More Softball Leinster news to keep you going until the start of the season. As of today, Monday the 19th of February, our season will officially begin in 9 weeks or 63 days. Yes, for those of you extremely good at math or have access to a calendar, the new season will begin on the 23rd of April. Woo hoo! – I know I can’t wait.
While we can’t give you a schedule this early, we can give you a rough idea of how the first few weeks of the season will play out. Week 1 and Week 2 will occur in late April and early May, the May bank holiday is on the 7th of May and that will be the first week of Interleague play.
Last year the Interleague was just between the 1st and Prem divisions, but this year we will have Interleague between all divisions for two weeks during the May and June bank holiday weeks. This is similar to the way the Brian Walshe cup games used to be played and will be random selection drawn between teams. These games are not part of the regular season and will garner no points only counting as a fun day out where teams will be able to play teams that they won’t normally face during the season. The games will be played on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night and we will try and accomodate home pitch availability. While these games won’t count for points, teams that forfeit the Interleague game will count towards any tie-breakers at the end of the season.
We’ve already begun receiving registration notices from teams who will be returning this season. Our official early registration begins March 1st, but we appreciate the early notice and hope that we can get everyone registered early so we can get the schedule out. Remember, just email us at info@softballleinster.ie to let us know your team is coming back will suffice as early registration notice.
As the days tick away and February draws to a close, now is a good time to check up on how your team doing. Do you need to recruit new players? If so we have some good news for you. SL will again be holding open recruitment and training days on the 24th of March on the Dublin South side at Stannaway Park and on the 31st of March in St. Annes Park. We will promote these events ahead of time through Social Media and we encourage everyone to get your players and coaches to come out on those days. If your team would like an extra push we can help teams organise an additional open day to help recruit in your area.