The Softball Leinster Committee are hard at work making plans for the 2017 season, which is now just a few months away. Here are some upcoming dates that you should put into your diary.
Umpire Courses
- On the 4th and 18th of February we will hold a Basic Umpire Course – Propsective new umpires just need to attend one of these sessions. Please send an email to info@softballleinster.ie to reserve your spot.
- On the 4th of March we will have the followup with an Intermediate Umpire Course – All new umpires must attend this course before they can umpire in Leinster for the 2017 season.
- All existing umpires are strongly suggested to attend the last 90 minutes of this course on the 4th of March as it will be a refresher course and will upgrade existing umpires to become a SL Certified Umpire. SL Certified Umpires will receive an increase to €40 per game (€20 from each team), while non-approved umpires will only receive €30 per game (€15 per team). A second refresher course might be scheduled for umpires not able to attend if interest is high. All attendees to complete the Intermediate Umpire Course will receive an umpire blue shirt and other .
SL Open Training Days
We will have two SL open training sessions for all the teams in Leinster. We are looking for coaching volunteers for these sessions. One of these sessions will be on the north side and one on the south side. Dates will be on the 25th of March and April 1st (no joke). We strongly suggest that teams use these days to promote their recruitment efforts. We are in the process of securing fields for those days and will announce more details closer to the days.
Team Registration, Blitzes and Start of the Season
- Team registration will begin on the 1st of March and will close on the 1st of April for Prem teams and the 8th of April for the rest of the league. By closing our registration early we hope to have the league schedule before the Easter weekend.
- Softball Ireland will be holding their Brian Walshe Cup – Start of the Season Blitz on Saturday April 8th.
- The SL Season will most likely begin on 24th of April with Easter occurring very late in the year. Depending on the number of teams registering we will look closely at moving that up or scheduling games on Bank holiday Mondays.