 Cap Presentation
Wednesday, 5 December 2007 On Field Cap Presentation Friday at 6:15pm Baseball WA Launch "New Look" State Program
Baseball WA would first like to congratulate all players and their respective families for being selected into the WA State HEAT Program. It is a great honor for these young men to represent WA in the National Championships, and we are looking forward to a very succesful 2008 nationals campaign. These young men will be honored at a cap presentation this Friday (6:15pm) at Baseball Park prior to the start of the game between the Barbagallo Perth HEAT and the New South Wales Patriots.
In an ongoing effort to deliver a first class, High Performance Programme, BWA has implemented a number of changes to ensure that participants are receiving top rate instruction, development and value from our elite program. More specifically, BWA have focussed on providing a more comprehensive development package, building a professional culture, providing greater exposure to the game of baseball, and most importantly, reducing costs to parents which had escalated to $3000/player in 2007. In doing so BWA have taken the following steps:
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Won the right to host the AAA national championships for 2008 and 2009.
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Spread the benefit of hosting the championships across all 3 junior state teams reducing the cost/player by approximately $1100.
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Provided a team set of uniforms and minimized the list of mandatory uniform items such that individual uniform costs were reduced by approximately $300/person.
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Delivered a 16 week winter development program (32 training sessions) from May to September.
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Hired Gordon Gerlach to the position of Perth HEAT Head Coach and High Performance Manager responsible for delivering a consistent and coordinated plan to player development.
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Branded the program as the "WA State HEAT" recognizing each of the teams as the "Single A" (A/U14) State HEAT, the "Double A" (AA/U16) State HEAT, and the "Triple A" (AAA)/U18) State HEAT. This will create greater awareness and exposure for baseball in the community, build the HEAT brand leading into the national league, create merchandising opportunities, create economies of scale and better continuity of apparel items, while also providing recognition to these athletes as both WA State Representatives and players within a National League Organisation.
Baseball WA is committed to providing State, National, International, University, and Professional Baseball opportunities for its elite athletes. BWA views the A, AA, AAA and Under 23 State Heat Teams as distinctive steps along the development pathway towards playing for the Perth Heat in the National League, playing for Australia in the World Baseball Classic, or playing for a MLB club in the World Series. BWA will continue to find cost effective ways of delivering professionally run programs and attracting new people to the sport so that our athletes have the greatest opportunity for long term success.
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