Dear New Canaan Softball Families,
As we close out another successful year of player participation growth in 2018, the New Canaan Softball Board would like to share some of our league’s highlights from the past three years and our goals to support forecasted player growth in 2019.
GROWTH
Thanks to numerous volunteer coaches, passionate parents, dedicated players, and enthusiastic board members we have seen both significant growth and retention since 2015.
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Program
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2015
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2016
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2017
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2018
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2019 (Projected)
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Rec Players
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94
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151
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189
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220
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243
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Town Travel Players
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11
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15
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34
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37
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48
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IMPROVEMENTS AND OFFERINGS
To meet the growing demand as participation climbs, our organization continues to make improvements and provide new offerings to maintain a fun, safe, and competitive Little League Softball experience.
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Capital Improvements
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New Offerings
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Note: Updates to backstops, bull pen, dugout fences, dirt infields and grass outfields are maintained by the Town of New Canaan, via the Field Use Fee paid per player as part of the league fees.
FIELD SPACE
Due to the rapid growth in player participation, we have outgrown the existing field space. Our program has access to two fastpitch softball fields that we share with New Canaan High School’s Varsity and JV teams. The men’s softball fields at Waveny Park are available to our program only during specific windows on the weekends for our youngest players and are otherwise reserved Monday through Friday for men’s leagues. Additional field space is costly and requires planning and coordination with the town and the New Canaan Athletic Foundation.
Limitations of current field space compared to just a few years ago:
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Practices are less in number and shorter.
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Teams share a field for practice time.
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Volunteer parent coaches with longer commutes struggle to make early practice and game start times on fields that must finish their event before sunset.
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Rescheduling games canceled due to rain in advance of playoffs and all stars sometimes requires cancelation of another team’s practice time, with no other option for that team to make up the practice.
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No alternatives available for the program when the High School team plays a game under the lights or makes FCIAC or CIAC playoffs and has additional games added to the schedule.
Our Goal for 2019:
New Canaan Softball’s goal for 2019 is to acquire enough field space to run safe and effective programming for every division in our league.
We believe the below improvements will adequately address our field space needs for the foreseeable future, benefit softball players in Kindergarten through high school, and are achievable in 2019 with the continued support of the New Canaan Softball Families, our sponsors, the Town of New Canaan, and the New Canaan Athletic Foundation.
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Improvement
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Description
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Adding Lights to Water Tower Field
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Placing lights on Water Tower Field creates at least six more practice or game time slots per week. Thanks to years of careful saving and a successful inaugural fundraiser in June 2018, we have secured half of the necessary funds to install lights on the Water Tower field at Waveny Park. In September 2018, we gained approval from the New Canaan Parks and Recreation Department to install these lights before the Spring 2019 season begins. This is contingent on securing the balance of the necessary funds to complete the project. The New Canaan Softball Board is working closely with both the Town of New Canaan and The New Canaan Athletic Foundation to make this goal a reality. We are highly optimistic it will happen before our Spring season.
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Securing Another Softball Field
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The board is working closely with both the Town of New Canaan and The New Canaan Athletic Foundation to identify an existing field for grades K-4 during the 2019 Season. We are hopeful these groups will work with us to make this happen before our season begins.
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Installing Two Batting Cages Near Water Tower Field
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Replacing the existing dilapidated batting cage near Water Tower Field with two brand new cages. The target date for installation would be early Spring 2019.
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Scoreboard
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We have identified the scoreboard at Orchard field as a priority to repair or replace this Spring. A functioning scoreboard is an appropriate compliment to our program that is growing not just in size, but in our competitiveness (New Canaan Softball had our first 10u All Star District Champion in 2018). This improvement will benefit our town rec program and the high school program, not to mention the fans!
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With increased financial support collected through player registrations, coupled with generous donations from local businesses and families, we can accomplish our 2019 goals. New Canaan Softball provides unparalleled value among the various youth sports programs in town. We strive to deliver the ideal mix of personal growth, acceptance of all abilities, strong skill development, and competitive offerings. We are excited about the year ahead and the prospects of achieving our goals both on and off the softball diamond. We thank you for your support.
