to award the £10,000 grant to Herts Baseball Club is in line with BSUK’s 2009-2013 Whole Sport Plan and Sport England’s strategic aims for the sport.  The funds will be invested in the installation of perimeter fencing along the first and third base dead-ball lines of both diamonds, making each diamond a fully-enclosed baseball venue.  Further fencing will be installed to create four fully-enclosed team dugouts for home and visiting teams on both diamonds. Work is scheduled to begin on 26 March 2012. 

This phase of the long-term project will bring the venue a little closer to the standards set by countries such as the USA and Japan, and start to make up lost ground on fast-growing European baseball countries such as Germany, Holland and Italy. 

“BSUK is delighted to award Herts Baseball Club £10,000 towards their facility improvements,” said Brendan Cunliffe, Development Logistics Manager for BaseballSoftballUK.  “Herts Baseball Club is a progressive and well-governed club and the improvements they are continuing to make to their already excellent facilities will attract new adult and youth club members in the Hemel Hempstead area, increase the baseball playing population in the UK, and raise the satisfaction of all players visiting the site over the coming years.” 

BSUK support 

Herts Baseball Club President, Aspi Dimitrov said: “Baseball and softball facilities in the UK have remained underdeveloped over the years and BSUK identified that this is stopping our sport from realising its full potential.  BSUK’s Facility Strategy in the last few years has energised the British baseball and softball communities, giving clubs around the country the capacity to grow and offer a much better product to participants”. 

“No matter how hard clubs try on their own, the progress being made at the moment would not be possible without BSUK’s support,” Aspi added, “not just in terms of funding but also in expert advice and guidance in developing these facilities”. 

“This announcement is a tremendous boost not only for the Hertfordshire public, but for the whole British baseball and softball community, who will be able to enjoy the benefits of this investment for many years when they come to Grovehill Ballpark for league, tournament, exhibition and international games and events.” 

About BaseballSoftballUK Ltd (BSUK) 

BaseballSoftballUK Ltd is the development agency for baseball and softball in the United Kingdom.  Since 2000, BSUK has provided services to the sports’ governing bodies, the British Baseball Federation (BBF) and the British Softball Federation (BSF), with the aim of developing and increasing levels of participation, skill and achievement in UK baseball and softball.  Projects delivered through BSUK’s Whole Sport Plan, funded by Sport England, include regional support for youth baseball and softball development programmes, support for workplace softball, coaching and coach-training, facility development and the expansion and strengthening of clubs throughout the country. 

For more information about BSUK visit baseballsoftballuk.com

Herts baseball club has had a busy off-season, but one of the most important elements of the club gets going again this Sunday – the youth leagues. In the past couple of years, the Herts All-Stars have been showing the way for the adult members.

Players in the Under-17, Under-14 and Under-11 categories all get their first chance to pull on a baseball glove this Sunday. Spring training takes place at the indoor facility at Berkhamsted Sportspace.

Some of those taking part in the session will already be veterans of two runs deep into British baseball’s post-season. Brodie Caress and Jose Morillo were part of the team which won the 2010 Under-14 National Championship, and also finished runners-up in 2011. The Herts All-Stars have made a huge impact on the national scene, and many of the players saw their first ever baseball action on Grovehill’s diamonds in Hemel Hempstead.

Graduates of the Herts Little League also made a big splash in the adult leagues in 2011. At the top level, Liam Green made his debut for the Falcons in the National League. In two games on the pitcher’s mound, he did not give up a single earned run. He is an exciting and maturing prospect, who only took up the sport when Herts began its programme for kids in 2008. When he began, he admits he thought the sport was “rubbish”, but he soon changed his views!

For the Raptors, Zack Longboy claimed the Best Pitcher Award in his first adult season, which was a just reward for his calm and technically superb work on the mound. This year he will be helping his Dad manage the team. Jose Morillo was also a regular in the Raptors team and made great progress during the year, so much so that he won the coach’s award.

But the impact and importance of the youngest Herts players went beyond mere results and awards. It was about setting an example. When Zack Longboy caught a fly-ball deep in left field at Cambridge, his excellent technique was noted loudly by the home bench. One of their veterans stood up and shouted to his team-mates to watch and learn how you should catch a fly ball. His was not just any old voice — Cambridge went on the win the national Single-A title.

Opposing managers were frequently “gobsmacked”, in coach Ken Pike’s evocative words, to find out how young the Raptors’ young stars really were. They felt that once power was added to their formidable skills, these would be dangerous players. In training, the Little Leaguers could often teach their adult counterparts a thing or two, passing on tips and techniques.

Liam Green is just one of the young Herts players who has already had a call-up for the GB team. He went with the Cadets squad to Sweden in 2010. Late last year Morillo, Caress and Callum Vangundy were successful in trials for the Under-16 British squad, while Jake caress, Jonny Compton-Weight and Kyle Lloyd-Jones – who are all jumping up an age group – are in the mix for the Under-19 programme. The ever growing list of Herts youngsters playing baseball for their country shows how far young talent can progress.

And, of course, all of this is perhaps ignoring the true heart of the programme. Which is that on summer weekends, scores of boys and girls between 6 and 16 can come along to Grovehill and play baseball just for the love of it. There are cheering crowds of parents, superb donuts, and great baseball played at the Herts Little League. Anyone can try it. And everyone should. Any kids interested in playing should get in touch with the Herts baseball club, where they can expect a warm welcome – and maybe one day a call-up to the British team.

The Great Britain National Team has confirmed that members of Herts have been selected in the preliminary roster of the GB Under-16 National Team. 

Brodie Caress, Callum Vangundy and Jose Morillo attended the U16 GB Team tryouts last month and all three have been successful in being included in the squad.  They played a key role in the Herts U14 All Stars’ success in finishing as runner-up in the National Championships this season. Caress and Morillo were also members of the Championship-winning Herts U14 team of 2010. For 13-year-old Vangundy, 2011 was his first ever season playing baseball so being selected in the preliminary GB team roster so early in his career is an exceptional achievement. 

There will be additional evaluations in the Spring and the size of the GB U16 roster will be reduced further ahead of the GB Team’s various international games in 2012.   

Herts players, Jake Caress, Jonny Compton-Weight and Kyle Lloyd-Jones attended the GB Under-19 Team tryouts. Compton-Weight and Lloyd-Jones were part of the GB U16 team in 2011 playing in the qualifier in Prague. For all three of them this was a first year jumping up into this older age group and so they had the difficult task of competing against players who are two or even three years older than them.  They didn’t make the preliminary GB U19 team rosters, but the experience will hold them in good stead for the future.  They have several more years in this GB Team age group so, with hard work this season and next, they can make a very strong claim for a place in the GB squad in coming years. 

The progress of Herts players with the GB teams is a tremendous boost for Herts as an organisation.  The Club is even more excited by the fact that there are many more talented players coming through the various age groups of the Herts youth system, from the U-11 and U-14 teams through to the U-17 age group. They will all be reporting back to the ballpark early in 2012 for another exciting season of Herts Baseball. The club usually experiences a wave of new players joining the youth teams in time for Spring Training.  Any interested players, boys and girls between 6 and 16 years of age, from complete beginners to advanced players can join the Herts baseball youth teams (click here for more details).